(first posted 2/11/2016) Premiering on CBS television on September 26, 1962, The Beverly Hillbillies became the highest rated show on television in the United States within a matter of weeks, a place it maintained for its first two seasons on the air.
Focused on Jed Clampett (played by Buddy Ebsen), who struck millions of dollars in oil on his property in “The Hills”, the show was very much a fish out of water type situation comedy. The premise was Jed wanted his wild-child daughter Elly May to have a better upbringing and an atmosphere to make her more lady-like. After urging by his cousin, Jed decided to move to “Californee”, specifically Beverly Hills. Accompanying Jed and Elly May to California was his mother-in-law Daisy Moses (referred to as Granny) and nephew Jethro Bodine.
Before I jump into the variety of cars seen throughout the series until its cancellation in 1971, a little initiation is required for those unfamiliar. This television show introduced such phrases as “cement pond” and “double barrel slingshot” into the vernacular plus enlightened viewers with such culinary delights as pickled crow gizzard, boiled possum, and gopher gravy. It was an early, and delightfully heavy, practitioner of double entendre and malapropism, such as referring to marinara sauce as marijuana sauce.
The origins of the double barrel slingshot can be found in this clip.
Jed’s money was kept and managed by his banker and next door neighbor Milburn Drysdale. Early in the series, Drysdale’s Imperial was a frequent site. As time went on, a car in Drysdale’s ownership was less frequently seen.
Toward the end of the series run in 1971, there was another Drysdale Imperial to make an appearance. There is something oddly hypnotic about fuselage bodied Chrysler products.
With the show being set in upscale Beverly Hills, there was the frequent need to project the affluence of the persons interacting with the Clampetts. To accomplish this, Imperials of various guises were frequently seen, such as this Imperial Crown convertible…
Along with another convertible in black or some other dark color.
The four-door hardtops could be found also, primarily if the visitor was being chauffeured. The product placement by the Chrysler Corporation was delightfully rampant and charmingly obvious.
Many of the self-driven visitors to the Clampett Estate were fond of A-body Mopars. I will readily admit to having seen a number of the early episodes recently; the driver of this Valiant convertible was a French lady whose french poodle was impregnated by the Clampett’s bloodhound, Duke, despite her being betrothed to Mrs. Drysdale’s poodle.
Jed and the lady had a similar attraction but presumably nothing became of it.
Often people who learned of the Clampett fortune would attempt to swindle this not so naive family. Chickadee Laverne was a professional stripper who arrived at the Clampetts for an engagement; she was thinking it was a performance showcasing her inclusion of a raccoon into her act. The Clampetts thought she was going to marry Jethro.
At one point Jed asked Chickadee about where she was before coming to California. She responded she “came from burlesque – in New York.” Jed responded with a big smile and said “Burlesque, New York. That sounds like a mighty fine town.”
Other times, the shyster drove a nice, older Chrysler New Yorker convertible.
Not all of the Valiant’s pulling up to the front door were convertibles, such as this Valiant wagon with a business name plastered on the door.
In fact, there were a lot of service vehicles seen during the course of the series, such as this sharp half-ton Dodge that was owned by an asphalt company.
For those not fond of pickups, there was an occasional Dodge Panel Van to be seen.
Incidentally, this panel van was seen the episode The Giant Jackrabbit. The ratings of The Beverly Hillbillies were so high this episode was the highest rated half-hour of television ever at the time of its first broadcast and this episode remains the most watched half-hour episode of a situation comedy ever in the United States.
Also incidentally, actress Sharon Tate appears in The Giant Jackrabbit. Tate was one of the victims of the Manson Family murder spree in 1969.
Early on, with their acclimating to the vast cultural differences found in Beverly Hills, the Clampetts had frequent dealings with law enforcement who would show up in their 1963 Dodge 330.
This despite their heading to the estate in a 1959 Dodge – two door!
It wasn’t unusual for the Clampetts to get these officers drunk on some home-brewed rheumatism medicine or for one of them to become so enamored of Elly May in a swimsuit they would forget their purpose for visiting. The show insinuated Elly May as being about fifteen or sixteen years old despite actress Donna Douglas being in her early 30s and the mother of an eight year-old when the show premiered.
Perhaps the same distraction happened for the film editor if he thought a 1959 Dodge looked like a 1963 Dodge.
Every once in a while, European cars could be found in Beverly Hills. Often these were a Rolls-Royce, in keeping up with the moneyed theme.
Another time, there was an MG featured that belonged to a disgruntled secretary at the Commerce Bank.
Sadly, it succumbed to a well placed karate-chop.
The Clampetts also owned a castle in England. When they visited, there were plenty of European cars to be seen.
The bulk of the time, Commerce Bank president Milburn Drysdale was being carted around by his secretary Jane Hathaway. With Drysdale being portrayed as an unrepentant skinflint, it simply made more financial sense for him to rook his secretary into driving, saving fuel money by not piloting the Imperial around.
Miss Jane had very good taste in cars and must have been quite reasonably paid by Drysdale as she curiously had a new Dodge B-body convertible every season. However, Miss Jane was in a Plymouth for the first season, as seen one picture up. Likely even Chrysler didn’t want to bring any more undue attention to the homely 1962 Dodge.
However by the end of the series, Miss Jane had transitioned to an E-body. Her cars were always red. Interestingly, Miss Jane’s B-bodies often lacked a windshield and the cars found in the color episodes often had had their badges painted body color.
Despite the sheer variety of primarily Chrysler branded products seen in the show, the automotive star was a haggard 1921 Oldsmobile that started life as a Model 41 Roadster. Intended as a salute to the Jobe Family Truckster from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, this Olds pickup didn’t even belong to Jed; it belonged to Jethro’s mother, Pearl.
