Buddy Ebsen seems like a nice enough guy, the sort of person you'd be able to share a laugh with. However, Ebsen's craft was no laughing matter to him. This is pretty ironic, considering as an actor, Ebsen delivered some rib-splitting laughs to viewers during his time on The Beverly Hillbillies.

But as a professional actor of both the stage and screen, Ebsen took his job very seriously, and wouldn't tolerate any trivialization of his series, comedy or not.

In an interview with The Register, Ebsen added that he was especially wary of those who dismissed The Beverly Hillbillies as "corny."

"Our show, for one thing, is pure comic strip," he said. "It isn't 'corny,' whatever that means."

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This critique didn't manifest out of thin air; several critics had called the Hillbillies corny. However, Ebsen wasn't about to take the comment lying down. The article stated that he, along with his staff, had sent out no less than eighteen letters to as many critics who had used the word to describe the series.

It's still unclear what exactly about the word "corny" bothered Ebsen more than other criticisms of the series. Ebsen seemed to believe that the real issue was a fundamental misinterpretation on the part of critics reviewing his series. While Ebsen wasn't entirely sure what The Beverly Hillbillies was, he was certainly confident about what it wasn't.

"And no matter what people think the word 'corny' means, it doesn't mean what our show is - Hillbillies isn't even 'homespun.' Nor is it a slapstick comedy, comic strip is the closest I can come."

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