The Beverly Hillbillies

Paul Henning originally considered making Granny the mother of Jed Clampett, but discarded the idea because it would have changed the show's dynamics, making her his mother-in-law instead.

Buddy Ebsen, who played the widower Jed Clampett, was actually only five years younger than Irene Ryan, who played his mother-in-law Granny.

Max Baer Jr., who played the dimwitted Jethro Bodine, actually held a real-life bachelor's degree in business administration with a minor in philosophy from Santa Clara University, and was the son of former world heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer.

Sharon Tate appeared in 15 episodes as recurring bank secretary Janet Trego before achieving fame in film.

The theme song 'The Ballad of Jed Clampett' was performed by the Foggy Mountain Boys (Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs) with vocals by Jerry Scoggins; Flatt and Scruggs later released their own version which reached number one on the Billboard Hot Country chart, their only country chart-topper.

Because sponsor tie-ins were common in the early 1960s, the show sometimes used extra verses of the theme song to promote Winston cigarettes and Kellogg's cereals.

In 1989, 'Weird Al' Yankovic parodied the show in the film UHF with a music video mashing up 'The Ballad of Jed Clampett' with Dire Straits' 'Money for Nothing'.

Despite scathing reviews from critics like The New York Times ('strained and unfunny') and Variety ('painful to sit through'), the show became the number-one program in the US for its first two seasons, with the episode 'The Giant Jackrabbit' becoming the most-watched half-hour sitcom episode ever.

The show was canceled in 1971 as part of the CBS 'rural purge,' prompting Green Acres actor Pat Buttram to quip that it was 'the year CBS canceled everything with a tree—including Lassie.'

Fifty-five early episodes (all of Season 1 and part of Season 2) fell into the public domain after Orion Television, successor to Filmways, failed to renew their copyrights, leading to low-budget home video releases often missing the original theme music.

In 1974, CBS reportedly paid a settlement to employee Hamilton Morgen after he sued the network claiming it had appropriated his ideas and script for a show called Country Cousins to create The Beverly Hillbillies.

For the 1981 reunion film, Max Baer Jr. declined to reprise the role of Jethro, so the character was recast with actor Ray Young instead; production was also complicated because the original Clampett mansion location (Chartwell Mansion) had become too expensive to film at.