The truck was the frequent butt of jokes and good natured humor throughout the series, such as the occasional dose of rheumatism medicine into the fuel tank that yielded phenomenal acceleration and top speed.
At one point, Jethro tired of the backwardness and tired looking appearance of the pickup. Being given an unknown amount of money by Jed, Jethro was ridiculed for how he had the truck warmed over.
A second attempt didn’t yield a better received result.
This customized truck, like the original, had been breathed upon by famed car customizer George Barris. Like the original, the custom used a 1921 Oldsmobile as its basis. A George Barris website stated this Olds had been purchased from a collector and was customized in 1968. The running gear is from a 1969 Oldsmobile 442.
The original pickup from the show was donated to the Ralph Foster Museum by the show’s creator, Paul Henning. Located on the campus of The College of the Ozarks, the Olds has been on display at this Branson area museum since its donation in 1976. Interestingly, the only other car on display is a Rolls Royce.
As an aside, this museum has been called the “Smithsonian of the Ozarks”; having been to both museums, that comparison isn’t completely invalid.
The Beverly Hillbillies ran for 274 episodes and has been in syndication ever since. A deceptively intelligent show, it is also a great half-hour retreat into a different time.
Plus, if you ever get to the Branson area, you can even get a less than flattering picture of yourself taken in this slice of television history.
All pictures of cars from the show were obtained from www.imcdb.com
I’m too young to remember the original run of the Beverly Hillbillies, but I’ve watched a few episodes, but it was never my favourite show.
You know CBS screwed up big time by canceling this show and Hogan’s Heroes in 1971. Both shows were doing very well but CBS was concerned about how the only audience they were getting were older folks and wanted to show more “groovy” shows to bring in the younger generation.
It wasn’t just Hogan’s Heroes and the BHB which got the axe. Other successful shows like Lassie, Green Acres and Mayberry, RFD got chopped and replaced with shows set in urban, rather than rural, locales.
The old “rural purge.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_purge
Ironically, a year after the “rural purge,” CBS debuted The Waltons, which was set during the Depression and certainly wasn’t in an urban setting (it took place in rural central Virginia).
“The show insinuated Elly May as being about fifteen or sixteen years old despite actress Donna Douglas being in her early 30s…”
That confused the heck out of me as a kid!
I’m given to understand that the demographic data that led to the Rural Purge was something Nielsen had only recently made available in the early ’70s. It’s been said that had it existed five years earlier, the Star Trek original series would’ve had a much longer run since it *was* getting the “right” demographic.
The rural purge was in a way vindicated by history in that it’s the earlier season, black-and-white episodes of almost all those shows that have lived on in reruns; the later ones had already gone on longer than they probably should’ve for artistic and storytelling purposes – when the star who it was set up as a vehicle for leaves, that’s a big hint – and “they’re popular, but with the wrong demographic” was as convenient an excuse as any to free up actors, directors, writers and timeslots for other projects.
Teen TV & film characters, such as in Happy Days, are often portrayed by much older, adult actors because real teens pose logistical problems such as child-labor laws (esp. in Calif), maturity changes such as voice, etc.
This wouldn’t be as much of a problem if shows had a limited no. of episodes, like miniseries. But that’s not the way American industry worked, at least back then.
Some casting decisions get to be ridiculous. In the 1978 movie, Grease, Stockard Channing (Rizzo) was 34 years old and playing a high school student. And she looked 34 years old at the time!
It never made sense to me why those great comedies got the chop. American TV shows used to be great entertainment. Our kids grew up watching videos of the ones we enjoyed as kids.
The “rural purge” didn’t hurt CBS, as it easily retained its number-one ranking among the three major networks.
CBS debuted shows such as All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and the original Bob Newhart Show, all of which were critical and commercial successes.
The shows purged by CBS had been on the air for 6-8 years at the time of their cancellation, so they were running out of steam anyway.
All in the Family reset everyone’s funny meter. Suddenly if the show wasn’t edgy and socially current it was part of yesteryear. The networks were addressing changing tastes among all viewers. Many of the new shows were taped, not filmed, which made the live audience more noticeable and “real”. Folks young and old were sick of laugh tracks.
Hard to say now whether the 60s shows were funnier than the 70s including Mary Tyler Moore, Newhart and Sanford & Son but the pendulum had certainly swung. Then that got old and Three’s Company, Married with Children took off in a less serious, more silly direction. It’s all cyclical like in politics.
Shows from both eras were comical, it was simply a different form of comedy. I think of it as Benny Hill vs Jack Benny – both good, both solid, both quite different.
Laugh tracks were stupid. Like they think viewers are so dumb they need the sound of laughter to tell them something’s funny. Sometimes there’d be laughter at something that must’ve been a US cultural reference, that us Aussies didn’t get.
Same when you’re in the studio audience for a game show and this big sign flashes up “APPLAUSE”. That was insulting. We know when it’s called for.
This is going to be a bit of a ramble but some shows just need to end. And preferably on a high note. I can think of a dozens of shows that ran way too long and basically lost all the charm they ever had in the beginning. The Simpsons for example is the currently running one I feel should have ended right around the turn of the millennium, basically mediocre rehashed plots, too many characters(because the core group is tapped dry) and coasting off the truly excellent golden years. All In The Family was the same way, which by the end half the characters were gone, same with The Andy Griffith Show without Barney Fife, same with the US version of The Office without Michael Scott(although I feel it lost momentum at least a season earlier).
