A Família Buscapé

I'm a long time fan of The Beverly Hillbillies. I recently did some research on the internet to find out more about the mansion used in the series. "The Kirkeby Mansion" built in 1938 is actually in Bel Air. the 1938 French neoclassical-style mansion at 750 Bel Air Road, built by Lynn Atkinson (and later sold to hotelier Arnold Kirkeby after Atkinson's wife refused to move into a house she thought too ostentatious.) Kirkeby agreed with the production company to let them use his estate on the condition that the actual address was not given out to the general public. The address (750 Bel Air Rd.)leaked out and before long tourists became a problem. I've found a satellite view of the property recently and found out that the front gate was completely taken out and the house can no longer be seen from the street. The new entrance is down the road. Too bad really because the estate with it's still meticulously manicured spectacular seventeenth century style formal french garden is among the most beautiful in California.

If anyone's mind is pickled on older TV series, it is mine. And I know millions of others as well cherish "The Beverly Hillbillies" among the top of them all. The cast of this show fits so well with each other that they become the real deal. They became a part of our family somehow. Each regular character goes beyond typecast. The Scruggs/Flat music simply adds more of the same quality. I sometimes practice my guitar while watching the show so I can pick up a few licks each time.

I think that one of the most endearing qualities is that most any viewer can find something to identify with. The most obvious things are Uncle Jed's wisdom laden observations and Granny's energy and willingness to take up a cause. Jethro keeps her busy, but she never lacked for time to pick up her doctoring bag and charge full steam ahead to cure whoever might be ailing. From childhood to this day, I never seem to tire from watching this show. I can't say that about many others. Perhaps the Western series, "Bonanza", is one other that comes to mind. In both shows the characters own personalities forge their way into immortality.

Several series have tried to be funny based on the "misunderstanding" principal, but "The Beverly Hillbillies" did it first and funniest. The characters included Jed, a poor but wise mountain man who used his good old country wisdom and saying to rationalize everything, Granny, the world's oldest Confederate widow with moonshine in one hand and a shotgun in the other, Jethro, the idiot savante who thought he was a genius and then Elly Mae, the demurely sexy tom boy who could fight like a wild cat. Add to this the cheap and opportunistic banker Milburne Drysdale and his voice of reason, Jane Hathaway, who starts out as the only normal person in the series but who later turns out to be as crazy as the rest because of her Birdwatchers Club, and you have a recipe for disaster. This show had a great cast and numerous wonderful episodes and storylines that continued sometimes for eight to ten episodes, a thing unusual for a Sixties series. My favorite character is and always be Shorty Kellums, the short innkeeper from back home who was quite the ladies man up until the next storyline.

The original series THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES was probably the most genuinely funny sitcom ever made with the possible exception of I LOVE LUCY. This endearingly wacky comedy is both audaciously cutting edge and family-friendly wholesome, no mean feat. I would put some of the finest Hillbillies episodes up against the best films of Preston Sturges for sheer pandemonium glee. Most of the episodes are excellent, several are brilliant. The cast is superb, especially Irene Ryan as the hot-tempered yet sentimental Granny, a five-foot elderly spitfire who was afraid of no one - and had no reason to be. Miss Ryan was twice nominated for the Best Actress Emmy award for Granny - she should have WON at least four times! Buddy Ebsen is excellent as Jed but Donna Douglas and Max Baer were equally fine as the "young uns". Donna's free-spirited, tomboy with curves Elly May is a total joy while Max is hilarious as the dim-witted Jethro (and quite wonderful in drag as his twin sister Jetherine, playing the character seriously as an over-sized female, not going for cheap "man-in-a-dress" laughs.) Raymond Bailey and Nancy Kulp are fine as their city friends and I cherish the episodes in which Harriet MacGibbon (as Mr. Drysdale's snooty socially prominent wife) and Bea Benaderet (as Cousin Pearl) appear - Mrs. Drysdale and Pearl often had to go head-on against Granny and both actresses rose to the challenge beautifully.

The Beverly Hillbillies are often closer to the classic comedy shorts of the 1930's and 1940's than a conventional sitcom. Their importance on television history can not be overstated - not only for the "country comedies" that came along after them but for opening the door to an "alternative universe" on television where 'real life' was thrown out the window and fantasy prevailed. THE MUNSTERS, BEWITCHED, I DREAM OF JEANNIE, STAR TREK, GREEN ACRES, WILD WILD WEST, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, GILLIGAN'S ISLAND, etc. - all the shows of the 1960's that pushed the reality envelope owe a debt to the Hillbillies and they probably wouldn't have been around with out the pioneering work done on this series.

The Hillbillies was the funniest show of the 60's. In fact, I'm in my 20's and I prefer the classics to the sitcom wasteland of today. I catch them atleast twice a day on TV Land and they always make me laugh hard. The best episodes were the ones where somebody (or some critter) drank Granny's moonshine by accident. Then the fun would really begin. I didn't see anyone mention Harriet MacGibbon as Mrs. Drysdale and that's a shame because she was hilarious, always getting into fights with Granny and fainting. The comedy team of Raymond Bailey and Nancy Kulp had some of the best chemistry in TV history. Their reactions as they played off each other (and off the Clampetts) were side-splitting. Drysdale and Hathaway were a major factor in the show's success. I agree with someone else who commented that Irene Ryan should be up there in the same class with Lucille Ball. It's tragic that her name is all but forgotten today. But Granny lives on in the hearts of her fans.