I have read that in the final season it was planned for Elly Mae to marry frogman Mark Templeton but apparently the plans changed and Templeton was written out. This would have been a fitting culmination to the show, perhaps if it were known that TBH would be cancelled the planned wedding would have gone ahead. I wonder if any one has any ideas about what torpedoed it.
shareI kind of wondered that myself. In the show, Mark goes away to resign his commission in the Navy and come back in a few days to the Clampett mansion, to resume a career in oceanography with Jed backing him. But in fact we never hear about Mark again, once he leaves. Then the show got canceled anyway, so that was the end.
I suppose a good guess would be that the fans of the show didn't like Mark, and/or didn't want Elly May to get married. Frankly I didn't like Mark all that much, and would have liked Elly to remain a "spinster". But anyway, just my opinion, I really don't know. I know Roger Torrey died at a very young age, perhaps he was too ill to continue with the series?
I think the trouble was those frogman episode was just horrible, the nadir of the show, and "Mark Templeton" was a rather wooden actor with no chemistry with Donna Douglas. I think they should have brought back Dash Riprock and let Elly and him start a new Hollywood dynasty of semi-hillbillies!
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