As a child of the 90s but with a love for all things vintage I watched most of these shows, including The Beverly Hillbillies and Hogan’s Heroes, and I generally can tell when the episode I’m watching is subpar to another, and they always tend to be latter season offerings. When I turn on TV land or METV or whatever now if there’s nothing else on (not a sports fan nor care about news, so this is often) I tend to not hesitate to watch a Hogan’s Heroes like I would All in the Family- Not because I find it a better show but because there’s less of a chance of the former being a crap than a depressing, bordering on Archie Bunker’s Place, episode of the latter. It does wonders for a show’s longevity to end on it’s stride
Oh man Archie Bunker’s Place was so depressing. I don’t watch much network TV but have noticed the longest running shows like Simpsons and Modern Family have figured out how to keep all of their key cast members. Very important!
In the 70s when someone left over a contract dispute or whatever they kept going. Sometimes they would kill off the character which made it extra depressing, Edith Bunker and Colonel Blake come to mind. It’s like they thought as long as we have Alda or O’Connor it will be fine. They didn’t realize it was the chemistry between actors that made the shows great. MASH sucked after McLean Stevenson and Larry Linville (Frank Burns) left.
But the prize for most depressing show in history has to go to The Waltons. First off the best characters were grandma and grandpa so right away you knew there would be trouble and sure enough grandma died after like two seasons. Then the kids grew up and left one by one and then they killed off the mom so it was basically just Ralph Waite. One hour of Ralph Waite!
I sincerely believe many of these shows contributed to our national malaise. They were the only game in town as there was no internet or on-demand. Even the comedies were depressing remember One Day At A Time?
Then came the 80s with lots of changes and fun dramas like Dallas.
PS on the brilliant Don Knotts: You are so right that The Andy Griffith Show was never the same after he left. I felt Three’s Company actually got better when his Mr. Furley character replaced the Ropers, who were pretty damn funny too. That almost never happened, e.g. Winchester for Burns etc.
A welcome ramble, Matt. We have the full set of Hogan on DVD. My daughter was watching it just last night. Going back a generation or two, once those classic comedy shows ended in ’71, my parents and I tended to watch less TV. We had enough drama in our daily lives without edgy TV shows feeding us canned angst.
What killed all the ‘rural’ shows was Nielsen adding demographic breakdowns of TV ratings, which showed advertisers the shows were mainly getting viewers in rural and other areas with far less spending power and consumption compared to the more affluent, urban and suburban areas who were their prime targets. They collectively pulled a lot of ad money out of those shows, or demanded steep rate discounts to reflect viewer composition, and the writing was on the wall.
Yup, watched this show many times in my youth, and then later the reruns when I was a hormonal teenager – Donna Douglas,was, and still is the attraction for me, even over all the awesome Mopar vehicles showcased. She was a straight up fox.
Huge fan of this show, and of this post. This was a show whose corny jokes appealed to me both as a kid and as an adult. It wasn’t until I read this article that the Mopar connection was that obvious. (Or maybe it was, and I just forgot.) I’ve read about how this show, and several other rural-themed shows (I.e. Gunsmoke, Petticoat Junction) were axed by the network in an attempt to modernize their lineup and image. RIP Donna Douglas – I believe she passed away last year. Was weird to recognize Buddy Ebsen as Doc Golightly in “Breakfast At Tiffany’s”!
Loved this show, I’m sure my local toy shop had a construction kit of the pick up. Jethro(Max Baer,) made a gripping thriller who’s name escapes me in the early 70s which made him a millionaire in real life.
Max Baer Jr. who played Jethro, was the son of the famed boxer. He did get into producing and directing films later in life, and I think got into developing a casino.
Macon County Line.
Thanks Roger
Macon County Line
Loved the show as a kid. Definitely noticed the cars – like a Mopar showcase.
Just like Quinn Martin and Jack Webb produced cop shows were in the Ford Motor camp.
I can’t read this without thinking of Jim Varney’s performance as Jed in the “Beverly Hillbillies Movie”. Solid acting given the thin script and his reputation as a screwball comedian.
Excellent writeup. This show along with I Love Lucy, The Flintstones, Let’s Make a Deal (with Monty Hall) were all daily must-see shows on my agenda. Some were on at lunchtime, some were on after school. I think All in the Family redefined comedy TV when it came on in 1971 in prime time. Nevertheless the Hillbillies continued on in reruns along with Green Acres, I Love Lucy, etc. Great to see all these cars again.
Jason,
Do you remember the show Get Smart? As Maxwell Smart, Don Adams got to drive a variety of vehicles, starting with this 1965 Sunbeam Alpine (which was actually his personal vehicle – he bought it after the conclusion of filming for season 4).
The Alpine was rebadged as a Tiger for show purposes, as a real Tiger could not be used during filming because the gadgets and props would not fit under the hood.
Max would later move up to this 1969 Opel GT. I can’t remember the last time I even saw one of those on the road.
The strange part is that there was a period between the Tiger and the Opel GT
where Max’s car was undefined. These were the seasons where the opening credits had him pulling up in a Karman-Ghia. The VW was never used used on screen. I also remember one early episode where the Chief was driving a wildly customized Barris Mustang.
As an homage to the series, the Sunbeam and Opel appeared in the 2008 theatrical release.
…..and Bernie Kopell, aka Siegfried, in the Opel
Other than the various Rolls-Royces and other Euro iron that appeared, I can think of exactly 3 non-Mopar US cars used on the show.
In one case, it was a ’65 Ambassador police car summoned by women whom Jethro was harassing outside the bank.
In another, it was a fictitious famous cowboy actor who pulled up to the estate in one of those “Nudie” Pontiacs. (the man’s name who customized them). There was a series of them built over the years, wildly and tastelessly overdecorated in western-themed motifs such as silver dollars, pistols (yes!) and such slathered all over the car. It was a ’64 AFIR.
