The Beverly Hillbillies Cast Dealt With Quite A Bit Of Drama Behind The Scenes

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"The Beverly Hillbillies" ran from 1962 to 1971, and it was one of the defining sitcoms of its time. During a 2001 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Buddy Ebsen, who played Jed Clampett, said he knew the series would be a hit before it even aired. "I was given a copy of the script, the very first one, I read it and I started to laugh and I laughed all the way through it," he said. "That was when I felt that, you know, when you get your chance to get up to bat and they throw it and you swing and pray. This is one that put me in that position, and I was right. It was funny, and it is funny today."

Beyond the timeless humor of "The Beverly Hillbillies," the show is also interesting because of how its cast initially perceived and navigated their roles. For example, Ebsen hesitated to play Clampett because he felt the role wasn't humorous enough. Max Baer Jr. worried that playing Jethrine Bodine in drag would not go over well. Irene Ryan even appealed to the then-President of the United States when her show was canceled. Here are examples of the drama "The Beverly Hillbillies" cast dealt with behind the scenes.

While Buddy Ebsen had roles in several notable television shows and films, such as Walt Disney's series "Davy Crockett" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" starring Audrey Hepburn, he's best known for playing Jed Clampett in "The Beverly Hillbillies." Paul Henning, the creator of the show, offered Ebsen his most famous role.

At first, Ebsen wasn't interested in the part because he preferred playing antagonists, so he came up with an unusual plan to turn down the role indirectly. "I asked an outrageous fee for my services which I didn't expect Henning to meet," he told The Wichita Eagle in 1964 (via MeTV). Surprisingly, Henning agreed to Ebsen's fee, as he felt "The Beverly Hillbillies" was destined to be a huge hit.

During an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Ebsen said he was initially upset that Jed was not a funny character. "That disturbed me for a bit and so I made a deal: [I'd do it], provided that Jed always had control of the money," he recalled. "In that way, he could never get lost in the story. So he [Henning] came out with some good lines, some of them that lived: 'Someday, I got to have a long talk with that boy.'"

In Stephen Cox's 1993 book "The Beverly Hillbillies: A Fortieth Anniversary Wing Ding" (via MeTV), Max Baer Jr. revealed that the cast sometimes fought like cats and dogs. "I mean I yelled at Irene and she yelled at me, I'd get p***ed at Donna [Douglas] and she would cry or something like that," he revealed. "Buddy [Ebsen] would get angry with me and just turn his back on me, or I'd say, 'Goddamnit, Buddy, what's the matter?'"

Despite tensions on set, Baer still felt protective of his television family. "But don't let anyone else pick on them, though," he said. "Don't let anyone else yell at Donna, Irene, or Buddy. I can yell at them, but if somebody outside of our little clique says something, I tell them off." In addition, Baer said the other members of the cast were equally protective of him. He compared his relationships with the other actors from "The Beverly Hillbillies" to a marriage. In Baer's opinion, married couples have to learn to accept each other's flaws.

Even if Baer didn't always get along with his fellow cast members, he remained friends with some of them. After the show ended, he stayed in touch with Douglas and Ebsen. 

During a 2009 interview with WAFB, Donna Douglas discussed her entry into show business. "I believed with all my heart that if I did the best I could do, that God would take care of me," she recalled. "Then, I didn't have to be afraid."

Douglas' career initially went very well. "The Beverly Hillbillies" became a huge hit. It was the most popular show in the United States during its first two years on the air. Despite this, Douglas did not enjoy her time in Hollywood. She longed to return to her home state of Louisiana. After "The Beverly Hillbillies" came to an end, she was offered sexual roles, but she decided she was more interested in working in real estate.

In 2009, Douglas explained what her life was like after she left Hollywood. "I mean, I go everywhere and people come up to me and they talk to me, but it's normal," she said. "It's not built into a lot of this star stuff. It's so wonderful just to be ordinary folks with ordinary people, 'cuz that's the way I am."

While "The Beverly Hillbillies" was a massive hit, Max Baer Jr. said the show's nine years on the air were not very profitable for him. "They were lucrative for my ex-wife," he said in the book "The Beverly Hillbillies: A Fortieth Anniversary Wing Ding" (via MeTV). "She got everything. Actually, I didn't make that much. The first year of the series I made $500 a show. Second year of the series, I made $600 or $700 a show. Third year, we were the number one show in the country, I think I made $800."

