The Beverly Hillbillies
The Party Line
TV Flash files “The Party Line” as the first listed hour of season 5 — The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971) on CBS, season 5, episode 1, aired 1966-09-14, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E01: listed hour 139 of 274 in the The Beverly Hillbillies guide, first listed hour of season 5. It aired 1966-09-14 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Jethro Goes to College” (S04E32). Next is “The Soup Contest” (S05E02).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Granny receives a box from Cousin Pearl in the hills. One of the items in the box is an old fashioned crank telephone. Granny asks Jethro to hook it up to a party line on the pole so she can listen in on the party line.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Party Line sit in the The Beverly Hillbillies guide?
S05E01 is listed hour 139 of 274 — first listed hour of season 5, season 5 episode 1.
When did The Beverly Hillbillies S05E01 air?
The Party Line aired 1966-09-14 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…