Shark Bytes

this show never jumped
i admit it was better when it first started but had some funny episodes through out the whole series and
I think shorty kellums is funny
I didn't like to hear that corny laugh
miss jane and that other woman did over
and over in the women's lib episodes
but those episode had some humor that was funny

I thought the show was best early on when all the new fangled gadgets like the TELEEEPHONE were strange to them, and all of the misunderstandings over their naivate.
Color didn't kill the show, it just los some of its charm after England and Jethro started playing Robin Hood, but it was still somewhat funny.
When the show really JTS in my opinion was when they they started airing episodes that continued from one to the next, for example, the Shorty Kelum episodes were some of the worse, the trip to Silver Dollar City, Honest John(Phil Silvers), The Atack of the (whatever those fish were that came to shore to spawn) and the clampets thought it was an invasion from another country, and Elly's boyfriend, the Frogman, arrrrg. these episodes were so poorly directed, written, and the acting was pathetic, as though all the actors wanted the show to end soon. Please put me out of my misery.
There was only so much a hillbillie family could discover in Beverly Hills to keep it interesting for a couple of years.

Jumped for several reasons: color, singing (Granny), professional wresting, focused on Granny.

I watched the show as a schoolboy on sick days. I don't remember much. Well, in Chicago it came on early in the morning on channel 32. I am currently (as an adult) watching it during my spare time and actually think the same thing Dylan thinks. I have personal problems coming from a three month, highly conservative, high pressure relationship. Many episodes from my recent observation deal with getting married. That was something my Colombian woman wanted from me so she could turn me into her Spanish husband. I often find myself punching the wall or doing Tae Bo during wedding parts. It builds me up but this falls into the "why did I watch that" part.

As a kid, I used to enjoy this show. Now I don't know why. I bought a set of Beverly Hillbillies DVDs and have found most of the episodes excruciatingly boring and labarious to watch. There are a few exceptions from the beginning of the series but as with most shows, going to color ...

To Darrell Moore:

I also agree that it doesn't matter whether a show is in color or black and white as far as quality of the show is concerned. I have voted that some shows (The Andy Griffith Show, Lost in Space, etc) have jumped the shark when they went to color because that seems to be right around the same time as the quality JTS. That's the only valid reason to vote for color as a JTS moment, to me.

I also don't believe a TV show can JTS just because a subsequent movie sucks. Usually, the movie is a completely different project from the television show, with different actors (in most cases), different directors, writers, etc. To me, those movies have nothing to do with the original TV show except the name and therefore cannot be in any way responsible for the TV show jumping the shark.

Just a couple of observations.

Peace.

The Beverly Hillbillies came on television the year I was born 1962,and I grew -up watching it on and off. Recently I rediscovered it on TV Land and been enjoying tremendously. The only problem I have is TVLand. They have not been showing the series in order. They have been showing the early episodes and up until 3 weeks ago went into the color episodes(which are terrific looking and funny the few that I have seen. To me wheter a show goes to Color doesnot make a difference,if the show has terrible writing it can be in Black/White and still be lousy)and gone back to the earlier Black and White shows. Other than that I like the series and think that it makes a stunning commentary on social mores and wealthy people. Buddy Ebsen was fun as Jed and made more sense than people gave Jed credit for. Irene Ryan as 'Granny' has me in stitches I can never get tired of her. Donna Douglas was fine as Elly May she came across as a uneducated naive girl trying to learn the ways of the world and still be herself. Max Baer as Jethro was hiiarious. Jethro was dense that it makes you wonder if Max Baer really has any intelligence in real life. Raymond Bailey was good but trying at times with playing Milburn Drysdale,he seemed to get more tighter and less humourless as the series from what I have been able to see progresses. Nancy Kulp as Jane Hathaway was truly funny and was dressed very attractively throughtout the show thus far. Miss Jane's crush on Jethro in the beginning of the show was hilarious and they came across as cute and appealing together.In one early episode when he called her "Darling" and was so bashful I died of laughter and it made me think of my first crush. I like Harriet Mac Gibbon as Margaret Drysdale,in the early episodes she looked somewhat heavy and older than Raymond Bailey but in the later shows she looked more sevtle and attractive. I marvel over her work and wonder why she only according to IMDB appeared in only 55 of the shows episodes and disappeared from the series after 1969... Pearl Bodine was fast and man crazy and I can see where Jethro got his equally fast and woman hungry ways from. The Fenwicks -Cynthia and her mother were hilarious. Sonny Drysdale came across being too old to be Mrs.Drysdale's son. But he was fun when he popped up on the show. Dash Riprock was cool and funny when he appeared. I have yet to see all the episodes especially the color ones I think I have seen about maybe a dozen or less due to TVLand's abrupt interruption and going back to the Black/White shows. But from what I have seen and enjoyed the show to me is a classic.