While Baer didn't make much money through his role in "The Beverly Hillbillies," he eventually became a millionaire. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Baer is worth $50 million. He has had an incredible career since his signature show was canceled. Baer produced two successful films: "Macon County Line" and "Ode to Billy Joe." He negotiated with CBS for the rights to characters from "The Beverly Hillbillies" and created slot machines based on them. 

During a 2017 interview with Fore Magazine, Baer said he was a successful film producer because he graduated from the sixth grade after only three years. His comment was a reference to a famous recurring joke from "The Beverly Hillbillies."

During the 2017 interview with Fore Magazine, Max Baer Jr. gave fans some insight into his love life. He recalled having romantic connections to Marilyn Monroe and Natalie Wood, though he refused to go into detail about either of them. He also dated Sharon Tate, a movie star who appeared in 15 episodes of "The Beverly Hillbillies." Baer even accompanied Tate to the Emmy Awards. 

In a 1962 interview with The Birmingham News (via MeTV), the actor recalled receiving 2,000 fan letters per week during the initial run of "The Beverly Hillbillies," more than any other cast member of the show. Many of the letters were marriage proposals from fans. "Gosh, the girls send in their pictures and some are mighty pretty, too," Baer said. "But they ought to know one thing: I'm not the marrying kind. I like to date, but seldom the same girl twice in a row."

While Baer wasn't interested in these proposals, he did get married. Baer wed Joanne Kathleen Hill in 1966. The couple divorced in 1971. The two had no children, and Baer said he had no interest in getting married again afterward.

At one point, "The Beverly Hillbillies" was the most popular show on television in the United States. That didn't mean it was a critical darling. Many television critics felt the show was corny. Buddy Ebsen disagreed with that assessment. "Our show, for one thing, is pure comic strip," he told The Register (via MeTV). "It isn't 'corny,' whatever that means." Ebsen didn't even like when the show was called "homespun."

However, Ebsen seemed to have a change of heart. In an interview with The Times-Tribune (via MeTV), the actor said "The Beverly Hillbillies" was designed to be corny and that was its charm. He believed it was superior to many of the sitcoms that came after it. 

Regardless of whether "The Beverly Hillbillies" was corny, it connected with a mass audience and still has a following today. In addition, the show helped the American people during a difficult time. According to PopMatters, the sitcom offered escapism at a time when the country was still traumatized by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Even if critics were not impressed with "The Beverly Hillbillies," the show will always have an important place in American history.

Max Baer Jr. played two roles on "The Beverly Hillbillies." One was Jethro Bodine. The other was his twin sister, Jethrine Bodine, whom Baer played in drag. Baer's drag was unconvincing — and that was part of the joke. 

In a 1963 interview with The Pittsburgh Press (via MeTV), Baer revealed he didn't want to take on the role of Jethrine. He worried viewers wouldn't find Jethrine funny. However, the TV star changed his mind. "The producer had asked me if I had any inhibitions about playing a girl and I told him I don't have any inhibitions in front of a camera," Baer Jr. said. "I just wanted to know if it was going to help me career-wise. The role is very difficult." As time went on, Baer became acclimated to Jethrine's makeup and presentation.

Baer's brother did not recognize him when he first saw him dressed as Jethrine. Some members of the audience also didn't seem to understand that the same actor played Jethro and Jethrine. Notably, while Baer physically played the role of Jethrine, Linda Henning provided the voice of the character. Linda is the daughter of Paul Henning, the show's creator.

"The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" was a classic sitcom that lasted from 1959 to 1963. The show starred Dwayne Hickman as the title character and Bob Denver as a beatnik named Maynard G. Krebs; Denver would later gain even more fans for playing Gilligan on "Gilligan's Island."

Max Baer Jr. nearly made an appearance on an episode of "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis." However, the episode was set to air right before "The Beverly Hillbillies." For this reason, Paul Henning forced Baer to turn down the part. "In my opinion, if Max had appeared just ahead of us in a different role, his believability as Jethro on our show would have been largely destroyed," Henning said (via MeTV).

