Donna Douglas Movies

With Adam-12 temporarily out of commission, Officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) are temporarily assigned to "The Beast", the oldest and least reliable vehicle in the department. Not only does "The Beast" spew out dangerous pollutants wherever it travels, but the old heap also continually breaks down as Jim and Pete struggle manfully to answer their calls. This evening's case log includes a run-in with a beautiful woman (played by The Beverly Hillbillies' former "Elly May" Donna Douglas) who proves to be nothing but trouble. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Not a remake of the 1934 Helen Morgan vehicle of the same title, Frankie and Johnny stars Elvis Presley as Johnny, a Mississippi gambler, and Beverly Hillbillies regular Donna Douglas as his girl friend Frankie. In keeping with the old ballad, the romance of Frankie and Johnny is threatened by the intervention of seductress Nellie Bly (Nancy Kovack). Nellie brings Johnny luck at the gaming tables while Frankie sees red. Frankie and Johnny was written by onetime Marx Brothers contributor Nat Perrin and directed by future Tonight Show helmsman Fred de Cordova. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ten years after the cancellation of the cornpone comedy series The Beverly Hillbillies, the property was revived -- mercifully briefly -- in the form of a two-hour movie. Originally titled Solving the Energy Crisis, The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies found Buddy Ebsen, Donna Douglas and Nancy Kulp recreating their sitcom roles as millionaire hillbilly Jed Clampett (who'd moved back to the hills after dividing up his fortune amongst his loved ones), his daughter Elly May (now the owner of a small petting zoo), and bank secretary-turned-government functionary Jane Hathaway. Max Baer Jr. took a pass on the project, thus the role of Jed's nephew Jethro Bodine-now a "sophisticated Hollywood producer"-was played by Ray Young. And with Irene Ryan (Granny) and Raymond Bailey (Milburn Drysdale) having passed on, their replacements were Imogene Coca, and former Hogan's Heroes regular Werner Klemperer as government bureaucrat C. D. Medford, Jane Hathaway's new boss. Also on hand was bluegrass musician Earl Scruggs, who with his late partner Lester Flatt has composed and performed the original Beverly Hillbillies theme song "The Ballad of Jed Clampett"; Shug Fisher and Shad Heller, who'd appeared in several 1969 episodes of the original series; and two veterans from The Beverly Hillbillies' sister series Petticoat Junction, Linda Kaye Henning and Charles Lane. The plot, if anyone cares, finds the Clampetts joining forces with Miss Jane to solve the energy shortage, using Granny's "white lightning" as a fuel substitute. As the film draws to a close, it looks as if Miss Jane and her boss Mr. Medford are about to be hitched in a good ol' Ozark wedding. Originally telecast on October 6, 1981, Return of the Beverly Hillbillies was intended as the pilot for a full-scale revival of the earlier series, but this was not to be. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first season of The Beverly Hillbillies can be regarded as a "shakedown" cruise, with the newly-rich Clampett family making first contact with the wealthy upper crust of Beverly Hills, CA, adapting to their strange but luxurious surroundings with a combination of farcical ignorance and warm-hearted common sense and decency. After striking oil on his property in the opening episode, poor-but-proud mountaineer Jed Clampett (Buddy Ebsen) is informed that his land is now valued in a "new kind of dollars" -- namely, "million" dollars (about 20 million, to be exact). On the advice of his social-climbing cousin Pearl Bodine (Bea Benaderet), Jed decides to move out of the hills and into a posh Beverly Hills mansion, taking his innocently voluptuous daughter Elly May (Donna Douglas), his elderly but feisty mother-in-law Granny (Irene Ryan) and Pearl's oafish son Jethro Bodine (Max Baer Jr.) along for the ride. Endeavoring to help the Clampett clan make the transition from abject poverty to untold wealth are Milburn Drysdale (Raymond Bailey), president of the Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills and the caretaker of Jed's fortune, and Drysdale's ultra-efficient secretary Miss Jane Hathaway (Nancy Kulp). Many of the earliest episodes are built around the Clampetts' hilarious misinterpretations of their new creature comforts: the mansion's swimming pool is referred to as "the cee-ment pond"; the billiard table is labeled "the fancy eatin' table"; the billiard cues are dubbed "pot passers"; and it takes several episodes for Jed and company to figure out where "thet music is a-comin' from" whenever somebody rings their doorbell. Meanwhile, animal-loving Elly May merrily goes about adopting as many local "critters" as she can find, the impressionable Jethro shows off the "cipherin' skills" he has accumulated as the world's oldest sixth grader (his future plans are to become either a brain surgeon or a fry-cook), and Granny crankily tries to transform her corner of Beverly Hills into a replica of her old mountain trappings, replete with a still for her "rheumatizz medicine."
Among the many subplots developed this season are Cousin Pearl's ongoing rivalry with Granny; Pearl's tireless efforts to marry off Jethro's twin sister Jethrine (also played by Max Baer Jr.), and her own furtive romance with oil-company executive John Brewster (Frank Wilcox); the Herculean efforts by Mr. Drysdale's snobbish wife Margaret (Harriet MacGibbon) to remove "those dreadful Hillbillies" from her neighborhood; and the ill-fated attempt by the Drysdale's overaged-preppy offspring Sonny Drysdale (Louis Nye) to woo and win Elly May, which nearly results in an old-fashioned shootin' feud between the Drysdales and the Clampetts! Though roundly panned by many of America's top TV critics (with such rare exceptions as the erudite Gilbert Seldes, who lauded the series for brilliantly upholding the tradition of the classic "rube outwits city slicker" stage comedies of the previous century), The Beverly Hillbillies closed out its first season as the nation's top-rated program. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Having emerged as America's highest-rated sitcom of all time during its second season on CBS, The Beverly Hillbillies was a "shoe-in" for a third-season renewal, remaining in its familiar Wednesday night slot for another year beginning in the fall of 1964. Season four gets off to a rousing start with a multi-episode story arc in which nouveau riche mountaineer Jed Clampett (Buddy Ebsen) buys a controlling interest in Mammoth Studios, a Hollywood film factory run by executive Lawrence Chapman (Milton Frome). After briefly living on the studio grounds, Jed and his family decide to revitalize the fading studio -- and prevent it from being bulldozed into oblivion by banker Milburn Drysdale (Raymond Bailey), executor of Jed's vast fortune, by producing their own silent-movie epic, with the tacit blessing of gossip queen Hedda Hopper. In a related story arc, Jed's innocently sexy daughter Elly May (Donna Douglas) is ardently courted by Mammoth's leading male star Dash Riprock (Larry Pennell) -- who, in an outrageous case of mistaken identity, briefly assumes that Mr. Drysdale's spinsterish secretary Jane Hathaway (Nancy Kulp) is Elly May! Elsewhere, Arthur Treacher guest-stars as a "veddy proper" butler who attempts to educate the Hillbillies in the ways of culture and refinement; Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, who are heard performing the series' theme song at the beginning and end of each episode, pay one of their sporadic visits to their former neighbors, the Clampetts; Jed's impressionable nephew Jethro (Max Baer Jr.) dons tattered shirt and false beard to become a beatnik, and loads up on expensive and useless gadgetry in his efforts to become a "Double Naught Spy" like James Bond; Drysdale's rival banker Mr. Cushing (Roy Roberts) goes to great and unscrupulous lengths to persuade Jed to transfer his millions to Cushing's bank; and Granny (Irene Ryan) tries to arrange a match between Elly and the son of an old family friend (played by famed dialect coach Robert Easton). Although The Beverly Hillbillies fell from its Number One rating perch during its third season, the series still managed to post an admirable 25.2 Nielsen share, ending up in 12th place. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season five of The Beverly Hillbillies finds the sturdy Clampett clan -- Jed (Buddy Ebsen), Elly May (Donna Douglas), Jethro (Max Baer Jr.), and Granny (Irene Ryan) -- still retaining their mountain-grown values and essential decency despite Jed's millionaire status and the family's luxurious Beverly Hills surroundings. Two of the season's best plotlines are characteristically manifested in story arcs, spread out over several successive episodes. In the first, Jed is targeted for blackmail by a pair of slick con artists, played by Leon Ames and Gayle Hunnicutt. This is followed by a farcical escapade in which Granny forces a trained gorilla (actually a costumed stunt man, played by George Barrows) to take over the chores at the Clampett estate. Otherwise, season five follows the pattern established in season four of enlivening the traditional Beverly Hillbillies nonsense with choice guest-star appearances. Veteran comic actor Charles Ruggles makes a return appearance as Mr. Farquhar, the skirt-chasing father-in-law of Jed's banker Milburn Drysdale (Raymond Bailey). Gloria Swanson plays herself in another episode, wherein the Clampetts, acting under the misapprehension that Swanson is broke, bankroll her "comeback" in a brand new silent movie (and no, William Holden did not write the screenplay). And in the episode "The Indians are Coming," John Wayne makes what must have been the best-publicized "surprise" guest appearance in TV history! But perhaps the most memorable of the guest-star turns is contributed by the voluptuous Joi Lansing, cast as the wife of country singer Lester Flatt. In "Delovely and Scruggs," Mrs. Flatt is given a Hollywood screen test, with Jed's bumptious nephew Jethro Bodine (Max Baer Jr.) launching what he hopes will be an illustrious Hollywood career as the test's director. The Beverly Hillbillies closed out its fifth season on CBS as America's seventh most popular TV series, indicating that the corn pone-comedy well had not yet run dry! