The Beverly Hillbillies

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 who move to posh Beverly Hills, California after striking oil on their land.
The show was produced by Filmways in association with CBS Productions, 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.
The Beverly Hillbillies ranked among the top 20 most-watched programs on television for eight of its nine seasons, ranking as the No.1 series of the year during its first two seasons, with 16 episodes that still remain among the 100 most-watched television episodes in American history. It accumulated seven Primetime Emmy nominations during its run. It remains in syndicated reruns, and its ongoing popularity spawned a media franchise, including a 1993 film adaptation by 20th Century Fox.

Premise

The series starts with Jed Clampett, a poor, widowed hillbilly who lives with his daughter and mother-in-law near an oil-rich swamp in the Ozark Mountains.
The opening sequence shows Jed discovering oil while shooting at a rabbit, although the first episode shows the oil being discovered by a surveyor for the OK Oil Company. The company pays Jed many millions of dollars for the right to drill on his land. Jed's cousin Pearl Bodine prods him to move to California now that he is wealthy and pressures him into taking her son Jethro along. The family moves into a mansion in upscale Beverly Hills, California, next door to Jed's banker, Milburn Drysdale, and his wife, Margaret, who is appalled by the hillbilly Clampetts.
The Clampetts bring an unsophisticated, simple, moral lifestyle to the wealthy and sometimes superficial community. Double entendres and cultural misconceptions are the core of the sitcom's humor. Plots often involve Drysdale's outlandish efforts to keep the Clampetts' money in his bank and his wife's efforts to rid the neighborhood of "those hillbillies". The family's periodic attempts to return to the mountains are often the result of Granny feeling slighted by the "city folk".

Characters

Three of the main charactersJed, Granny and Elly Mayappear in all 274 episodes. Jethro is not in the last two episodes of the series.

Jed Clampett

Good-natured patriarch Jed Clampett has little formal education and is naive about the world outside the rural area where he lived but has a great deal of wisdom and common sense. His forebears are revealed in series 1, episode 25, to have come to America before the Mayflower arrived. However, he later covers this up to avoid a great deal of publicity and possible obligations.
He is the widower of Granny's daughter, Rose Ellen. He is the son of Luke Clampett and his wife and has a sister called Myrtle. In episode 13, it is revealed that Jed's grandfather was 98 when he married Jed's grandmother, who was 18. He is usually the straight man to Granny's and Jethro's antics. His catchphrase is, "Welllllll, doggies!"

Granny (Daisy Moses)

Daisy May Moses, called "Granny" by all, is Jed's mother-in-law, so is often called "Granny Clampett" in spite of her last name and despite the fact that in the pilot episode Milburn Drysdale refers to her as Jed's mother. She is a descendant of the Moses clan, who feuded with another family, the Bodkins, and drove them out of Napoleon, Tennessee. In Season 9, Episode 23, Granny states that she is "from Limestone, Tennessee".
Granny has an abrasive personality and is quick to anger but is often overruled by Jed. She is a devout Confederate and fancies herself a Baptist Christian. A self-styled "M.D.", Granny uses her "white lightning" brew as a form of anesthesia when performing painful treatments such as leeching or tooth pulling. She often refers to the concoction as "rheumatize medicine". Like the other Clampetts, she is known to take things literally, having thought Mrs. Drysdale had turned herself into a bird using black magic and mistook an escaped kangaroo for a giant jackrabbit.
Paul Henning discarded the idea of making Granny Jed's mother, which would have changed the show's dynamics, making Granny the matriarch and Jed her subordinate.

Elly May Clampett

Elly May, the only child of Jed and Rose Ellen Clampett, is a mountain beauty with the body of a pin-up girl and the soul of a tomboy. In an early episode, Jed tells Elly May that she is the spitting image of her mother. She can throw a fastball and "wrassle" most men to a fall, and she can be tender with her friends, animals, and family. She says once that animals can be better companions than people, but as she grows older, she allows that "fellas kin be more fun than critters." In addition to the family dog, Duke, a number of pets live on the Clampett estate thanks to Elly May's love of animals.
She is a terrible cook and family members cringe whenever she takes over the kitchen. Elly May is easily in her 20s, but Granny usually promotes her age as "14" since an unmarried mountain woman as old as Elly May is considered an old maid.
In the 1981 reunion TV movie, Elly May is the head of a zoo.

