I’ve heard TBH explained as an extended metaphor for the rather bewildered way the whole of (well, the white of) American society was feeling about its sudden and unprecedently widespread wealth and abundance after WWII. The whole country – still remembering the Depression, and still getting used the idea of higher education and homeownership as privileges for more than the elite – feeling kinda like a hick who just made or inherited or found a fortune overnight, and moved to the city and doesn’t quite know what to do there.
And it occurs to me that a lot – not a majority, but a lot – of Chinese and Indians might be feeling like that these days. They ever express it in a sitcom? Has anybody?
Good question, but as much as I admire The Beverly Hillbillies as comedy, I don’t think it warrants that deep of an analysis. It was a classic fish out of water scenario, and nothing more. It got a little satirical as it went along about 60’s culture, and the worship of money, but that was later, and broadly played.
As an example, when they were first casting the show, somebody wanted Bea Benaderet as Granny. Jasper Depew, the series creator, said, “What? With those tits?” He pictured Granny as a little wiry woman you see. Bea Benaderet was given the role of Cousin Pearl as a consolation prize. I offer this as proof that not a whole lot of deep philosophical thought went into the creation of this program.
As for other countries, the best comparison I can think of is Britain’s Keeping Up Appearances for something along the same themes of the Hillbillies.
In a book I read a long time ago about TBH that Henning found an actual bonafide hillbilly grandma and decided to bring her to Hollywood to audition, among other things thinking “If it works her life will parallel that of the characters and really get some publicity going”. Unfortunately the woman he chose (because he thought she looked the part and was a natural) couldn’t act, in part because she couldn’t read, and thus flunked the audition.
The same book said that Henning originally envisioned an arc for the series of the family becoming more and more acclimatized to the Beverly Hills lifestyle until they ultimately become snobs and, like Wang Lung from Good Earth, ultimately Jed decides to take them back to the land and they return to the hills. This was when he expected it to run a couple of years, maybe three or four tops. Of course that quickly went by the wayside; Jethro learned to love hamburgers and the family learned to use running water and that the doorbell wasn’t a demon but years and years after being in Beverly Hills they were still wearing rope belts and driving a rusted old truck. I guess it fell into an “if it ain’t broke [ratings wise]” pit.
Anyway, to answer the question no idea, though the suddenly rich trope has been repeated a few times in American sitcoms. Most famous perhaps was the Connors winning the lottery in the bizarre never-should-have-happened final season of Roseanne. Roseanne said that she came up with the idea of the Connors becoming The Beverly Hillbillies in the last season early in the show’s run, but originally it was to have been more realistic. No idea what changed her (admittedly unstable) mind to make it half farce and half drug trip.
[shrug] Just because the directors/writers didn’t consciously put something in there doesn’t mean it’s not there. Or, at any rate, that seems to be academic consensus. You should read some articles I’ve seen deconstructing King Kong.
I haven’t watched either one, but there was a recent series on Spanish TV which was similar to the Beverly Hillbillies, from what I know of both: mis queridos vecinos (my dear neighbors) centers on two families living in one of the expensive suburbia around Madrid, one of which would be normal for that neighborhood and the other ones ehrrrr… well, the mother dresses like the one in Married With Children…
I was under the impression that The Beverley Hillbillies was just one more cliche in a long history of cliches about country folk being dumb. Just think of Li’l Abner as just one example. Of course the idea itself goes way back. Heck, the word “pagan” is supposedly an insult to the country folk of Greece. The idea being that only country folk would be stupid enough to believe in the Old Gods.
Certainly, Jethro was dumb as a post, and much of the humor (especially in the early seasons, as noted earlier here) was of the “fish out of water” sort, and centered on the hillbillies’ misunderstanding of modern conveniences and society.
But, the other theme was how Jed and family (again, probably with the exception of Jethro) had far more common sense than Mr. Drysdale and the other city-slickers whom they encountered, and that, despite being very wealthy, it wasn’t their wealth that made them happy.
Paul Henning, who created the show, believed the secret to its appeal was the incorruptability of the Clampetts, particularly Jed. Money, creature comforts, the glamor of living in Beverly Hills, etc., couldn’t change them. Everyone who tried ended up looking like a fool.
Green Acres, OTOH, was a classic fish-out-of-water story. The big joke was that the most unlikely person (Lisa) seemed to fit in the best.
From the articles I’ve read about him, Al Capp (creator of Li’l Abner and its franchises [musical, film, theme park, and other merchandising]) was not what most people would call a sweet person. I’m surprised he never sued Paul Henning or CBS since the parallels twixt the Hillbillies and his characters was unmistakeable. I remember when I was little and couldn’t read yet but liked to look at the comics I assumed Li’l Abner was the comic strip version of the Hillbillies: Li’l Abner and Daisy Mae look exactly like Jethro and Ellie Mae, Mammy Yokum looked like Granny, and Pappy even sorta kinda looked like Jed. Their cabins looked about the same as well. Does anyone know if there was ever any friction twixt Capp and the Hillbillies team?
Capp himself was accused by cartoonist Ham Fisher of stealing the Li’l Abner character from a character which Capp had created while working for Fisher. Also, the strip bore similarities to Snuffy Smith, which had debuted 15 years before Capp even came up with the idea for Li’l Abner. Some critics have said the Clampetts owe more to Ma and Pa Kettle than they do to the folks from Dogpatch.
Supposedly, Capp addressed the similarities between the Hillbillies and the Yokums in an interview with Playboy, but I can’t find the interview online.
