I disagree; there’s a distinction between hillbilly and “country bumpkin”. No Time For Sergeants was the precursor to Gomer Pyle USMC, not The Beverly Hillbillies.
Ma and Pa Kettle were still earlier. Something like 10 films in the original run late 40s-early 50s.
Ma and Pa fans thought The Beverly Hillbillies were major ripoffs. A family comes into some money, moves into a “modern” home with new neighbors, etc.
Bah! Mascots of minor state colleges that are indulging in wishful thinking aside, anyone who entertains the possibility the Clampetts were from Oklahoma has clearly never been to Oklahoma.
Again, I watched the originals as they aired, I spent a lot of time in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, and no one ever thought they were from Texas or Oklahoma. This is the first time this nonsense has reared it’s ugly head.
I agree. I’ve lived in Oklahoma most of my life and even though there’s a Bugtussle Oklahoma, I’ve never heard of anyone thinking the hillbillies were Okies.
Cousin Pearl was the one who suggested Jed move his family to California, in the pilot. IIRC, she even loaned them her truck, and Jethro went with them because he was the only one who could drive it. (I have the first dozen or so episodes on DVD.)
If the producers had specified a state, this would be a 15 page thread listing all the things that Jed and his clan do or say that people from that state would never do or say, and how they couldn’t possible be from that state. 
Well 3 states actually.
The writer and creator designed the Clampetts after his hillbilly relatives he visited in the Missouri Ozarks.
In the show they identify as being from Tennessee.
When they remade it as a movie they wanted to tie it in with recently elected president Bill Clinton and so they made them from Arkansas.
What is interesting abopt that is it was true. In the show the only actor who was physically strong enough to drive the truck was actor Max Baer. Anytime other characters are seen driving it was just them sitting at the wheel pretending while stagehands pulled the truck.
And whats more interesting is that if you want to see the truck, it is located in a museum at the College of the Ozarks near Branson Missouri.
From what I have read that is partly true and also they were inspired by another tv show “The Real Mccoys” about another family West Virginia who move to California.