EDITOR’S NOTE: Return of the Beverly Hillbillies was on USA Up All Night on May 20 and October 21, 1994.
Airing as the CBS Tuesday Night Movie on October 6, 1981, you better believe a nine-year-old Sam sat right in front of the TV and filled his Coke-bottle glasses with this movie.
Following the passing of Granny, Jed Clampett (Buddy Ebsen) decides to leave his Beverly Hills mansion behind and return to his roots, settling back into a rustic cabin in Bug Tussle. He’s dividing his immense oil fortune between his daughter, Elly May (Donna Douglas), and nephew, Jethro Bodine (Ray Young, and I’ll get to him later. On the West Coast, Jethro has found success as a Hollywood movie producer running his own studio, while Elly May has dedicated her time to running a zoo for her beloved critters. Meanwhile, back in Washington D.C., Jane Hathaway (Nancy Kulp) has traded banking for a government career with the United States Department of Energy following the death of her former boss, Milburn Drysdale.
I really wish they had just not mentioned all the deaths, as Irene Ryan (Granny) and Raymond Bailey (Milburn Drysdale) had died in 1973 and 1980.
But here we are, as the 1981 energy crisis causes the Reagan administration to seek a solution to America’s fuel woes. Jane and her pompous, obnoxious supervisor, C.D. Medford (Werner Klemperer, who was Col. Klink on Hogan’s Heroes), are dispatched to track down the secret recipe for Granny’s legendary, potent home-brewed white lightning. Why? Washington officials believe it could hold the key to ending the gas shortage.
Arriving at Jed’s backwoods cabin, they discover that the last remaining drop of the medicine has accidentally been ruined by C.D. Jed suggests they check in with the youngins back in California or approach Granny’s fiercely independent 100-year-old mother—known simply as Maw (Imogene Coca)—who now runs a local home for elderly ladies and holds the closely guarded moonshine formula close to her chest.
So yes, Ray Young plays Jethro Bodine instead of Max Bear Jr., who refused to come back. Taking over the role of the enthusiastic, aspiring brain surgeon and Hollywood producer. Young was a recognizable tough guy and character actor who appeared in numerous exploitation and action features throughout the 1970s and 1980s, including The Enforcer and The Beastmaster.
This made-for-television film was written and produced by Paul Henning, the creative genius behind the entire rural CBS sitcom empire, which included The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction and Green Acres. It was originally commissioned as a pilot film for a potential weekly television series revival of The Beverly Hillbillies, though the network ultimately chose not to move forward with a full series order.
This also sounds like a nightmare to make, as Buddy Ebsen and Nancy Kulp didn’t get along very well. Ebsen was on the right, and Kulp was a liberal lesbian, so he often taunted her about her politics during the entire run of the series. In 1980, Ebsen made a radio commercial for Congressman Bud Schuster, whom Kulp was running against. Kulp said of Ebsen, “He’s not the kindly old Jed Clampett that you saw on the show. It’s none of his business, and he should have stayed out of it.” She said Ebsen and she “didn’t get along because I found him difficult to work with. But I never would have done something like this to him.” She lost and didn’t even want to talk about him afterward. In his later years, especially after Kulp’s death, Ebsen privately expressed remorse for doing the ad. They did reconcile before Kulp’s death.
As if that’s not enough, Donna Douglas was married to the director, Robert Leeds, when he worked on the show. By 1980, they were divorced.
This is, however, Heather Locklear’s first acting role.
You can watch this on Tubi.