Only jumped when the colored episodes aired. Nothing beats black and white.

Jethro Bodine's character never evolved past that of the handsome imbecile. Max Baer once remarked that if he had to live his career over, they could have offered him the f-- moon and he wouldn't have taken this role again. He said he was about to declare bankruptcy if he hadn't succeeded with his self-financed and produced Macon County Line. Although his BH weekly salary was $500(far more than the average working man was earning at the time), it was nowhere near what lead star Buddy Ebsen was garnering($2,000 to $3,000/WK.). In addition, CBS reaped millions in advertising off the show, particularly in its first 2 to 3 seasons when it was number one. Baer said he was angered by Ron Howard's portrayal of his father(Heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer Sr.)in the director's film about pugilist Jim Braddock. Papa Baer was depicted as remorseless and bloodthirsty after he killed an opponent in the ring. In reality, Baer paid the man's medical bills before he died and provided financial assistance to his family. According to Jr.,his father never recovered mentally from the incident(Baer Sr. died of a heart attack in 1959 at the age of 50). It would have been interesting to see a press battle between two 1960's sitcom stars, Mayberry versus Beverly Hills (via the Ozarks).

Long before the Dukes of Hazzard had Boss Hogg there was Mayor Amos Wentworth Hogg from Bugtussle, Tennessee. Now that was funny stuff. In fact the whole 5th season was good and ranks as my favorite of them all. Who can forget granny punching Herby the guerrilla in the face or the look on Mr. Drysdale when Jed told him he was going to work as a garbage collector?

the episode in late 1964 about mrs. drysdale going to the hospital was hilarious. one of the best.

The sincerity of the early black-and-white episodes gave way to the sillier,yet still classic,middle years.The last few seasons were lousy.Jethro had become a jerk both on and off screen,and it's easy to tell that Jed/Buddy couldn't stand him.Shorty Kellems was never funny at all,though some episodes starring him featured some hot babes.Miz Jane got womens' lib and quit her job at the bank,while Mr. Drysdale became cartoonishly greedy and evil.The shows with Phil Silvers as Honest John made the Hillbillies look like stupid hicks who were an easy mark.Country folk they might have been,but prior to this they weren't stupid or suckers{Jethro,perhaps}.The trips to Silver Dollar City were basically commercials for same.The ultimate shark-jump for me was when Pat Boone made a guest shot,and the now-gullible 'billies accept him as a "country boy" and Jed and Granny dance to his phony,crappy music!Compare this to the classic early episode where they deal with "Johnny Poke",a talentless rock singer who actually WAS from "back home",and they KNEW he was a fake and a liar...

Don't know if this counts as a "Jump the Shark" moment, but the later episodes(last 1-2) seasons, "Jethro" grows his hair a little longer in the back. All the actors seemed to be getting tired of thier roles. This was about the time they headed east, to New York. Why in God's name did they do that? I can't believe that SOMEONE in the cast or crew didn't stop and say,"Hold it! This is STUPID! Even for this show!" Funniest episode:The one where Jethro gets a junk trailer from the dump, fills it up with half the furniture from the mansion, and calls it his "portable playboy pad"! Running the Happy Gizzard was classic, too. Still better than the junk on TV today.

In the 1st show Jed lists reasons against leaving the hills as he had been advised to do. The viewers know this is a list of precious simple wonders that they would gladly swap for the overtaxed, overstressed appliance-reiliant, moneychasing chumps they have become. They know, sadly, which choice Jed will make, but alas, screaming at the screen won't help.

This show was a miracle of subtle satire and commentary. That it was that, and necessarily funny besides was not by accident. Henning originally envisioned the Clampett's as a black family (alas, too soon for the times!

To the end, they never made sense of the "labor saviing devices" they discovered in their California dige. The reason is that they applied the basic reasoning of our primitive ancestors that their neighbore had lost.

Jed's clan had landed in la-la land, as though from another planet, and survived the trappings of that society because, unlike their neighbors, they had not been brainwashed by the profit barons. That this show's principle mission was to sell corn flakes to CBS viewers made it even more incredibly perfect.

Years later, a Joannie Mitchell song included a refrain that I think fits the premise that this show began with....

We're captive on a carousel of time.
We can't return, we can only look,
behind from where we came, And go
round & round & round in the circle game.

The natural ethics and honesty of those hillbillies represents where we came from; we can now only look, but, like a badge of lost innocence, cannot return.

Thanks for letting me writh this,.
Bob McDonnell, Schaumburg, IL
AKA goldenponderbob@gmail.com

Shame, shame on you TV Land for eliminating the closing theme so you could jam in more commercial plugs for bad late 70's/early 80's movies. I could see doing this if you wanted to run each episode in its entire original length, approximately 25 to 26 minutes. Instead, portions of scenes are edited out to the point where the shows are barely 20 minutes long.