User Reviews

I remember seeing it a couple times, as far's reunions go it was OK, Coca was decent at least. Hard to watch the actors age so but that is life.

Question: There was a guy in this, didn't seem to have that big a role-balding/glasses/big full white beard/over-alls. I Remember seeing him in a few other things on 70's TV shows--maybe he was a country musician? I tried looking up a few of the names listed here-Hartford etc-and they def. weren't him going by their pics. I have always wondered just who this joker was, seems like he was on kids shows or something odd like that. Strange that I remember this but I do.

Anyways---as you have said, no replacing the Real Jethro.

If you love the original television series of the 1960's, be forewarned about it's "reunion" movie THE RETURN OF THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, from 1981. This movie is really bad and Hillbillies devotees will probably hate it most of all.

This TV movie has a very thin story - the government wants Granny's "white lightning" recipe as a potential solution to the energy crisis. Jane Hathaway, now working for the government, tries to track down a sample which brings her back into contact with the Clampetts. This movie scarcely resembles the classic satire of yore and tries to put the Clampetts into a DUKES OF HAZARD type storyline complete with multiple Daisy Dukes in bit parts, one of them played by the then unknown Heather Locklear.

Nancy Kulp comes off best reprising Miss Jane but here she has pulled back on her lampoon of an unwanted spinster, ironic given the script is more of a cartoon than the original series ever was. Buddy Ebsen's Jed Clampett has sadly dulled with time. Donna Douglas reprises her iconic Elly May Clampett, now the owner of her own zoo in Los Angeles, but the script gives her little to do despite her second billing to Ebsen. Ray Young plays Jethro (Max Baer turned down the project, reportedly feeling he was too old for the role but maybe the bad script and the fact that Jethro, like Elly, has a very secondary role in this had something to do with it, too).

Paul Hennings' script is so bad is hard to believe he is the same great talent who created the show and wrote most of the show's greatest episodes. Henning later blamed the fact that the writer's strike of 1981 left him unable to revise the teleplay but this story frankly seems unsalvagable. The director is by Robert Leeds, director of most of the final episodes of the old series (and recently divorced from Douglas at the time.) Strangely, Shad Heller, who had a minor role in six of the later episodes, is brought back to reprise his character in a rather large role while Shug Fisher, who appeared much more prominently in the series during the same era as Shorty Kellums has a mere cameo as a new character.

The script most controversial twist is "introducing" (as the opening credits notes) Granny's Maw. The great comedienne Imogene Coca has the unenviable task of trying to make something funny about of a lame cartoon that plays like a senile version of Granny. Granny's Maw even has some scthick lifted from the old show as a "mountain doctor" but this new script is so lame even the irreplaceable Irene Ryan probably couldn't have done much with the material either. One happy bit of casting is Ms. Coca's husband, King Donovan, in a small part. Buffs of the series might have placed him from his three performances in classic Hillbillies episodes as the no-account Beverly Hills resident also named J. D. Clampett who accidentally is credited with Jed's fortune.

Most reunion shows do leave one with a bittersweet feeling but THE RETURN OF THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES is plumb pitiful. Buddy Ebsen, Donna Douglas, and Nancy Kulp deserved better.

Although I generally HATE made for TV reunion movies, this one is by far the worst--and that's saying a lot, as there were a lot of terrible movies in this genre made in the 1980s and 90s.

So what made this movie so goldarn rotten? Well, apart from horrible and 100% unfunny writing, it's pointless to even consider doing a "reunion" when so many of the original cast were either dead (Raymond Bailey and Irene Ryan), refused to become involved (Max Baer, Jr.) or just looked dead due to their wooden performance (Buddy Ebsen). BUT, the writers being "clever" blokes thought no one would mind if they have a double pretend to be Jethro (looking much like Bela Lugosi's double in PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE) and substitute Granny with Imogene Coca who was billed as "Granny's Maw" (and, by my calculations she would have to be at least 150 years-old give or take a few decades).

The end result is just painful to watch and contains 0% entertainment. I wouldn't even show this crap to chimps, as they would become enraged with the lousy quality that permeates this bilge.

The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies was a fair effort, but was setback mainly by the losses of Irene Ryan (Granny) and Raymond Bailey (Mr. Drysdale). Add to that the absence of Max Baer as Jethro.

However, the remainder of the original cast does perform the best they can. The addition of Imogene Coco as Granny's Maw is a proper way to fill the shoes of Ryan, and Werner Klemperer gives a hilarious performance. Yhr replacement Jethro, is nothing like the genuine article. Jethro's hillbilly accent was wonderfully delivered during the original series, and this imitation was a horrible, but noble attempt to bring the character back.

In the end, this movie is very much watchable, and worth viewing in its rare showings on television.