Thirdly, Jethro, befitting his position as big producer, decided to buy a “flashy convertible”. This turned out to a decrepit ’53 or so Chevy Bel-Air, also overdecorated with every tacky chrome add-on particular to the period when it was current, including one of those “Wolf Call” horns. Needless to say, the car self-destructed on screen.
Also Jethro had a 49 Ford he got suckered into I recall him picking up various pieces of it from the driveway, BHB was my favourite show when we got TV in the mid 60s in glorious grey and white.
One thing the BHB did bring to a wider audience were performances by Flatt & Scruggs and Roy Clark (pre-Hee-Haw). In fact, the shows theme music, written by the show’s producer, Paul Henning and sung by Jerry Scoggins was backed up by Flatt & Scruggs.
For those who’ve never heard him, Roy Clark can play the he!! out of a banjo or guitar.
It seems I remember Max Baer driving another custom creation in a later episode. I don’t think it was the same car but it resembled Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s Beatnik Bandit.
Thanks for the time travelling this morning. We loved this show, and I savored all the cars. It did get a bit dated (and truly corny) towards the end of its long run.
Miss Hathaway’s perpetual (and unrequited) crush on Jethro was another thread that played out for years. And I did admire her new convertibles.
The Hillbillies did get quite dated and corny toward the end. We’ve been sporadically watching them on MeTV and there was a long, somewhat dull story line toward the end of the series where a con-man was selling various public properties, such as Central Park in New York to Jed. That’s when the tides really turned, to me, from original to corny.
Why do I remember such things? The con-man’s last name on the show was Shafer. Same spelling even.
Honest John Shafer IIRC.
Paul, let’s arm wrestle over who gets Miss Jane’s 1962 Plymouth Sport Fury convertible.
The ’59 Dodge scene appears to be stock footage. Squad cars of the 1950’s were more often two door sedans than four door, as prisoners were still transported in paddy wagons. Lacking roof mounted lights, it was a Highway Patrol car.
There is nothing like first-run, original programing especially when it is as good as this piece, thank you Jason. Reruns of the Beverly Hillbillies aired every morning in Los Angeles throughout the 70s. These were the shows you watched when you were sick and stayed home from school.
Like Gilligan’s Island I saw BH go from black & white to color in the reruns. The colored Gilligans were funnier than the black & white, just like how Three’s Company got funnier after the somewhat cautious first year. BH found its voice right out of the box and peaked rather quickly.
I did not remember Ms. Jane’s car always being red and never knew she had a Challenger at the end. Those last episodes weren’t that great and you rarely saw them in syndication. Norman Lear’s brand of comedy made shows like Green Acres and BH obsolete, not unlike how the Continental and Riviera made Drysdale’s Imperial look black & white in a colored world.
If you look it up, you will find that most of Norman Lear’s comedies were originally British comedy shows. Obviously, most of the spin-offs, like Maude and The Jeffersons were American creations.
But, All in the Family….British first. Sanford and Son…British first. (And while I have only seen the 1st episode of Steptoe and Son, it seems to me the American version suffers in comparison to the original.)
Three’s Company is so close (at least in the 1st episode) to the British original that most of the script seems to have been re-used by the American “writers”. Unfortunately, there were a few, IMHO, Norman Lear clunkers like that show he did with Bill Cosby that was supposedly an American version of the British hit One Foot in the Grave. The original is often roll on the floor hilarious…the Cosby version? NOT.
Even the Ted Knight series Too Close For Comfort was British 1st.
“The Office” continued the tradition of American imitations of British comedies. Also, Brit film actors are often in demand in Hollywood.
In Asia, Japanese manga are the starting point for many films & TV series produced in other countries, even returning back to Japan in those media. Could it be that island? nations are more creative?
I did not know that All in the Family, Sanford & Son and Three’s Company were inspired by British comedies. The only British shows I know are Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, Benny Hill and Wheeler/Dealer. I heard House of Cards was based on a British drama but can’t imagine it being as good as the American version. That goes for the comedies I mentioned as well.
I don’t think we imitate as much as improve. That said I’m sure your Too Close For Comfort was better than ours.
The American version of ‘House of Cards’ looks promising – not seen it yet.
Don’t write off the orignal British production, its a great series, and
there were 2 sequels “To play the King” and “The Final Cut”. They were available on youtube.
Back on topic, the “Beverly Hillbillys” never interested me as a kid. And we would watch just about anything when on holidays, we had no TV broadcasting in New Guinea. “I loved “Get Smart”
and still do. It’s aged well, unlike most contempories.
Blantant rip offs is how I’d put it. We saw both here in Australia, ditto for
both versions of Men Behaving Badly.
A cars of the Brady Bunch would be interesting too, they always had the latest models. Except for the one where Greg bought an old clunker. Does anyone remember what that car was?
That car was a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible. He should have held on to it for a few more years.
If you watch the “pilot” episode, Mr. Drysdale is chauffeured in a Cadillac…a 62 I think.
When it came to spotting the cars on this show, I too was always smiling a little when someone was shown driving towards the Clampett mansion in one car but actually arriving in another/newer car.
And pretty much all tv shows of this time period “featured” cars with windshields removed in the close-ups. On the same subject, sort of, I love it when “period” tv shows or movies show the stars driving down the street in there brand new 1954 Ford….and traffic filmed in the rear window is from the 60s or even 70s.
Donna Douglas appeared in several movies before The Beverly Hillbillies including appearing with Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (if I’m not mistaken?). Granny (I forget the dear woman’s real name) also appeared in a few movies before BHBs, but usually in very small parts.
