The Beverly Hillbillies
The Clampetts Are Overdrawn
TV Flash files “The Clampetts Are Overdrawn” as hour 44 of 274 in the TV Flash guide — The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971) on CBS, season 2, episode 8, aired 1963-11-13, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E08: listed hour 44 of 274 in the The Beverly Hillbillies guide, hour 8 of 36 in season 2. It aired 1963-11-13 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Chickadee Returns” (S02E07). Next is “The Clampetts Go Hollywood” (S02E09).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Granny chases away the Pool Man because she thinks he's poisoning the cement pond. Jethro reads a letter from the bank saying that Jed is overdrawn and all his money is gone. An unemployed actor named Jake "J.D." Clampett and his wife Opal benefit from a paperwork mixup at the bank becoming $36 million richer. Granny thinks that the family has been spending money foolishly. Jed calls the bank and finds out that Drysdale is going out of town. They now believe that Mr. Drysdale has forsaken them and taken the money. The family drives to the bank where they are chased away by a Policeman who thinks they're vagrants. Jake goes to the bank hoping to cash a $1000 check. Opal thinks they're doing the wrong thing. Granny wants to go back to the hills but Jed wants to stay until he finds out if Drysdale really turned against them. A Paving Man comes by the mansion to tar up some cracks in the driveway. He says that Drysdale told him to do it and the family thinks Jed's going to be tarred and feathered. Jed wants to stay until they pay back the overdrawn fee. Meanwhile, Jake is spending a lot of money. When Miss Jane figures out what has happened, Jake Clampett is arrested. Jed wants Jake freed as he might be kinfolk. Jake passes himself off as a long lost cousin and intends to stay at the mansion for a while.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Clampetts Are Overdrawn sit in the The Beverly Hillbillies guide?
S02E08 is listed hour 44 of 274 — hour 8 of 36 in season 2, season 2 episode 8.
When did The Beverly Hillbillies S02E08 air?
The Clampetts Are Overdrawn aired 1963-11-13 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…