"Well, listen to a story 'bout a man named Jed,
Poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed,
Then one day he was shootin' at some food,
And up from the ground came a bubblin' crude…
Oil, that is… black gold…Texas tea…"

And with that miraculous discovery, a clan of rural folk known as The Beverly Hillbillies, found their way to a world of luxury in the wealthy community of Bel Air. The ensuing antics as they tried to assimilate into their new high-brow surroundings was the simple, yet endearing premise that made them a television favorite for generations to come.

At the show’s peak, 60 million people were tuning into The Beverly Hillbillies each week, to find out what mess Jed Clampett and his rural kin were going to find themselves in. While the critics were far from enamored with the show, the public proved that a show didn’t need to be a critical success to find popularity among all demographics. In 1981, the remaining family members (Granny had died years earlier) would reunite for The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies, a made-for-television special. And finally, in 1993, an all-new cast, including Jim ‘Ernest’ Varney as Jed, would make it to the big screen in the feature film, The Beverly Hillbillies.

Today, even a few bars of the banjo-laden “Ballad of Jed Clampett,” written by Earl Scruggs, are all it takes to bring back fond memories of all who ever laughed at the misadventures of these fun-loving hicks, who struck it rich and moved to the opulent West Coast – and brought just about the entire television viewing population along for the hilarious ride.