Donna Douglas began appearing in movies and television shows in the late 1950s, or after Gentlemen Prefer Blondes had been made. Her most notable roles, aside from that of Elly May, were in the Twilight Zone episode titled “Eye of the Beholder,” and in the 1966 Elvis Presley movie, Frankie and Johnny.
Irene Ryan played Granny. She did appear in a variety of bit parts and was a singer also, as seen in this clip from the early to mid-1940s.
Great article. I remember watching reruns as a boy, and noticing the use of Chrysler products.
Nancy Kulp, who played Miss Jane Hathaway, was born and raised in Harrisburg, Pa. After she retired from show business, she taught for several years at nearby Juniata College, until she became ill with cancer. Her home in Pennsylvania is now known as Windmill Creek:
http://windmillcreekstudio.com/farm/former-country-house-of-tv-star-nancy-kulp/
She died in early 1991, and is buried in a cemetery located in Mifflintown, Juniata County. In addition to her real name, her tombstone is inscribed with the name, “Miss Jane Hathaway.”
I don’t know why, but I always assumed (?) Ms. Kulp was either British as Ms. Hathaway seems to speak like she is trying to suppress an accent….or that she was raised in NYC.
Saw her recently in a vintage Twilight Zone episode, she played a really mean sort of spinster aunt to a young girl she hated with a passion.
Miss Hathaway’s manner of speaking, with the back teeth clenched, I believe was supposed to be that of a Bryn Mawr alumna or some other cultured or highly educated person.
I noticed in one episode a character played by Sharon Tate, who was the rebellious daughter of a wealthy dowager, spoke the same way.
That “upper-class, eastern” accent has many colloquial names, including “Locust Valley Lockjaw.” The Wiki article even mentions the “Hathaway” character specifically:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locust_Valley_lockjaw
**********************
As to the cars—the article (a delightful read, JS!) took me back across 50-ish years very quickly. I was a Ford/GM kid at the time, who didn’t know the Chrysler models very well–but I couldn’t help but be impressed by those Imperials…
During the 1964-65 season, Sharon Tate had a small recurring role as Miss Hathaway’s assistant, Janet Trego. She wore a black wig, so she’s not immediately recognizable today. A recurring theme was that Jethro had a crush on her, while Miss Hathaway had a crush on him. Tate then left the show to begin her movie career.
Funny you mentioned that you thought Nancy Kulp was British: In an episode of I Love Lucy, she played a hotel maid in the episode where Lucy and Ricky travel to London, and Lucy wants to meet the Queen. Kulp’s character teaches Lucy how to curtesy properly.
Amazing how that episode was made almost ten years before I was born, and the same queen is still on the throne!
It was said that c b s killed everything with a tree in it . That bieng said the wagon isn’t a valiant it is a dodge dart
Much like the BHB driveway scenes, another great ‘driving up or away in a convertible’ show was the Ford-sponsored ‘The FBI’. It was always worth watching the end to see what kind of Ford convertible Efrem Zimbalist Jr. would be driving away.
Likewise, Jim Phelps in Mission: Impossible always seemed to be driving a Chrysler convertible at the beginning of the show when he would be getting his secret mission (although he did have some kind of Mercury convertible once in one of the early shows).
In fact, it seems that, unless it was a cop show, all television shows stopped getting heavy car company sponsorship when the companies stopped building big, full-size convertibles.
Um…..the very early “MI” epidodes with “Mr. Briggs” featured some very ritzy, 4-door ’65 Lincoln convertibles.
Imperials were rare in the midwest when I was a kid so watching this show was a treat. The first season was my favorite. I loved watching Mr. Drysdale’s chauffeur-driven 62 Imperial LeBaron glide up the driveway to the house. And Miss Jane’s 62 Plymouth convertible is a very handsome car IMHO, although I know I’m in the minority on that one. Great family pic in the Clampett’s car!
Yeah, the convertible versions did take away a lot of the awkwardness of the downsized ’62 Mopars.
I also had a pre-pubescent case of serious automotive lust for Miss Jane’s ’62 Plymouth Fury convertible.
Inasmuch as I have always been such a fan of big American luxury cars, I, too, took great delight in seeing Mr. Drysdale’s swoopy Imperial coming up that long driveway. I was so busy with my high school and college studies back then, I didn’t see much of the BHB’s, always thought it a pretty mindless show. But I have come to appreciate the humor in my later years, and I always stop to watch an episode when I catch it on TV reruns. Growing up in west L.A., with many friends who lived in the Bel Air area, the BHB mansion and all the cars represented such a luxurious, yet seemingly unattainable lifestyle. Great memories.
I myself like watching reruns of shows from my childhood. As a kid, you laughed at the jokes. As an adult, you laughed at the jokes and understand them now.
If “Miss Jane” had a Hemi in her ’70-’71 Challenger, and kept it clean, her estate could have “made bank”, 😉
Oh boy did I love watching the reruns of this show in the 70’s. Maybe it’s because I was a kid and am now a middle age man, but wasn’t TV so much better in the 70’s?
Thanks for sharing. This would be a great show to binge watch.
What a treat, Jason! I’ve seen every episode multiple times, and as a mid-60s Imperial lover, I never get tired of the reruns. I do recall Miss Jane driving a bright blue Coronet convertible in a couple of the episodes — and who can forget Dash Riprock’s car (besides me…seriously, I can’t remember what he drove), but I do recall a yellow Chrysler 300 convertible that might have been his.
Some will say the lack of windshield in the E-Body was for filming reasons, but given the build quality of them I’m not so sure…
Accidentally hit the windshield washer and you were in for a rude awakening… 🙂
If you ever watch The Doris Day Show, you’ll notice that the Charger she’s driving has a sunroof and clear (that is, non-tinted) glass.
