The Beverly Hillbillies
The Clampetts Strike Oil
TV Flash files “The Clampetts Strike Oil” as a desk essential hour — The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971) on CBS, season 1, episode 1, aired 1962-09-26, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E01: listed hour 1 of 274 in the The Beverly Hillbillies guide, first listed hour of season 1. It aired 1962-09-26 (30 min). No earlier hour is listed in this guide. Next is “Getting Settled” (S01E02).
Essential hour: “The Clampetts Strike Oil”. The Clampetts Strike Oil is the high-concept contract: Ozark millionaires, a mansion, and rube-versus-elites as a national habit.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Jed Clampett is told by a representative of an oil company that the swamp behind his shack is full of oil. (The oil company employee has been hauled in by Jed's daughter Elly May who asks whether she can keep him.) Later, Mr. Brewster, the head of the oil company, does a deal with Jed. Jed tells Cousin Pearl that he'll receive 25 to 100 of "some new kind of dollar." Pearl, thinking Jed has been "slickered", asks what kind of dollar he's talking about. "Million dollars," Granny, Jed's mother-in-law, replies. "Jed, you're a millionaire," Pearl says. "Yeah, that's what that Brewster fella said." Pearl convinces Jed to move to Beverly Hills, California (she pronounces it "Cal-i-forn-ee") and volunteers her son, Jethro, to drive Jed, Elly May and Granny there. Upon arriving, Granny complains the hills aren't that high. Jed says at least there are hills and "we'll be among our own kind of people." The Clampett clan mistakes their new home for a prison and the groundskeepers for prisoners. The Clampetts end up in jail, but Milburn Drysdale, their new banker, gets them freed. But, as Drysdale tries to take the Clampetts to their new mansion, the foursome flee, fearing they're going to prison.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Clampetts Strike Oil sit in the The Beverly Hillbillies guide?
S01E01 is listed hour 1 of 274 — first listed hour of season 1, season 1 episode 1.
When did The Beverly Hillbillies S01E01 air?
The Clampetts Strike Oil aired 1962-09-26 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
The oil-strike-and-move premise is the whole engine, so early episodes that put the Clampetts in Beverly Hills show the joke at full strength. Buddy Ebsen's Jed is the calm center; Granny and Jethro do the folklore.
In the series
Why this series still plays
The Clampetts struck oil, moved to Beverly Hills, and turned culture clash into CBS's most ruthless ratings weapon. Buddy Ebsen's Jed, Irene Ryan's Granny, and Jethro's glorious denseness made rube-versus-elites comedy a national habit. Watch it to see how a high-concept rural sitcom can own a decade of Nielsens while critics sneer.
The joke is architectural. A poor Ozark family strikes oil, relocates to a Beverly Hills mansion, and the sitcom never needs another premise. Paul Henning's *The Beverly Hillbillies* (CBS, 1962–1971) ran nine seasons and 274 episodes on Buddy Ebsen's Jed Clampett, Irene Ryan's Granny, Donna Douglas's Elly May, and Max Baer Jr.'s Jethro — plain wisdom, mountain medicine, critters, and glorious denseness as four clean hooks. Critics sneered. Audiences did not. That split is the text.
Filed against
- Buddy Ebsen as Jed Clampett
Buddy Ebsen’s Jed Clampett struck oil and moved The Beverly Hillbillies into a ratings weapon — 1960s catalog rube-versus-elites, then Barnaby Jones clocking out of overalls into a PI trench with a home lab. TV Flash files him as the…
- Irene Ryan as Daisy 'Granny' Moses
Irene Ryan's Daisy 'Granny' Moses was The Beverly Hillbillies' homemade artillery — Clampetts striking oil, moving to Beverly Hills, Buddy Ebsen's Jed, Jethro's denseness, rube-versus-elites comedy as CBS's most ruthless ratings weapon.…
- Donna Douglas as Elly May Clampett
Donna Douglas made Elly May Clampett the sunniest weapon on The Beverly Hillbillies — critters, a rope, and Hill-to-Hills culture clash that CBS ran like a ratings oil strike. Jed had the drawl; Douglas had the voltage that turned…
- Max Baer Jr. as Jethro Bodine
Max Baer Jr. played Jethro Bodine on The Beverly Hillbillies like denseness was a contact sport — the Clampett nephew whose glorious thickness made rube-versus-elites comedy a CBS ratings weapon in the 1960s. Oil money, Beverly Hills…