My Thoughts - The Beverly Hillbillies: Getting Settled (1962)

Synopsis: After striking it rich and relocating to Beverly Hills, Jed Clampett (Buddy Ebsen) and his family get settled in their new mansion. However, their first meeting with bank secretary Jane Hathaway (Nancy Kulp) has them mistaken for the help.

My Thoughts - 

Did nobody tell Mr. Drysdale (Raymond Bailey) about the Clampetts? For a guy who wants to keep their millions in his bank, he does seem awfully clueless about them. This was clear in his somewhat abbreviated tour of their new mansion and him making no effort to explain concepts that would be foreign to a backwoods family, starting with a stove that doesn't use wood and the idea food can be frozen.

The same with Miss Hathaway. Why wouldn't Mr. Drysdale give her some advanced warning about how they dressed and acted? It's almost as though he was trying to upset his largest bank depositor.

Did anyone even bother to explain to the Clampetts they owned the whole house? The joke about a second house upstairs and concerns there were other people living there was funny, but if nobody clarified that for Jed and company, they might wind up sleeping downstairs. 

Jed's heart-felt conversation with Elly May (Donna Douglas) was a sincere and touching moment. I especially liked how he seemed uncomfortable and awkward talking about how she's grown, adding some believability to the moment. 

It did make me wonder how his wife died so young though. One of the repetitive jokes from this series is how tough hillbillies are when compared to other people. Granny (Irene Ryan) supposedly broke her ankle once, for example, and was only laid up for a couple days. Assuming his wife was the same, what could possibly kill her?

Did they get into trouble for chopping down those telephone poles? I imagine they knocked out the phone service for quite a few people by doing that and someone certainly would have come to investigate, right? 

The pink flamingo joke was funny, but it did leave me wondering who Hathaway thought was going to take care of the living bird or birds, especially since I think they normally eat things that are in water. At minimum, who uses living creatures as lawn decorations? 

Final Opinion: The episode has funny moments, but some of those moments feel a bit forced because it relies heavily on Mr. Drysdale being way too ignorant about the Clampetts than he should be and a lack of common-sense advanced warning to Miss Hathaway before sending her out to meet them for the first time.

My Grade: B-

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