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Article: `Beverly Hillbillies' at 30: The Joke's Still on Us
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- November 8, 1992
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1992 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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NEW YORK From the first twangs of its bluegrass title ballad, "The
Beverly Hillbillies" sent television critics into orbit like John
Glenn.
Thirty years ago, when the CBS sitcom about a poor mountain
family who "loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly (Hills, that
is)" went on the air, the reaction was unanamious.
"Too absurd to be even slightly amusing," sniffed one critic,
with the same disdain that snobby Mrs. Drysdale, the banker's wife,
displayed toward the nouveau-riche bumpkins who had landed in the
palatial estate next door.
Another critic glumly forecast that the "Hillbillies," "the
worst of the new season's entries," would be "the biggest hit of the
lot."
He was at least ...