Jethro Bodine

Jethro is the dim-witted son of Jed's cousin, Pearl Bodine. Pearl's mother and Jed's father were siblings. Jethro drives the Clampett family to their new home in California and stays on with them to further his education. In the first season, he is in the fifth grade, having spent three years in the fourth grade and two years in the first grade. The others boast of Jethro's "sixth-grade education". Jethro often speaks enthusiastically of his abilities in "cipherin'", and "gazintas", and he is ignorant about nearly every aspect of modern California life. In one episode, he attends a local secretarial school and is so disruptive that he is given a diploma at the end of the day to keep him from returning. In real life, Max Baer Jr. has a bachelor's degree in business administration, minoring in philosophy, from Santa Clara University.
Many story lines involve Jethro's endless career search. He considers becoming a brain surgeon, a fry cook, a millwright, a street car conductor, a spy, a telephone lineman, a soda jerk, a chauffeur, a USAF general, a sculptor, a restaurant owner, a psychiatrist, a bookkeeper for Milburn Drysdale's bank, a talent agent for "cousin" Bessie and "Cousin Roy", and a Hollywood producer. More often than not, his goal is merely to meet pretty girls. Miss Hathaway has a crush on him, but he is oblivious to this. Of all the Clampett clan, he is the most eager to embrace city life. Jethro has a huge appetite—in one episode, he eats a jetliner's entire supply of steaks, in another he tries to set himself up as a Hollywood agent for cousin "Bessie" the chimpanzee—with a fee of 10,000 bananas for Bessie and 1,000 for him. When "Cousin Roy" comes from "the hills" to Beverly Hills to become a country music star, Jethro refuses to be his agent when Roy becomes a success. Jethro does not appear in the third- or second-to-last episodes, but Baer remains billed in the title credits.
As of 2026, Baer is the only surviving main cast member.

Milburn Drysdale

Milburn Drysdale is the Clampetts' banker, confidant, and next-door neighbor. He is obsessed with money and to keep the Clampetts' $96 million in his Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills, Mr. Drysdale will go to great lengths to cater to their wishes. He often forces others, especially his long-suffering secretary, to help fulfill their outlandish requests. He is a descendant of the Bodkins family from Tennessee. It is revealed in the first season that Granny's clan, the Moses family, feuded with the Bodkins family and drove them from Napoleon, Tennessee. A recurring comedic scene shows Drysdale angrily answering his phone only to find Jed on the other end of the line, at which point Drysdale's demeanor instantly changes to one of good humor and accommodation.

Jane Hathaway

Jane Hathaway, whom the Clampetts address as "Miss Jane", is Drysdale's loyal, well-educated, efficient secretary at the Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills. She has a degree from Vassar College, is fluent in French, and has a good knowledge of Latin. She is genuinely fond of the family and tries to shield them from her boss's greed. Miss Hathaway frequently has to "rescue" Drysdale from his schemes, receiving little or no thanks for her efforts. The Clampetts consider her family. Even Granny, the one most averse to living in California, likes her. Jane has a crush on Jethro for most of the series' run. In 1999, TV Guide ranked Jane Hathaway number 38 on its list titled "50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time".

Recurring characters

Margaret Drysdale is the snobbish wife of Milburn Drysdale. She is appalled by the Clampetts and their hillbilly lifestyle. She touts herself as a "blue-blooded Bostonian" and repeatedly tries to drive the Clampetts out of Beverly Hills, without success.
"Cousin" Pearl Bodine is Jethro's mother and Jed's first cousin. Pearl encouraged the Clampetts to move to Beverly Hills and is envious of their wealth. She attempts to achieve success through various schemes, including wooing oil man John Brewster and finding a wealthy husband for her daughter Jethrine.
Jethrine Bodine is the sister of Jethro and the daughter of Pearl.
Shorty Kellems is Jed's best friend who occasionally visits from back in Silver Dollar City. In one storyline, Drysdale mistakenly believes Shorty is richer than Jed and goes to great lengths to win his business.
Helen Thompson is a British secretary at the Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills.
Janet Trego is a secretary at the Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills. She assists Jane Hathaway and is often the object of Jethro's romantic overtures.
John Brewster is an oil executive from Tulsa whose company made Jed a millionaire after leasing Jed's land for oil production.
Elverna Bradshaw is Granny's rival from Silver Dollar City.
Dash Riprock is a conceited macho movie star employed by Mammoth Pictures. He often tries to win Elly May's affections to no avail.
Mark Templeton is a frogman and the brother of Matthew Templeton who Granny thought was an actual frog.
Ravenswood is the Drysdale family's butler.
Lawrence Chapman is the head of Mammoth Pictures that Jed owns.
Parkins is the Drysdale family's chauffeur.
Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs are a music duo who are longtime friends of the Clampett family.
John Faversham is the majordomo of Clampett Castle in Kent, England.
Gloria Buckles is a secretary at the Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills. She is not to be confused with the earlier secretary that appeared in "Granny's Spring Tonic".
Shifty Shaffer/Honest John is a con artist that the Clampetts often encounter.
Homer Cratchit is a bookkeeper at the Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills.
Shad is a blacksmith in Silver Dollar City, and later its mayor.
Gladys Flatt is Lester Flatt's wife.
Patricia Switzer is a secretary at the Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills.
Foster Phinney is Jane Hathaway's landlord.
Dr. Roy Clyburn is a doctor who is often competing with Granny's medical skills.
Sugar Jean Bell