According to Hemmings, when a subsequent owner restored the car some years later, he was apparently unaware of the car’s provenance and was curious as to why someone ordered a car with every possible option (including air conditioning), with the exception of tinted glass. It all made sense to him when someone mentioned that he had admired a similar car driven by Doris Day on her show, and the full story started to fall into place.
WRT to windshield removal. Many studios did it, but it was SOP on all the Paul Henning shows, BHB, Petticoat Junction and Green Acres. Any car used on an indoor set or sound stage had the glass out. Outdoor scenes were filmed with a duplicate car that had a windshield, but usually the inside mirror removed.
This was especially noticeable on Green Acres, a Ford oriented show
(mirrors glued to W/S). Sometimes on Eddie Albert’s Lincoln or Marquis, you saw no glass at all, other times you saw the little nub where the mirror mount slipped over.
Another strange occurrence was when there were “crossover” episodes. On Green Acres, we all know Oliver drove a Lincoln, or later, a Marquis convertible. On one episode of Petticoat Junction, Eva Gabor drives up to the General Store in a ’67 Plymouth Sport Fury convert! It was a stand-in for the Lincoln since Petticoat, like the Hillbillies, was a Mopar show.
If you watch the I Love Lucy episode when Ricky buys the 1955 Pontiac convertible for the trip to California, you can see that the car had its wraparound windshield removed for the shots in front of the Ricardo’s apartment building.
Not only that scene, as I recall, but all along their trip west. You could tell immediately, as a kid I couldn’t figure it out. And all the shiny chrome bumpers and trim had been dulled down, too, presumably to avoid reflecting studio lighting.
Don’t forget about front seat headrests, I still very often see current shows with those removed.
In some episodes of Adam-12 the police car’s wipers are a good distance up the dashboard in the absence of glass.
And that famous, windshiedless Pontiac convertible’55, or ’56? In “I Love Lucy.”
Thanks for this article, as I watch this show every morning during my 30-minute workout, and it’s practically a dose of CC-porn. Imperials FTW…and this from a modern-day Ford guy who was raised in a GM household.
By the way, the actress who played Elly May (Donna Douglas, aka Dottie Smith Bourgeois) is from my hometown. As Joseph Dennis mentioned in an earlier post, she passed away last year at the age of 82, still wearing a mound of cotton candy-looking hair and surrounded by “critters” whenever she made public appearances. Her father worked at the local Standard Oil (now ExxonMobil) refinery; somewhere I’ve seen photos of her during the series’ heyday, posing in front of the refinery smokestacks wearing a hard hat, alongside her VERY proud father.
Back in the 1992 to 1995 era, there was a festival every fall called The Ozark Extravaganza that was held just north of Rolla, Missouri. For a while it was advertised as Elly May’s Ozark Extravaganza as the organizers had arranged for Donna Douglas to show up in character.
Despite attending the show, I never did see “Elly May”.
Seeing as I’m now living only two hours or so from Branson, I should probably check out the Ralph Foster Museum…even more so because I’ve got to spend a few days in Springfield next month.
Great piece! I don’t recall watching this in prime time, but I watched the hell out of it in daytime reruns every summer and whenever I was home sick. The steady diet of new Mopars really stuck out to me at the time because I saw them so seldom in real life. Everyone I knew was either a GM or a FoMoCo person, with very few exceptions.
Also, it was years before I was able to learn that the family’s truck was an Oldsmobile. One of the great mysteries of my childhood, thanks to my pre-internet upbringing.
Chrysler and Ford were really aggressive in getting cars featured in TV shows in the 60s. And while Studebaker brought us Mr. Ed, the writers rarely got a car into a scene. The Clampett’s driveway was a common place for an act to take place, with lots of great cars.
The only car I remember from the Beverly Hillbillies was a 55 Ford (?) (edit it was a 56 Chev) That Jethro bought that was junk. He drove away, came back and picked up the clutch which had fallen out.
Being just a kid I was puzzled, couldn’t get my head around how that could happen..
In still another CC effect. I just watched the episode with the French woman and poodle pulling up in her convertible Valiant yesterday. Really was a funny episode.
When sick or playing hooky from school in the ’70’s the later color episodes were still being broadcast in reruns. The original early black and white shows are so much funnier!
The show had a great cast and they really had some funny plots in the earlier seasons.
What a beauty Donna Douglas was! All these old shows now being broadcast over the air, many of them digitally restored are fun to watch, if for no reason other than checking out the CC’s when they were new.
Y’all come back now, heah?
The unmentioned star of the show was the mansion. Known as Kirkeby Mansion, it has had quite a few other appearances in film. It was used for exterior shots in early episodes, later to be replaced with a studio set. A Google search provides a lot of info.
Located at 750 Bel Air Drive in Los Angeles?
Poor Carlotta Kirkeby was besieged by fans of the show. Her husband, Arnold, made the deal with Paul Henning to use the exterior of the house for the show, and then died in a plane crash six months before the show premiered.
I was lucky enough to be able to drive past the house (which is actually in Bel Air) around 1990, when the entrance gate was still aligned with the front doors of the house. A subsequent owner moved the gate to a side street (Nimes Road) as part of a major remodeling, and you can no longer see the house from Bel Air Road.
Interesting bit of trivia: The Reagans lived around the corner after leaving the White House, at 668 St. Cloud Road. Legend has it that the house number was supposed to be 666, but Nancy politely asked for another number.
My father bought a new Dodge 330 in 1963. I was 11 years old at the time. Three on the tree and a 318 mill.
