The Beverly Hillbillies

You already know the story about a man named Jed, poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed. Huntin’ for food, bubblin’ crude, now everybody’s rich as all get out. Making up the family is Jed (Buddy Ebsen), a kind old man not comfortable with his wealth; Granny (Irene Ryan) senile, paranoid and handy with a shotgun; Jethro (Max Baer) – a lumbering oaf with the brain of a slug; and then there’s the beautiful Elly May (Donna Douglas). As gorgeous as she is naïve, she’s been every teenage male viewer’s fantasy for the four decades this show has been in syndication. Remarkably though, it wasn’t Douglas that was first tempted to skin out of this show’s cast. For that we turn to bit player Sharon Tate, by no means a regular on this show, but she was there and did show her fleshy bits in Valley of the Dolls… before the Manson family closed her career early.