1967 - The Beverly Hillbillies visit London

"Hey, Granny!" yelled the tourists in front of London's Houses of Parliament. "What are you doing here?"

"Same as you're doing," shouted Granny, leaning from the window of her limousine. But it wasn't quite the same thing. There was a camera car up ahead with Granny in focus and she was gawking at the sights of London strictly on cue from cameraman Harry Wolf. What the tourists should have asked was why Irene Ryan and the rest of the Beverly Hillbillies were in London in the first place.

For those who haven't guessed, the answer is that a show starting its sixth season usually needs a miracle to recapture whatever it was that made it a hit in the first place. When this crisis arises, there is a formula so widely followed it must be written down somewhere in a handbook for producers: You mix in a change of scenery, preferably international, in the hope The Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Arc de Triomphe will help postpone the inevitable.

Some months ago a moment arrived in the Filmways spread in Hollywood when the question of "a shot in the arm" (I quote) for the series began. to germinate in the mind of producer Paul Henning. "I thought to myself," said Henning, "what if Jed Clampett inherits a castle? We needed some- thing new to start the sixth season and here it was. From that sprang a whole series of situations that sounded funny for the Hillbillies."

And so it came to pass that Scotland Yard got the word that a large young man was acting most oddly in front of Buckingham Palace. He was pouring a bucket of water on the pavement before the great iron gates, putting his jacket over the puddle, shouting some- thing about Sir Walter Raleigh and declaring his intention to wait for the Queen to emerge.

A pretty girl, all pink and blonde like a strawberry confection, was with him. And so was I, among the small group of cameramen, technicians and stand-ins watching Jethro (Max Baer) and Elly May (Donna Douglas) rehearsing in the clear light of early morning. A little later three police squad cars pulled up.

Production manager George King, a cinch for the diplomatic corps if he ever quits films, explained to the police what was going on and displayed his permission to film. But this being England, it turned out that the strip of pavement directly in front of the gates was controlled by the Palace itself, not the civic authorities, and Jethro would have to do his Sir Walter Raleigh act to the right or to the left of the entrance.

Director Joe Depew gravely agreed -and why not? He had already filmed all of the scene he needed in front of the gates.

One of the stipulations London authorities made for shooting outside the Palace was that it take place as early as possible to keep down the crowds, like those that had quickly gathered by the hundreds when the Hillbillies had earlier filmed at a drugstore near London Airport. The sight of Granny and Jed (Buddy Ebsen) in costume. being driven up to the store by Jethro and Elly May attracted so many people that King and his crew were worried police would intervene.

"Did you see them mob and holler at us?" beamed Miss Ryan, "The re- markable thing about this show is that even though it hasn't been on the air here for two years, they know us and remember our lines. They were shouting: 'Hey Granny, where's your jug?' and 'Did you bring your shotgun with you?' and 'Where's the old car?'

"The elevator operators at the hotel [the de-luxe Dorchester] even talk hillbilly to us. One of them said to me: 'Are you-all goin' down to the fo'th flo', ma'am?' I had to break up."

King spent a long time looking for a suitable castle for Jed to inherit and picked 600-year-old Penshurst Place, one of the most historic state- ly homes in the kingdom (King Henry VIII dined there and later beheaded his host). When word that the Beverly Hillbillies themselves would be at Penshurst reached the near-by town. of Tonbridge, scores of schoolchildren in their school uniforms were brought over by teachers for a well-disciplined look at the famous TV figures.

According to the story line Jed decides to return to the United States after paying off $10,000,000 in death duties on the castle and guaranteeing the staff their jobs, which, as Henning said, leaves the way open for another sequence in England if this one should work.