The Bitter Southerner has been a huge resource and aid to much of this website, namely Gabe Bullard’s article “The Weird History of Hillbilly TV.” Within it, the representation of “hillbillies” in television from the 1950s to now is described two-fold: “They can be seen as rugged pioneers and stalwart and having a very keen sense of family and closeness to the land and folk wisdom. The flip side of that is inbreeding and bestiality and sexual aberrance of various kinds… and violent and uncontrollable. Closeness to the land is also poverty and backwardness of barefooted-ness and disease.” From that one excerpt, there are more than three direct points of relation to one of CBS’s first “hillbilly” TV show, “The Beverly Hillbillies,” which is a great way to introduce the “hillbilly in TV” that exists in “The Beverly Hillbillies” (1957-1962). According to Bullard, CBS “did not invent the idea of using the South as a foil for modern life, but the shows it aired streamlined the concept for television.” It created a media representation of the “South” which “combined all of rural America into a single land of silliness, simplicity, and safety (Bullard).
To introduce the “hillbilly” which is created and portrayed throughout “The Beverly Hillbillies,” the notable references of Bullard’s excerpt to the content within even the first episode of the entire show is important. First, the closeness to land is completely embodied in “The Beverly Hillbillies”—the entire premise of the show includes that the main character, Jed Clampett, and his family, is close with his land. Jed, the main “hillbilly” is living alongside a swamp, in the middle of nowhere (he has no neighbors within 8 miles) which is rich with oil. An employee of an oil company of Oklahoma discovers this, and offers to pay him millions of dollars for the rights to drill on his land. Jed Clampett, his mother, Granny, and his daughter, Elly May, at first are hesitant to leave—due to this closeness of land—and Jed has to be persuaded by his cousin Pearl to move to Beverly Hills (keen sense of family reference). To top all of this of, the show is a sitcom, and there is on and off laughter (and seemingly aggressive laughter) throughout the entirety of the show, which ensues after basic interactions between family members, with the Oklahoma oil company, and the general absurdity of events which happens to the Clampetts, and which they also (purposefully or by accident) create for themselves. Their behavior is degraded to being backward, simple, silly, and most importantly—funny, because of the spectacle formed by the “otherness” of the Clampetts, which is directly represented in numerous ways in which they and their actions are different from the rest of the Beverly Hills population.
“Here dwell the rich, the famous, … movie stars, sportsmen, playboys … hillbillies… Hillbillies?! Who are these people?” (Sitcom laughter ensues). “Where are they from? We will discuss more later while we bring you … The Beverly Hillbillies…” the show opens up.
The introduction and framing of Jed, Elly May, and Granny (among others) contribute to a clear-cut stereotype, which is perpetuated by humor, that is the “hillbilly” in 1957. The following clip builds off of the narrator’s introduction of the “otherness” of the Clampetts in a city like Beverly Hills, and the viewer can assume any number of things which would be reason for the sitcom’s laughter and narrator’s reaction—whether it be dress, transportation, family dynamic, the fact that Granny is holding a gun, or general appearance:
Themes within the show and the stereotype:
“The Beverly Hillbillies” portrays three major themes and attributes of the “hillbilly” which compare and contrast to other “western” TV shows during the time. In the next tab, there is an analysis of Duck Dynasty, and reality TV, and the stereotypes have stark similarities yet contrast due to certain evolution in television’s portrayal of the “hillbilly” in America in its rural-themed shows.
Lack of Education
The lack of education of the Clampetts and their general discourse within their family is the basis of the sitcom laughter in many respects. In the very first episode, S1 E1, I actually kept track of each joke that was made which had to do with one of the characters not knowing what a device, place, or famous landmark was. This, to a viewer, would imply, among many other things, perhaps a lack of education, a lack of world travel, and a lack of wealth in some respects. When the oil company comes in order to settle the swamp rights with the Clampetts, a telephone, an airfield, an airplane, and the Taj Mahal come up in conversation and they do not know what any of these things are. Jed Clampett is lured into a joke in which he says he wants to buy the Taj Mahal and why he cannot, and furthermore when he decides he wants to move to California– the entire family calls it “Californi” which is a source of immense laughter for the sitcom. In addition to the lack of knowledge of various things which exist outside of the “hillbilly” culture, the Clampett family also ends up in jail upon arrival to Beverly Hills, as they hold their mansion’s gardeners at gunpoint (as the viewer would assume this is because they have never seen gardeners before due to their previous way of life) and are mentioned as “outlaws invading the Clampett estate.” The clip below represents further examples of the lack of education and general discourse (and hint at discourse in which the Clampetts are unfamiliar with) as they are getting settled into their new mansion. The first humorous line is made because Jed Clampett does not know what a driveway is:
Gender & Family Dynamic:
There are two females of focus within the first season of the show in specific, who are Elly May, Jed’s daughter, and Granny, Elly May’s grandmother as well as Jed’s mother. The family dynamic highlights the general closeness and tight-knitness of the family– the three characters live together in a very small shack prior to moving to Beverly Hills. Granny and Elly May, the two female characters who live with Jed, have very distinctive personalities and traits worth discussing as a theme of gender within the image of the “hillbilly on TV.” It is notable to contrast this notion of gender and gender dynamic with the rest of the shows which are analyzed in this website– Duck Dynasty in particular. Duck Dynasty (discussed in a later tab) represents a complete patriarchy in which the males are the main characters, with their supporting, beautiful southern belle wives. Elly May, on the other hand, is first seen in E1 after beating the attractive oil surveyor with a rock in order to take him home and throwing him over her shoulder in order to do so, and Granny is seen stomping out a fire with her bare feet and shooting an airplane (which she thinks is a bird) out of the sky. Jed is therefore almost made into a less masculine and commanding character relative to the women in the show– who are more “violent” (as mentioned in the Bitter Southerner) and uncontrollable:
Furthermore, Jed also needs to be convinced and swayed by his cousin Pearl in order to move to Beverly Hills, implying that he may not have made a decision and taken control in order to move his family if he had not been talked into it by Pearl– another female character in the show. Granny is also (after he has been convinced) seen as more of a stubborn and powerful character than Jed for a short time, when she refuses to leave their shack in Oklahoma, and perches on the back porch with her gun in her rocking chair. She stays true to her word that she will not leave her rocking chair even after she is taken to California– as he is placed onto the top of the car in her rocking chair, and with her gun. The gun, also, in possession of Granny, can also be seen as a symbol of Bullard’s “hillbilly” representation that exists from the TV– violent and uncontrollable.
On a final note, though the female characters are often portrayed as violent, uncontrollable, and tough/strong characters, there are also hints of the “sexual aberrance” which is also mentioned part of the “hillbilly” portrayal. It is worth including an early clip from S1 in which Granny actually takes part in describing the looks of Elly May, in sexual terms:
The “Silliness” of Events
The clip above is just one in example in which the Clampetts experience and create for themselves a series of absurd and silly events which occur for various reasons– each of these reasons only further stress and emphasize their general difference in social class due to their classification as a “hillbilly” to a viewer of this show. The accident-nature of the event above is also a source of humor– and the combination of all of these implied factors and nature of the Clampetts speak for itself.