Beverley Hillbillies (4 episodes) (DVD)

...and his family move to Beverley Hills where they are befriended by Mr Milburn Drysdale his banker (after all, what bank manager in the 1960s would not befriend someone with $25 million in his bank and Miss Jane Hathaway (played by Nancy Kulp), Mr Drysdales' put upon secretary who genuinely does like the Clampett family.

Jethro Bodine the cousin is played by Max Baer, Ellie Mae is played by Donna Douglas. Who I still think is the pettiest ...
...of magic left in the Beverley Hillbillies.

And sometimes I still find myself humming or whistling the theme song, which was written by the producer, writer and director of the show, Paul Henning, and performed by two real life Blue Grass stars, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. (So the song is not Country and Western, but Country and Western's older brother, Blue Grass.) Incidental music (such as a mandolin playing The Twelve Days of ... more

Yeehaaa!!! Yes, everyone of a certain age or older must remember the original Beverleyhill Billes TV series from the 1960s.

There are four classic episodes available on DVD from 23rd Century.

The basic idea is that a Hill Billy by he name of Jed Clampett finds oil on his apparently worthless land, and that when he sells the oil rights he and his family move to Beverley Hills where they are befriended by Mr Milburn Drysdale his banker (after all, what bank manager in the 1960s would not befriend someone with $25 million in his bank and Miss Jane Hathaway (played by Nancy Kulp), Mr Drysdales' put upon secretary who genuinely does like the Clampett family.

Jethro Bodine the cousin is played by Max Baer, Ellie Mae is played by Donna Douglas. Who I still think is the pettiest Elly Mae, including the later film version, but I digress...

Of course, the Clampetts being good ol' mountain folk do not fit in with the "crazy folk of Califonry" as Granny Daisy Moses, played by veteran actress Irene Ryan calls California. In the episode "Home for Christmas" she points out that "everywhere except mixed up Californy," it is December" and she can't to see some snow and ice.

The Clampetts also "enjoy" taking their first plane ride for a Christmas vacation back at home whilst visiting Cousin Pearl back home. When Mr Drysdale convinces them not to drive back in their ancient truck, but to take first class air travel as VIP passengers. Which, of course, leads to problems of mistaken identity and much more mayhem besides!

The second episode is a continuation of the first, and whilst back home for the Christmas holidays decide to help Pearl woo a big oil company executive, Mr Brewster.

And the third episode shows how Pearl's efforts to catch Mr. Brewster seem doomed to certain failure. Until he makes a public proposal! (Oops!)

And in the fourth episode, why them plum crazy Clampetts head back to Californy, I mean California, but take Pearl and Jedrine back with then. To add to the general mayhem, the producers decided to get Max Baer to play Jedrime. After all these years I now have an answer to why Jethro sometimes dressed as a woman. That's because, for those scenes he WAS a woman! I think…

The canned laughter is now a little irritating, the jokes at the expense of the Clampetts now seem even more contrived and perhaps somewhat unkind than they did 40-odd years ago (would people from the Hillbilly country really not know what a Jet was?) and the sound recordings were sometimes a bit dodgy, but after all these years there is still a whole lot of magic left in the Beverley Hillbillies.

And sometimes I still find myself humming or whistling the theme song, which was written by the producer, writer and director of the show, Paul Henning, and performed by two real life Blue Grass stars, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. (So the song is not Country and Western, but Country and Western's older brother, Blue Grass.) Incidental music (such as a mandolin playing The Twelve Days of Christmas used when the passengers are boarding the jet) was pure Blue Grass in style and might explain an otherwise inexplicable fascination I still have for this type of music.

The producer of the Beverley Hillbillies was no stranger to "rural America" and although he played up the country bumpkin aspect of the Clampett clan , Henning never forgot his own roots in Independence, Missouri. Though he originally trained as a lawyer he became a writer and producer of many other hit shows, all of them not a million miles distant from the Beverley Hillbillies format.

Did I like the four episodes as much as I did when I was a small child in the 1960s? No. But then, I didn't expect to. Did I still enjoy them? Oh, most definitely!
I bought my copy of the DVD in a bargain shop called (I think) Price Pounder, in Wulfruna Square, Wolverhampton, where everything is 99 pence.
 

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