I got that car around 10 year’s later when I was 21. I drove it for several years and sold it to a customer at the gas station I worked at ( A beater with a heater!) My father saw it in a gas station parking lot many year’s later and stopped in and asked who owned the Dodge? One of the mechanics said he did. My father then explained to him that he bought it new and that I had hit a guard rail post putting a large dent in the passenger door. ( that’s how he recognized it!) The mechanic told my father that the only work he ever performed on the car, other than oil changes, was a clutch. He used it as a work car and it had around 300K on the clock. Original engine and tranny.
@ Gary ;
No surprise, obviously _not_ a Monday or Friday car .
-Nate
Ironic the opening for a show that would be a ‘vehicle’ for Mopar product placement, at 29 seconds into that opening appears to the left of the Clampett’s truck…….a white ’61 Lincoln plainly in view see its classic grille!
Great article!
“Funny” is totally subjective, of course, but this show, with its corn pone conceit didn’t hold up as well for me as some others, like Green Acres and Andy Griffith. The serious minded foil, aka Oliver Douglas or Barney Fife needed to be on screen more than Mr. Drysdale was, I feel. (Mr. Drysdale also had an ability to laugh at himself that runs counter to the pomposity that makes those others funnier).
Lisa Douglas was a brilliant rehash of Gracie Allen, both certain of their irrefutable, if skewed logic, though her character substituted a whine for Allen’s indomitable cheeriness.
With the cars, there was a kind of studio effect that you would see when a car came into the drive if it was done on set rather than on location. Maybe it was the lighting, or some trait in the scenery that was too perfect, or that the cars were driven slowly for max prod placement, but they did seem to move differently indoors, rather like when Lucy and Ricky had a scene in front of an apartment building with a mid ’50s GM car on a sound stage.
There was also something disjointed about a guy in a business suit and Sinatra fedora driving a convertible. Top down seemed to want more casual dress.
As far as sitcom cars, do I remember a nice 54 (?) Ford that Barney Fife bought from a little old lady who was the head of a con ring?
“As far as sitcom cars, do I remember a nice 54 (?) Ford that Barney Fife bought from a little old lady who was the head of a con ring?”
You do, and the little old lady was Ellen Corby, later to be known as Grandma Walton.
“a nice 54 (?) Ford that Barney Fife bought from a little old lady ”
Ellen Corby – Grandma Walton
That ’62 LeBaron looks stunning. Classy then, classy now. Thanks for the fine read
I watched the original series religiously as a kid. The comedy in the first few years is still solid gold. The show also introduced bluegrass music (Flatt and Scruggs) and country music (Roy Clark) to a wide audience. Good times.
Loved watching this and other US TV for the cars as a kid, probably one reason for my preference for Mopar’s, Gomer Pyle was another good one for Chrysler products.
Just one thing though, wasn’t it the Joads in the Grapes of Wrath, not Jobe?
Please do cars of bewitched and I dream of Jeanie both had beautiful leading ladies and great cars
You mean something like this? 😉
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/uncategorized/curbside-culture-the-chevrolets-of-bewitched-bewitched-bothered-bewildered/
There are also some posts on this site referring to the Pontiacs featured on I Dream of Jeannie. Check them out, using the “Search Curbside Classics” feature.
I’d love to ride shotgun while actually holding a shotgun!
Many shows and movies – “Singin’ in the Rain” being another when filming certain shots having the windshields removed to avoid flares and reflections.
Loved this show! It was amazing how the Clampetts never lost their humility despite the millions they made from the “black gold”. And, needless to say, I had a pre teenage crush on Ellie May. She was HOT! Good, clean innocent fun.
“McCloud” starring Dennis Weaver was another example of the TV trope of city slickers being outsmarted by country folk. If only…
Go over to youtube and type in “Winston cigarette commercial with Beverly Hillbillies” to see the Clampetts selling cigarettes. Different times indeed.
I remember that one, where Granny smokes the cigarette through a corncob pipe and proclaims, “Winston tastes good, like a cigarette oughta!”
But if you really want to see a different time, this one takes the prize:
http://youtu.be/mZvHiiWFbBU
Classic. Fred and Barney puffing would look great on a t-shirt. It is unbelievable how attitudes towards smoking have changed over the last 50 years. Changed for the better.
Speaking of automobiles….higher end cars from the period being discussed usually have three or four ashtrays, all with lighters.
During the 1960s the US saw a large internal migration to California from the rest of the country. I have often wondered how many of those Midwestern transplants identified with The Beverley Hillbillies.
Great article .
-Nate
You know you’re a child of the ’60s if you can recite the lyrics from the Beverly Hillbillies and Gilligan’s Island (second season version) from memory……
Great nostalgic article.
Did anyone mention watching “Perry Mason” to check out the cars? How about reruns of “Highway Patrol?”
As I recall, Milburn Drysdale once had one of the magnificent, lavish Ghia-built limousines. One of the most elegant cars ever built anywhere anytime. It was a ’64, maybe? Couldn’t find a phono.
Most of the the examples mentioned are for TV shows that were sponsored by Ford or Chrysler. It is interesting to note that “Mr. Ed” was sponsored by Studebaker and the character, Wilbur drove a Studebaker Lark convertible.
“I Dream of Jeannie” was sponsored by Pontiac and the show’s characters all drove various Pontiacs. I remember Grand Prix and Firebird convertibles.
“Bewitched” was sponsored by Chevrolet and the show’s characters drove various Chevys throughout most of the show’s run, except for the last year or so when it became sponsored by Pontiac and they all started driving Pontiacs.
There’s a commercial on “You Tube” that features the casts of “Betwitched,” “Bonanza,” and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E” introducing the full line of 1965 Chevys.
Jethro traded in the truck for a white XKE OTS once, but Jed made him take it back.
It was near the start of one of the early color episodes – ‘65, probably. The one where Dash Riprock sets Jethro up on a date, I believe.
You forget Sonny Drysdale’s “imported” Mercedes-Benz 190 SL?
You missed the MG TA that was driven by Sheldon Epps in season 3 episode 27. “Big daddy jed” it was in an earlier episode but was wrecked. It’s not immediately recognizable because it’s missing the radiator shell. I think it’s a 1937.
That was Sheldon Epps car in beverly hillbillies clampett a go go. Also! 👌🏼
@John ;
That’s an MG TD .
-Nate
How did I miss this the first time? The family in “Grapes of Wrath” was the Joad family, not Jobe.
The newest ‘vehicle design’ to appear in BH was a 1971 Dodge full size van. Design lasted into the early 90’s, 🙂
I watch Beverly Hillbillies every day on DirecTV channel 323 – FETV. All episodes are shown in order.
With respect to the “rural purge,” Hee Haw had the last laugh. It found a home in syndication and I believe it ran about 25 seasons and over 600 episodes (the numbers vary slightly depending on the source.) I think that qualfies as record-setting longevity. It probably would ‘t have had a chance if it had remained on the network. And, they sometimes had vehicles appropriate to the rural theme, as well. I think they were primarily in filmed segments actually shot outdoors, although Junior Samples sold (well) used cars in segments shot in the studio. Hee Haw had enough young ladies so that we didn’t have to mourn the cancellation of Elly May quite as much, either. Reruns are about the only thing worth watching these days.
We watched an awful lot of TV in the late 60s on a B&W portable because my parents didn’t want to encourage it. I can remember the characters and some of the lines–“Missed it by that much”–but the plots have left the building. I think most of the shows we saw besides Laugh In were several years old, but I didn’t know it at the time.
I think this is CC-in-scale’s only TV show build, done about 20 years ago.
This AMT kit gets reissued from time to time, and includes all the parts to build Jethro’s rod version.
No TV in 1960s New Guinea, so my sister & I would binge watch TV for 6 weeks over the summer holidays in Australia. I never liked the Beverly Hillbillies. Get Smart, on the other hand I still love. On the model front, I did build the AMT model, but as a tourer converted to a roadster utility.
How odd, the C.C. Effect strikes again ! .
In my late night insomnia I was thinking about ‘Get Smart’ (“missed it by _THAT_ much !”) and the Get Smart movie where Don Adams drives his desk on Ventura Boulevard….
When I was young I didn’t get to watch much T.V. and thought those 1960’s shows were cool, now I occasionally run into one and cringe .
-Nate
The only car today that would exude the wealth and elegance of the 1960s Imperials, Lincolns, and Cadillacs is the Rolls-Royce.
Great essay! Thanks.
The show running from 1962-71 almost lines up with the life of the fratzog. If there was a show where one could see what many consider the best/last years of Mopar convertibles, this one would be it.
It seems like every show was required to have at least one scene where a shiny new Mopar would be seen driving up in front of Clampett’s front door. It’s kind of fascinating that the camera angle was always the same, too, so the audience got a full view of the entire car.
I was born in Beverly (Mass, not Hills). Right afterward, my Father got a job in El Monte (OK, not Beverly Hills) and since I and my sister were too young to drive cross country, we flew in a prop plane out there, while my Father drove his ’56 Plymouth (flathead 6 with column manual) he bought new after college…OK, not a 60’s, but a 50’s MOPAR. He carried an insulated cooler packed with dry ice and some chemical he needed for his new job…he was a process person for the very early solar cells they made, some ended up on the Explorer 6 satellite. Apparently he was carrying something very reactive, packed in dry ice, which he ran out of, and stopped at some military base and they got him some to replace the spent material (my Dad was in the Army, went to college on the GI bill afterward, so OK with his situation). Though he worked on semiconductors the rest of his working life, he never again made solar cells and wouldn’t permit them to be put up on the roof of his home (despite living in the sunbelt the remainder of his years)…he didn’t want to deal with them if roof was hit with hail, which seems to happen pretty regularly where he ended up living the remainder of his life. Guess NASA didn’t want nuclear power in space, so solar cells were their work-around to get power (and they still are)…but Hoffman also made solar powered transistor radios so not only used them for government consumption. I don’t know what he was carrying, or why he couldn’t just buy it once he got out there, one of the things I wished I’d asked him before he died, if not just for my curiosity.
I watched the Beverly Hillbillies of course on TV, but never really cared for the show…the situations always seemed pretty contrived, and the humor kind of forced. The show I liked was “Emergency” came out about a decade later…this article mentions the obvious MOPAR connection in the cars, with their emblems painted over to make it somehow less obvious, and I remember the Dodge squad (truck) similarly painted red over the “Dodge” letters on the front of the vehicle. Don’t know if other shows did this as well, but it seemed a bit silly to me.
We didn’t stay in California long..by 1961 my Dad traded the Plymouth for a Rambler classic wagon (automatic 6 cyl) he bought in Compton, and my sister and I were deemed “old enough” to drive back east for my Dad’s new job at Westinghouse Semiconductor (only stayed there a few years). Can you imagine moving from Southern California to Pittsburgh in 1961? We only lived there a year or two, they transferred him to Catonsville, MD. after that (another Rambler, a ’63…which got totalled outside our motel when we had left the house in Catonsville moving yet again…my Dad had jobs at lots of different companies, but pretty much did the same work from when he got out of college till he retired (he got lucky and got into semiconductors right out of college in ’56).
I love your writing and your appreciation of TBH. “A deceptively intelligent show, it is also a great half-hour retreat into a different time” — exactly!
Too many posts to read them all. BUT, they often showed a Chevy Corvair in front of the Beverly Hills bank.