The Beverly Hillbillies
The Clampetts and the Dodgers
TV Flash files “The Clampetts and the Dodgers” as hour 29 of 274 in the TV Flash guide — The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971) on CBS, season 1, episode 29, aired 1963-04-10, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E29: listed hour 29 of 274 in the The Beverly Hillbillies guide, hour 29 of 36 in season 1. It aired 1963-04-10 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Jed Pays His Income Tax” (S01E28). Next is “Duke Becomes a Father” (S01E30).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Drysdale wants to take Jed and Jethro to shoot some golf. Jed thinks they'll be hunting something called a golf. They'll also be with Los Angeles Dodgers coach Leo Durocher. They believe that he dodges the golfs. Meanwhile at the ball park, Leo is trying to sign pitcher Walsh Wesson. Jed and Jethro are at the golf course. Jed thinks the little white balls are golf eggs. Turns out Drysdale can't make it. Leo and Walsh think that Jed and Jethro are the caddies. A golf ball winds up in a tree a distance away. When Jethro knocks it out with a ball, Leo wants to sign him as a pitcher. Back at home, Jed tells Granny and Elly that Jethro is going to be a baseball player, even though they aren't sure what that is. Elly wants to be one as well. Leo and Buzzie Bavasi, the Dodgers General Manager, show up at the mansion. Jethro throws a ball at Leo and knocks him into the swimming pool. When he finds out that Jethro can only throw a ball that has possum fat on it, Leo is no longer interested in him.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Clampetts and the Dodgers sit in the The Beverly Hillbillies guide?
S01E29 is listed hour 29 of 274 — hour 29 of 36 in season 1, season 1 episode 29.
When did The Beverly Hillbillies S01E29 air?
The Clampetts and the Dodgers aired 1963-04-10 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…