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though it hardly seemed possible to those grouchy TV critics who had long ago dismissed The Beverly Hillbillies as a one-joke pony, the series was still coming up with infinite variations on that one joke (millionaire mountaineers transplanted to Beverly Hills) as it entered its seventh season on CBS. The season begins with a virtual replay of the story arc that had opened season six, with the Clampett clan taking up residence in the English castle that Jed Clampett (Buddy Ebsen) has inherited -- all for the purpose of donating their fortune to the Royal Family, whom the Clampetts believe are broke! This is also the season in which the classic "holiday crossover" occurs, wherein the casts of Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction and Green Acres -- all produced by Paul Henning -- converge in Hooterville for Thanksgiving dinner. It is not the first such crossover, and it will certainly not be the last, as indicated by such subsequent Beverly Hillbillies episodes as "Christmas in Hooterville" and "Sam Drucker's Visit." But the most enjoyable of the season's numerous story arcs concerns the misadventures of Jed, Granny (Irene Ryan), Elly May (Donna Douglas), and Jethro (Max Baer Jr.) as they open up "Jed Clampett Enterprises" in the same building housing Mr. Drysdale's (Raymond Bailey) bank. Season seven winds up as The Beverly Hillbillies luxuriates in its best ratings in years, as America's 10th most popular program. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The opening story arc of The Beverly Hillbillies' ninth and final season finds the Clampett family briefly leaving Beverly Hills for a location-filmed jaunt to Washington D.C, there to help the president fight the scourge of air pollution. Upon arriving in the nation's capital, hillbilly millionaire Jed Clampett (Buddy Ebsen) once again falls into the clutches of glib con artist Shifty Shafer (Phil Silvers), who proceeds to "sell" the Clampetts all of the famous Washington landmarks! After returning to the California, the family is enmeshed in the series' longest and most labyrinthine story arc to date, in which Elly May Clampett (Donna Douglas) becomes engaged to Naval officer Mark Templeton (Roger Torrey). Much of the humor of this situation arises from the fact that Mark is a "frogman," leading Granny (Irene Ryan) to conclude that her favorite granddaughter is about to become hitched to a six-foot amphibian. Later plotlines involve the Clampett's brief foray into grunion fishing (they are convinced that grunions are actually invading space aliens!), Elly May and Granny's involvement in the Women's Lib movement at the behest of born-again feminist Jane Hathaway (Nancy Kulp), and a two-parter in which the Clampett mansion is transformed into a geisha house. Arguably the most intriguing of the season's episodes is "Elly, the Secretary," featuring Louellen Aden, a nonprofessional who landed this guest-star spot as the result of a nationwide contest. Although the ratings for The Beverly Hillbillies had been declining during the past two seasons, the series' cancellation at the end of season nine was due not to diminishing viewership, but because CBS was endeavoring to "de-ruralize" its audience demographic in hopes of appealing to the more affluent urban viewers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A reworking of the first-season Twilight Zone episode "Mr. Bevis," "Cavender Is Coming" was, like its predecessor, the pilot for a proposed comedy-fantasy TV series. Carol Burnett stars as klutzy Agnes Grep, whose combination of overeagerness and ineptitude costs her job after job. Enter Agnes' guardian angel Cavender (Jesse White), who, as big a screw-up as the heroine, has been assigned to Agnes to see if he is worthy of earning his wings. Transforming Agnes into a poised, sought-after fashion plate, Cavender discovers that she was happier when she was a "loser" -- meaning that Cavender will be stuck on Earth a long, long time, in search of someone whose life he can really turn around. Written with a heavy hand by Rod Serling, "Cavender Is Coming" benefits from the play between its two stars and from a rich and varied supporting cast including John Fiedler and Donna Douglas; in the final analysis, however, it is defeated by CBS' decision to add a raucous laughtrack, which is at its loudest when absolutely nothing funny is happening. "Cavender Is Coming" was originally telecast May 25, 1962. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide