The Big Picture: Silly Billy

Yuri Albuquerque

New member
Apr 22, 2011
19
0
0
brazuca said:
I remember a movie in Sessão da Tarde (a network where all crappy american family made movies went). It means afternoon hour. I think there was a movie about them or some sort. Also a Simpsons parody. You see the 60's were great for US and western Europe, for Latin America it meant the begin of a series of dictatorial regimes.
Yeah, I saw that movie in Sessão da Tarde, too. It was nice, but... never put too much thought on it.
 

porpoise hork

Fly Fatass!! Fly!!!
Dec 26, 2008
297
0
0
I grew up watching the Beverly Hillbillies reruns. For the time it was and still is a good series. Simple comedy that even today is funny.
 

Stryc9

Elite Member
Nov 12, 2008
1,294
0
41
This show is still on some cable channels. There has been an explosion of channels running these cheap to license older TV shows lately. Mostly I think so they can get some quick cash off of running life insurance, Hoveround and Phoenix University scam college commercials all day.

One such channel runs a couple of episodes of The Beverly Hillbillys Wednesday evenings so I'll occasionally watch it. One episode a couple of weeks ago managed to slip in a marijuana joke through Jethro's inability to say "marinara sauce" correctly and wanting show up the rest of the family with his ability to speak "Italian" after hiring a temp cook who was a hot Italian chick.

Uncle Jed: Jethro, why don't you pass over that there red gravy.

Jethro: That's not red gravy Uncle Jed. That there's what they call marijuana sauce.
 

esperandote

New member
Feb 25, 2009
3,605
0
0
The movie is a classic here in mexico anyone in their 20s knows it. The series is another story.
 
Apr 28, 2008
14,634
0
0
Fun fact about me that I doubt anyone will care about. When I was a baby my dad would sing me the Beverly Hillbillies song over and over again until I went to sleep.
 

gphjr14

New member
Aug 20, 2010
868
0
0
Grew up watching reruns of this and I can't think of a single episode that I didn't laugh.
 

DemBones

New member
Apr 20, 2012
19
0
0
Over analyzing pop culture is a great thing, but many people who do it tend to ask the wrong questions. Any piece of pop culture can have as many interpretations as the number of people who experience it and I don't mean that most of those interpretations are wrong, but many times people will simply bend their reasoning (and many times logic) to suit the answer they've already decided on, cherry picking examples that support their hypothesis and rejecting those that don't. It isn't so much analyzing as it is rationalizing.

That being said, I never watched the Beverly Hillbillies (way before my time) so I have no idea whether or not Bob is blowing smoke or right on the money. It's an interesting idea but it's hard to know if that's what the original creators had intended. Still, if it your increases your enjoyment of the material than that's all a creator can ask for.

The Beverly Hillbillies are probably limited to specialized channels now for old sitcoms. You're more likely to see it in the middle of the day if it was referenced on the Simpsons.

 

Clankenbeard

Clerical Error
Mar 29, 2009
544
0
0
I still quote from this series--mostly revolving around Jethro's 6th grade education (the highest in the family).

Jed: "Jethro give us some go-zin-tas!"
Jethro: "Two go-zin-ta two once. Two go-zin-ta 4 twice. Two goz-in-ta six three times."
Jed: "Weeeeellllll doggies!"

From Wikipedia, which I didnt' recall: The tallest student in his class in the town of Oxford (so named because "that's where the oxen used to ford the creek") because of his age, he is often impressing others that he graduated "top of his class at Oxford."

274 episdoes can't be wrong. The series did well enough to get it's own movie in 1993.
 

Paschendale

New member
Mar 20, 2011
9
0
0
Bob, I'm really glad you specified that the points you made weren't necessarily the intent of the show's creators. I think a key difference between over-analysis and and good analysis is the difference between "what was the author really trying to say" and "what can we learn from it." This was firmly the latter. It doesn't so much matter what was in their minds while they made the show. Rather, our reaction to it is what determines its place in culture and history. I never thought of BHB as anything more than silly fluff. Very interesting take on it.
 

