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When The Beverly Hillbillies became a movie, Buddy Ebsen welcomed the new Jed Clampett
The series was developed into a movie that premiered in 1993.
While there are mixed emotions on the matter of reboots, we can’t deny that in the last few decades, there’s been an influx of attempts to bring well-loved series of the past into the present. Some might argue that this is a cheap attempt at cashing in on nostalgia, others with a more optimistic viewpoint may feel that it’s time to introduce beloved characters to a younger generation.
At any rate, reboots are a part of television and cinema that feel practically inescapable at this point, and they seem to be coming much earlier than previously anticipated. It feels like a show has only been off the air for a few years before announcements are made that it’s being developed into some sort of new project.
While The Beverly Hillbillies met its demise in the 1970s, some fans still felt that it was too soon for the announcement in the 1990s that the series was being developed into a film. What might have led to the less-than-warm reception was the recasting of the entire Clampett clan. But one man who had no problem with the new Clampett family was Jed Clampett himself, Buddy Ebsen.
According to an interview with the Los Angeles Daily News, Buddy Ebsen was able to meet the new patriarch of the Clampett family, Jim Varney, who portrayed the character in the 1993 film. Ebsen said, “I welcomed him to a very exclusive club. There are only two members. There are 100 people who have played Hamlet, but Jim and I are the only men who have played Jed Clampett.”
Ebsen was actually able to feature in the film as one of his characters, it just wasn’t Jed Clampett. He appeared as Barnaby Jones, who was hired to find Granny after she went missing.
So while Ebsen wasn’t far away from the film at all, Varney had Jed Clampett The First’s complete blessing. In fact, Ebsen only took one issue with Varney’s portrayal. “My only criticism is that he doesn’t enunciate ‘We-l-l-l-l-l doggies’ that well.’”
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Ebsen's remark that there are only two Jed Clampetts reminded me that there are also only two actors who could play "Huggy Bear" on Starsky & Hutch: Antonio Fargas on the series and Snoop Dogg in the movie, and it was Chill Mitchell who brought the two together on a sitcom he produced.
