Max Baer, Jr. Movies

Clips from the popular 1960s comedy series are interspersed with interviews in this video tribute. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

This time, the spotlight is on a friend of Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury--namely, Bill Boyle (Ken Howard), a former football star turned detective. When Bill agrees to temporarily take care of a pal's valuable poodle, he ends up permanently saddled with the pooch when the owner is murdered, clutching three empty IV bags in his cold, dead fingers. It soon becomes clear that the murderers have now targeted both Bill and the poodle, plunging man and dog alike into a hotbed of international intrigue. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Max Baer Jr. borrows liberally from George Lucas's American Graffiti for this slice-of-life look at teenage life circa 1957. The story concerns a group of adolescents whose main concerns are cars, cruising, and sex. The story centers upon Rodney C. Duckworth (Gary Springer), a shy, virginal teen, and the efforts of his friends Recil Calhoun (David Wilson) and T.J. Swackhammer (Brian Kerwin) to try to fix Rodney up with a date. Unfortunately, their libidos manage to get the better of them, and Recil and T.J. end up going out with the girls themselves. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Originally released as The Wild McCulloughs, this AIP melodrama stars Forrest Tucker as J.J. McCulloch, a domineering patriarch. In their race to escape their father's overbearing influence, J.J.'s grown sons come to grief; one son dies in Korea, while another is arrested for murder. Only Gary (Chip Hand), the youngest son, manages to survive the situation. J.J. also has a daughter, played by Janice Heiden, whose romantic misadventures add more fuel to the dysfunctional flames. Costarring in The McCulloughs is Julie Adams as Tucker's long suffering wife, and former "Beverly Hillbilly" Max Baer (who also produced, directed and wrote the film) as one of Heiden's beaus. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Some prisoners pin their hopes for freedom on a homemade aircraft in this made-for-television thriller. Based on a true World War Two story, Doug McClure stars as Harry Cook, an Allied soldier who tries to escape a Nazi prison camp with a scientist in tow, using a glider built by their fellow inmates. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi

Still riding high in the ratings after seven years on the air, The Beverly Hillbillies launches its eighth season on CBS. The festivities commence with the series' highly publicized return to its "roots": that is, the cast briefly leaves its Beverly Hills environs for an extended visit to mountain country, filmed on location at Silver Dollar City in the Missouri Ozarks. It is during this story arc that Elly May Clampett (Donna Douglas) falls in love with local boy Matthew Templeton, played by Roger Torrey. Although the romance would end before a march down the altar, actor Roger Torrey would return the following year as another of Elly's ardent suitors -- this one named Mark Templeton! The Clampetts' sojourn to Silver Dollar City also served to introduce a new recurring character: Shorty Kellems, played by Shug Fisher. Inevitably, Shorty would follow the Clampetts back to Beverly Hills, where he teams up with Jethro Bodine (Max Baer Jr.) to live the life of a "gen-u-ine" Hollywood playboy. Ultimately, this storyline segues into another continuity strand in which the Clampetts play matchmaker for Shorty and his homegrown sweetie Elverna Bradshaw (Elvia Allman) -- who just so happens to be the lifelong enemy of Granny (Irene Ryan). Elsewhere, Phil Silvers makes several guest appearances as con artist Shifty Shafer, who in an entertaining story arc lensed in New York City, manages to "sell" Central Park to the gullible Jed Clampett (Buddy Ebsen). And in another memorable multi-episode guest star turn, Soupy Sales shows up as aviator Lance Bradford, the insufferable nephew-in-law of Jed's banker Milburn Drysdale (Raymond Bailey). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Those acerbic TV critics who'd predicted back in 1962 that the phenomenally successful The Beverly Hillbillies would wear out its welcome after three seasons must have been writhing in agony as the series entered its sixth year on the air in the fall of 1967. Although it had dropped from its ratings peak of number one in 1964 to 12th place in the intervening three years, the series still retained its loyal corps of fans, and had even picked up millions of new devotees in recent months. In a move to freshen up the basic format (nouveau riche hillbillies "invading" Beverly Hills), season six opened with a fascinating story arc, largely shot on location, in which millionaire mountaineer Jed Clampett (Buddy Ebsen) inherits a British castle on the outskirts of London. (Believe it or not, The Beverly Hillbillies was, at the time, one of the United Kingdom's most popular American imports.) This situation permits a whole new slew of comic complications, beginning with Granny's (Irene Ryan) tussle with the customs officials, and impressionable Jethro's (Max Baer Jr.) efforts to emulate the gallant knights of old, with his feisty cousin Elly May (Donna Douglas) reluctantly recruited to be a "damsel in distress." Upon the Clampett's return to Beverly Hills, Jethro persists in playing out his British-bred fantasies by becoming the Robin Hood of Griffith Park, leading to another story arc involving a band of hippies (or at least, the producers' notion of what hippies looked like). In other continuing storylines, Granny (Irene Ryan) thinks that the Civil War has been reignited when she sees a movie company filming a historical epic near the Clampett mansion; Jethro joins the military reserve, wreaking his usual well-meaning havoc, and later opens up a "topless" restaurant (no, it's not what you think); and the Clampetts become embroiled in the peculiar world of women's wrestling! The season ends with "Cousin Roy," featuring country & western singer Roy Clark in what was reportedly designed as the pilot for a Beverly Hillbillies spinoff series. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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, Rovi

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, Rovi

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, Rovi

Beau (Roger Moore) finds himself in the middle of some deadly intrigue (not to mention a bitter family feud) when he wins half-ownership of the Golden Wheel Casino. Shortly after this windfall, Bart's new partner Rand Storm is shot and killed in self-defense by dance-hall gal Flo Baker (Kathleen Crowley). When Flo disappears, Rand's brother Luke (played by Bing Russell, the father of film star Kurt Russell) takes advantage of the situation by framing Bart for murder and claiming the Golden Wheel as his own. This episode was cowritten by actor Leo Gordon, whose wife Lynn Cartwright (best known as the "older" Geena Davis in the 1992 theatrical feature A League of Their Own) appears in a supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi