Before All in the Family, Roseanne, Married with Children, and all the other TV shows about trashy families, there was The Beverly Hillbillies. Hollywood discovered that it could make money by putting family values upside down.
During the 1950s there were lots of great shows like Father Knows Best, Andy Griffith Show, Leave it to Beaver, Ozzie & Harriet, and many others that provided positive and wholesome examples of family life with good role models. So the Beverly Hillbillies came along as counter-programming, and it succeeded.
The family was made up of Jed Clampett, who was the father or uncle of Jethro and Ellie May. Dirty Granny, who never changed her clothes and always looked filthy, was either Jed's wife or his aunt? Granny was the grandmother of Jethro and Ellie May? It was never very clear how all these folks were related. I always figured that Jethro was retarded, and that Uncle Jed was banging Ellie Mae, who was none too bright neither.
The funniest thing would have been for Mr. Drysdale to steal their money, that they were always giving away. Get them dumb rascals foreclosed out of their mansion, and sent back to the hills they came from. Maybe Miss Hathaway could have run off with Jethro, or Ellie May, or both. After all, this was Cali-For-Nay, free loving 1960s.
During the 1950s there were lots of great shows like Father Knows Best, Andy Griffith Show, Leave it to Beaver, Ozzie & Harriet, and many others that provided positive and wholesome examples of family life with good role models. So the Beverly Hillbillies came along as counter-programming, and it succeeded.
The family was made up of Jed Clampett, who was the father or uncle of Jethro and Ellie May. Dirty Granny, who never changed her clothes and always looked filthy, was either Jed's wife or his aunt? Granny was the grandmother of Jethro and Ellie May? It was never very clear how all these folks were related. I always figured that Jethro was retarded, and that Uncle Jed was banging Ellie Mae, who was none too bright neither.
The funniest thing would have been for Mr. Drysdale to steal their money, that they were always giving away. Get them dumb rascals foreclosed out of their mansion, and sent back to the hills they came from. Maybe Miss Hathaway could have run off with Jethro, or Ellie May, or both. After all, this was Cali-For-Nay, free loving 1960s.