The Beverly Hillbillies
Jethro Returns
TV Flash files “Jethro Returns” as a desk essential hour — The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971) on CBS, season 9, episode 24, aired 1971-03-23, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S09E24: listed hour 274 of 274 in the The Beverly Hillbillies guide, last listed hour of season 9. It aired 1971-03-23 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “The Clampetts Meet Robert Audubon Getty” (S09E23). No later hour is listed in this guide.
Essential hour: “Jethro Returns”. Jethro Returns closes nine seasons of Nielsen dominance the critics never loved — an honest tail, not a civic event.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
The final show of the series. Elly May's intended husband may win out in marrying her for her money. Hathaway tries to expose his plan to Drysdale, Granny and Jed. Jethro may wed as well but may or may not return to California.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Jethro Returns sit in the The Beverly Hillbillies guide?
S09E24 is listed hour 274 of 274 — last listed hour of season 9, season 9 episode 24.
When did The Beverly Hillbillies S09E24 air?
Jethro Returns aired 1971-03-23 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…