In a statement, Henning revealed he was very concerned about the integrity of the characters from "The Beverly Hillbillies." "For the present, I would prefer that Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer cease to exist as themselves," Henning said. "The dissemination and publication of personal biographies, personal hobbies, and idiosyncrasies ... in columns and photographic layouts of them at home are to be discouraged by every means at our disposal! NO STORY IS BETTER THAN THE WRONG STORY!...and a wrong story is one that damages the television image of our hillbilly characters."

"The Beverly Hillbillies" lasted from 1962 to 1971. According to a popular urban legend, the show was canceled because it was controversial. That is not the case; the show was canceled because NBC decided to rid its lineup of several shows about cowboys and hillbillies to focus more on suburban characters. This event in television history is known as the rural purge. Other shows canceled because of the rural purge include classic sitcoms such as "Green Acres," "Petticoat Junction," and the westerns "Gunsmoke" and "Bonanza."

Richard Nixon was the President of the United States when "The Beverly Hillbillies" came to an end. Irene Ryan, who played Granny on the show, told Nixon about the cancellation when she was a guest at the White House. Ryan believed "The Beverly Hillbillies" would still be on the air if it wasn't for the Federal Communications Commission; why she felt this way is unclear. Nixon told her he was a big fan of "The Beverly Hillbillies" — but that didn't resurrect the show.

Compared to Ryan, Buddy Ebsen was more accepting of the show's conclusion. "After nine years, what can you say about losing a show?" he told the Central Press Association (via MeTV). "It was wonderful while it lasted. You can't ask for much more."

Sometimes, being an icon has its downsides. Max Baer Jr. became so famous for playing Jethro Bodine that he was typecast. "I couldn't go into a producer's office and say I wanted to play the part of a neurosurgeon or pilot,” he told Fore Magazine in 2017. "As soon as I came on screen, people would say, 'There's Jethro.”' 

CBS released a "The Beverly Hillbillies" reunion film titled "Return of the Beverly Hillbillies" in 1981. Buddy Ebsen, Donna Douglas, and Nancy Kulp reprised their famous roles, but Baer did not. He turned down the role partially because he disliked the script and also did not want "The Beverly Hillbillies" to define his career. Baer was replaced by Ray Young, who is best known for portraying Bigfoot in Sid and Marty Krofft's television show "Bigfoot and Wildboy."

Eventually, Baer came to embrace Jethro. During an interview with the Associated Press (via MeTV), Baer explained why he changed his mind about his most famous character. "What happened was I turned 50," he recalled. "I was about as much in demand as cancer." He added, "If I have to be Jethro, I'll be Jethro." Baer never actually reprised the role of Jethro, and he has not made any appearances on the big screen or the small screen since a 1991 episode of "Murder, She Wrote."

Donna Douglas and Barbie were both huge icons during the 1960s. Despite this, Douglas had some very public issues with Mattel, Barbie's manufacturer. The brand made a series of dolls based on female characters from classic television shows, including the title character from "I Dream of Jeannie," Samantha Stephens from "Bewitched," Catwoman from "Batman," and Elly May Clampett from "The Beverly Hillbillies." The latter doll had blonde hair, a blue shirt, and jeans. In addition, she had a slingshot. The Clampett doll also greatly resembled Douglas, and it featured an image of her on its packaging.

Douglas did not authorize the use of her image to sell the doll. She sought at least $75,000 in damages from Mattel. Douglas and Mattel reached an undisclosed settlement. The actor and Mattel never publicly commented on the nature of their deal. It will be interesting to see if the Clampett Barbie doll will become a collector's item in the future.

Max Baer Jr. didn't always have positive feelings toward Jethro Bodine. However, he negotiated with CBS for the rights to the character so he could open a chain of restaurants based on "The Beverly Hillbillies." Subsequently, businessman Bruce Gerleman made a deal with CBS and started his own chain of Jethro's BBQ restaurants in Iowa. This brought Baer into conflict with CBS, as he felt Jethro's BBQ was diluting his trademark.

Despite this legal dispute, Gerleman still expressed some fondness for Baer. "He's a very nice man, and we get along great, and we've actually talked about and discussed working together," he told The Des Moines Register in 2014. "At some point, he was even thinking about coming out to Des Moines and sitting down and eating some of our BBQ." There do not appear to be any legal updates in this case.