The Beverly Hillbillies is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1971. It had an ensemble cast featuring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer Jr. as the Clampetts, a poor backwoods family from the Ozark Mountains of Missouri who move to posh Beverly Hills, California after striking oil on their land. The show was produced by Filmways and was created by Paul Henning. It was followed by two other Henning-inspired "country cousin" series on CBS: Petticoat Junction and its spin-off Green Acres, which reversed the rags-to-riches, country-to-city model of The Beverly Hillbillies.
Buddy Ebsen, also known as Frank "Buddy" Ebsen, was an American actor and dancer. One of his most famous roles was as Jed Clampett in the CBS television sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971); afterwards he starred as the title character in the television detective drama Barnaby Jones (1973–1980).
James Albert Varney Jr. was an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his comedic role as Ernest P. Worrell, for which he won an Emmy Award, as well as appearing in films and numerous television commercial advertising campaigns. He played Jed Clampett in a film adaptation of The Beverly Hillbillies (1993) and also covered a song for the film titled "Hot Rod Lincoln". He voiced Slinky Dog in the first two films of the Toy Story franchise (1995–1999). He died of lung cancer on February 10, 2000, leaving two posthumous releases, Daddy and Them and Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
Barnaby Jones is an American detective television series starring Buddy Ebsen as a formerly retired investigator and Lee Meriwether as his widowed daughter-in-law. They run a private detective firm in Los Angeles, California. The show was originally introduced as a midseason replacement on the CBS network and ran from 1973 to 1980. Halfway through the series' run, Mark Shera was added to the cast as a much younger cousin of Ebsen's character, who eventually joined the firm.
Green Acres is an American television absurdist sitcom starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm. Produced by Filmways as a sister show to Petticoat Junction, the series was first broadcast on CBS, from September 15, 1965, to April 27, 1971.
Francis Xavier Bushman was an American film actor and director. His career as a matinee idol started in 1911 in the silent film His Friend's Wife. He gained a large female following and was one of the biggest stars of the 1910s and early 1920s.
Nancy Jane Kulp was an American character actor, writer and comedian best known as Miss Jane Hathaway on the CBS television series The Beverly Hillbillies.
Petticoat Junction is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from September 1963 to April 1970. The series takes place at the Shady Rest Hotel, which is run by Kate Bradley; her three daughters Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo, and Betty Jo; and her uncle Joe Carson. The series is one of three interrelated shows about rural characters produced by Paul Henning. Petticoat Junction was created upon the success of Henning's previous rural/urban-themed sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971). The success of Petticoat Junction led to a spin-off, Green Acres (1965–1971). Petticoat Junction was produced by Filmways, Inc. and CBS Productions.
Beatrice Benaderet was an American actress and comedienne. Born in New York City and raised in San Francisco, she began performing in Bay Area theatre and radio before embarking on a Hollywood career that spanned over three decades. Benaderet first specialized in voice-over work in the golden age of radio, appearing on numerous programs while working with comedians of the era such as Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, and Lucille Ball. Her expertise in dialect and characterization led to her becoming Warner Bros.' leading voice of female characters in their animated cartoons of the early 1940s through the mid-1950s.
Irene Ryan was an American actress and comedian who found success in vaudeville, radio, film, television, and Broadway. She is most widely known for her portrayal of Daisy May "Granny" Moses, mother-in-law of Buddy Ebsen's character Jed Clampett on the long-running TV series The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971). She was nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1963 and 1964 for the role.
Donna Douglas was an American actress and singer, known for her role as Elly May Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971). Following her acting career, Douglas became a real estate agent, gospel singer, inspirational speaker, and author of books for children and adults.
Raymond Thomas Bailey was an American actor on the Broadway stage, films, and television. He is best known for his role as greedy banker Milburn Drysdale in the television series The Beverly Hillbillies.
Maximilian Adelbert Baer Jr. is an American former actor, producer, comedian, and director widely known for his role as Jethro Bodine, the dim-witted relative of Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies.
Jerry Scoggins was an American country/western singer, guitarist, and band leader. He performed on radio, in movies, and on television from the 1930s thru the 1980s. He was noted for his work with Gene Autry and Bing Crosby and especially for singing "The Ballad of Jed Clampett", the theme song to the 1960s sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies.
Paul William Henning was an American TV producer and screenwriter. Most famous for creating the television sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies, he was also crucial in developing the "rural" comedies Petticoat Junction (1963–1970) and Green Acres (1965–1971) for CBS.
"The Ballad of Jed Clampett" is the theme song for the television series The Beverly Hillbillies and the later movie of that name, providing the introductory story for the series. The song was composed by Paul Henning, and recorded first by bluegrass musicians Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, with Jerry Scoggins singing. The single phono-album version, released for radio and retail sale, merges both the beginning and ending lyrics of the theme song of the television series. The beginning theme comprises the first two verses, and the ending theme is the third verse. A banjo-dominated sequence occurs between verses and as the ending fade-out. The song was sung by Jerry Scoggins for the beginning of the series, with instruments played by Flatt and Scruggs.
Leo "Zeke" Manners was an American country musician.
Gloria Neil is an American television and film actress. She is best known for her roles on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Beverly Hillbillies, as well as the 1960s-era films The Beach Girls and the Monster and The Karate Killers.
Return of the Beverly Hillbillies is a 1981 American made-for-television comedy film based on the 1962–1971 sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies which reunited original cast members Buddy Ebsen, Donna Douglas and Nancy Kulp reprising their characters of Jed Clampett, Elly May Clampett and Jane Hathaway, along with newcomers Werner Klemperer as C.D. Medford, Ray Young as Jethro Bodine and Imogene Coca as Granny's 100-year-old mother; original cast members Irene Ryan (Granny) and Raymond Bailey had died in 1973 and 1980 respectively, and Max Baer Jr. declined to participate.
The Beverly Hillbillies is a video game developed by Synergistic Software and published in 1993 by Capstone Software for IBM PC compatibles. It was released in conjunction with the 1993 film of the same name. The game, a point-and-click adventure, tells the story of the Clampetts, a poor family in the Ozarks who discover oil on their property and become millionaires, moving to Beverly Hills with their newfound wealth. Despite being a tie-in to the film, the game shares only vague similarities in plot.
