We’re talking about a 1960s sitcom in an era that regarded such shows as transitory entertainment. Consistency is a bit much to expect of such shows.
I doubt that anyone involved in the making of Beverly Hillbillies thought people would still be talking about the show 20 years later, let alone in years beginning with 2.
Yes, that was the ONE aspect of the BH documentary that always troubled me! 
I… Sorry. I was looking for the thread about packing three months worth of clothes for a 3-hour cruise.
The opening song is not in the original episode. Perhaps it was a pilot which sometimes a pilot varies from the rest of established canon. Are there references to the original episode, how they got rich, in later episodes?
From the original episode it is very clear that the Clampeds knew that the swamp contained a lot of oil for some time, but thought that oil a nuance that reduced it’s value and even that animals avoid that place* that would even would cost them to get that pumped out.
Jed finally understand the value and he is rich sometime after he sole the swamp for what Jed assumes was for $25 to $100 depending on the amount of oil. Not understanding till Pearl explains those are in million dollars.
So no the song does not match, however I could accept the pilot then needing to change things to match as the episodes develop.
Considering that the whole family had Improbable Aiming Skills to the point where shooting flies sitting on a fence post isn’t “sportin’” (they only shoot them as they are coming in for a landing), it is doubtful that a shot from Jed would miss the “food” and hit the ground instead.
Actually, I think the most improbable feature of the story is that the oil company actually paid that much money for the oil rights. They knew they were dealing with a ignorant yokel who had no idea of the value of his property. I’m sure they could have gotten it for a couple of hundred bucks.
it probably went through the food into the ground. Possum won’t stop many bullets.
its also probable that “shootin at some food” is simply the hunting aspect and that he found the oil field while doing so. It does not require that the shot itself cause the oil to bubble forth.
he was out shootin at some food (he was out hunting)
when up from the ground come a bubbling crude (he discovered the oily swamp)
But again, that’s not really consistent with what the opening shows. We see Jed aiming his rifle and he shoots. Then we see a close up of some swamp vegetation and a black liquid starts bubbling up from one spot. The surrounding water is clear and the size of the black area is only a few inches, based on the size of the visible cattails. Then back to Jed as he looks surprised and curious and squints at what he’s seeing. Then back to the oil which has now expanded a bit but is still less than a foot wide.
My problem with the show opening is it shows Jed apparently missing a deer at relatively short range. Later in the series, it shows Jed and Jethro shooting flies on the wall of their estate from over 100 yards away. If he’s that good, he should have hit the deer he was shooting at, and thus not caused the bubbling oil to come into play…
thanks for the earworm:mad:
Thank you veddy much. Nitpick: I’m almost certain it was “loaded up the Rolls”, with the joke being that Abdul was so “poor” he could only afford a Rolls Royce. But at my age where manufactured memories are commonplace (and unsettling) I remain open to more correction.
The visual was trying to make the song more accurate/interesting to the ‘Rich Folk’ who had no idear what huntin and finding oil would be like without a bit of misadventure and action. It makes it more of an “action” of Jed than a happenstance.
Its far more interestin’ for old Jed to ‘shoot and find oil’ than to “stumble upon it while lookin’ for vittles.”
This Wiki article has an interesting tidbit.
The early episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies went into public domain before the song “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” did. So the song was sometimes edited out of those episodes in reruns.
And they sometimes added sponsored verses promoting products such as Winston cigarettes and Kellogg cereals.
Jed said they were going to pay him in a new kind of dollar. When he said “million dollars” Pearl fainted.
The author based the story on his relatives from the Missouri Ozarks.
In the tv show they were from Tennessee.
In the movie they were from Arkansas apparently so they could joke about “Cousin Bill”.
BTW, the truck from the tv show is at a museum in Branson.
Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee converge on the Mississippi. Clan Clampett could be spread throughout the region.
And it had to more or less carry the story line and you know, rhyme. No one expected it would get scrutinized like the 2nd amendment 60 years later.
Dennis
It’s about time somebody got to the bottom of this. May be just the thread we need to pull to bring the Illuminati down.
My take on the BH sitcom is some producers were looking for a “fish out of water” concept that would be accepted without TOO much suspension of disbelief. Some poor, ignorant hillbillies would become inexplicably rich and move to an impossibly upper-class Beverly Hills Mansion.
Hilarity ensues.
Everything else is just backstory to explain the premise.