VIDEO HERE (24:52 minutes)
A rural Ozark family relocates to Beverly Hills after oil is discovered on their property worth $25 million. After finding oil on the land, the family is surprised when Mr. Brewster of the OK Oil Company offers to buy it. (The family home is set in the Branson, Missouri area.) After much coaxing by Cousin Pearl, Jed sells the swamp and moves the family to a mansion in Beverly Hills. Upon their arrival, they are arrested because of a case of mistaken identity but are later returned to the mansion safely.
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Believe it or not, I had never seen this pilot episode until I ran across it the other night.
I've seen it but it's been a while. They should have stayed put. Also as I recall the pilot was a little more raw than the series. Granny had some funny comments about Ellie Maes chest.
ReplyDeleteLOL, yeah, Granny was trying to get Jed to acknowledge that his little girl wasn't "little" any more. Jed seemed to be in denial the whole time.
DeleteED
Ah, back when people could act.
ReplyDeleteThat's some funny shit. I loved Buddy Ebsen. Elly May was hot stuff too.
ReplyDeleteI always heard that Max Baer Jr. threw the best and wildest Hollywood parties for years.
Too bad they don't make shows like this anymore. Buddy Ebsen was a very talented man.
ReplyDeleteI always thought the Beverly Hillbillies were from Tennessee.
ReplyDeleteMe too. We've even got a Bugtussle a couple miles from here just over the state line in Kentucky.
DeleteNope, from the Ozarks. They shot several episodes at Silver Dollar City, a theme park near Branson.
DeleteIrene Ryan, who played Granny, was a great friend and supporter of the Springfield, MO police department (Springfield is not far north of Branson). They built a new police station back in the day, with a huge portrait of Irene Ryan behind the front desk. Must have shocked many a drunk to see Granny looking over the desk at them during booking.
Granny was from Tennessee. The fsmily lived in Arkansas. My wife mentions towns that are referenced in the series. Buckner, AR, for example, was where my wife's mother was born.
DeletePresident Jefferson Davis... I kinda like the sound of that.
ReplyDeletesome of these new channels on the cable/sat are doing bunches of the older shows. i like the one doing all the old westerns. movies as well as old tv series like Bat Masterton, wells fargo, the deputy...Grit is what i think they call that channel.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice to see the opening credit roll for the first episode of Bonanza and laugh at them again. Lost along with most of the first season.
DeleteAll that canned laughter reminds me why I couldn't stand the teevy even then (I was seventeen.) Doesn't matter what's on it, I can't tolerate being in the same room with one.
ReplyDeleteIt's like you turn one on and a guy in a haircut intones "Hi, Stupid!"
Ellie Maes skinny dipping in the cement pond.
ReplyDeleteThey always got the middle of the US mixed up. Supposedly they were from the ozarks with the nearest town being bugtussle. Those two geographic figures are more than a days walk apart.
ReplyDeleteCourse they drove that wreck some two thousand miles. It was always a little campy, but I did like it back then.
"Jeb, how much did you get for that land?"
ReplyDelete"Well, 25."
"What! Jeb Clampett, You got hornsworngled! Selling that land for just 25 dollars"
"Well... that Mr. Brewster put a lot of stock on the new kind of dollars he was paying me with".
"What kind of 'New' dollars are you talking about Jeb?"
"He was fixing to pay us in 'Million' dollars... seemed right proud of it".
That's how I remember the first episode as played sixty two years ago.
The mansion that Jeb bought sold in 2018 for $150 million.
DeleteSomebody at IMDb trivia calculated Jeb's highest net worth adjusted for inflation would be almost $800 million in 2024.
Jed
DeleteYes, I immediately caught my brain fart. I must have been thinking about JEB! and the $150 million he spent to get 3% of the vote in the 2016 primary.
DeleteJed is obviously much smarter than JEB! Which still isn't saying much.
Growing up as a lower middle in the terms of the sociopathologists, we watched these shows with no filter. This was a world beyond us that we should aspire to. We were in upstate NY living month to month, dad worked overtime to pay for us. Parents who only wanted their younguns' to do better. Jethro? Named for Moses wise father in law. Desiring education to better life for the kids.
ReplyDeleteThat generation, my old parents, so much better than most.
Donna Douglas was a Louisiana girl, if I remember correctly, so she came by her character naturally. I still think she was one of the most beautiful young women on the screen.
ReplyDelete