Mark B

New member
Nov 5, 2007
84
0
0
Well from a UK perspective the only thing we saw was the 1993 movie of the same name, wasnt too good as I remember.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106400/
 

lacktheknack

Je suis joined jewels.
Jan 19, 2009
19,316
0
0
Electromagnet said:
The Grim Ace said:
the fact that the Clampetts basically all had super powers.
And now I'm very interested in this. Could we get a follow-up episode about this?
Meh, I'm not sure what he's on about. Jethro was enormously strong, yes, but Granny, Jed and Ellie May didn't have any "superpowers" to speak of.

OT: I LOVED THIS SHOW AS A KID! :D
 

bificommander

New member
Apr 19, 2010
434
0
0
I knew the name, and got the pun, but never saw the show.

In the Netherlands, we had our own version with the movies and TV show Flodder. The titular Flodder family weren't farmers, but, well, white trash would be the closest comparison, who got to live in a generic high-class neighbourhood when the city council found out their old home was on top of a toxic waste dump. There were some differences, mostly in that unlike the Beverly Hillbillies the Flodders, particularly the oldest son and 'protagonist' Jonny, were small-time criminals. And rather than any overly honest or practical mentality, it was often their crooked schemes that got the plot rolling. But what it does have in common is that while the show did portray them as crooks, they tended to more sympathetic than their upper-class neighbours. They tended to be a lot more relatable than the hypocritic and posh people who surrounded them, especially in the movies.

 

Redd the Sock

New member
Apr 14, 2010
1,088
0
0
If you wanted more comedy behind their simplistic ideals, you should have brought up Elly's lace trimmed double barreled slingshot (aka, her bra).

Again, this is something I've been saying for a while. Jed was loaded, but always more than willing to help and give his money away and pay his taxes. He avoided using servants. He kept a movie studio around even his banker bought it for the land to build condos. Hell he was once willing to donate millions directly to the government in the name of fighting smog. As long as Jed could hunt, farm, and whittle with good company, and maybe some of Ganny's "rhumitism medicine" he didn't need money. He was rich enough. Take that 1%ers. Here's the guy you like to think you are.

Okay, some plots were gimmicky, and a lot of the last season was painful, but I still have a soft spot for it.
 

Thespian

New member
Sep 11, 2010
1,407
0
0
INeedAName said:
TV-shows reflect the culture of the era they're living in?

You don't say!?!?
Yeah, I was kinda thinking this too. Still interesting though.
 

Redd the Sock

New member
Apr 14, 2010
1,088
0
0
lacktheknack said:
Electromagnet said:
The Grim Ace said:
the fact that the Clampetts basically all had super powers.
And now I'm very interested in this. Could we get a follow-up episode about this?
Meh, I'm not sure what he's on about. Jethro was enormously strong, yes, but Granny, Jed and Ellie May didn't have any "superpowers" to speak of.

OT: I LOVED THIS SHOW AS A KID! :D
Please. Jethro was the weakest of the 4. Elly continuiously beat him up. One episode had her date a weightlifer and she lifted his 200 pound barbells like plastic patio furniture. Granny once beat up the number one kartae champion in the world hired as a bodygurad for their banker. Jed never showed a temper on screen, but it was implied he had the same muscle.

Then of course they all could shoot flies with a shotgun at 300 yards. The joke was that gopher in the opening was the only shot Jed ever missed.
 

UNHchabo

New member
Dec 24, 2008
535
0
0
Proverbial Jon said:
Not being American myself and never having seen this show (although I have heard of it) I feel compelled to offer up a British example of a similar (and I use that term loosely) show from my country.

The Good Life.

Basically it's about a couple living in suburban London in the 1970s who give up their dull day jobs to become completely self sufficient. They generate their own power, grow their own food and keep animals all in their back garden. The simple and somewhat out-dated nature of their actions is watched with some level of bemusement from their neighbours, a married couple of great success and wealth. Comedy ensues.


Not quite the same, but I love any comedy that makes fun of a terribly archaic class system.
I can recommend this show to anyone. I'm a fan of British Comedy, but this is quite possibly the most accessible one outside of Britain that I've seen.