MovieChat Forums > The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) Discussion > When Miss Hathaway first meets the Clamp...

When Miss Hathaway first meets the Clampetts

posted 10 years ago by IFeedPigeons
7 replies | jump to latest

When Miss Hathaway first meets the Clampetts, why on Earth does she think they're the domestic help? Where in Beverly Hills does one find a servant dressed like that? In 3 minutes she's got Elly May into one of the classic French maid outfits. Wouldn't she be expecting a BH servant to already be dressed that way or similar?

While it's true that neither she nor Mr. Drysdale knew how poor and backwoods the Clampetts themselves were, that still doesn't explain why she would think any group of Beverly Hills servants would look the way that the Clampetts do. Thoughts?

Officer Krupke, what are we to dooooo?!?
Gee, Officer Krupke -- KRUP YOU!!!

[–] toking65000 10 years ago

unless maybe she thought they were just oof the streets or something, back then servants were pretty poor and treated pretty bad I think.

Create a society in which you would like to live, not knowing what you're going to come into it as.

[–] IFeedPigeons 10 years ago

But they wouldn't just be off the streets. That doesn't really make sense: a group of inappropriately dressed servants, or, in that scenario, wannabe servants just wander in at the time that Mr. Drysdale arranged for servants to be there? I don't think he'd expect them to dress and behave as the Clampetts did. I'm sure Jane made the call for him, so she wouldn't have expected anything like that either.

I guess it was just done for the sake of the plot - hijinks ensue when Miss Hathaway comes upon the Clampetts and mistakes them, for some crazy reason, for servants who need a ton of polishing. Outlandish for Beverly Hills, though.

As for how servants were treated, I'm sure that in this case (and probably almost every case) depends on their employers.

Officer Krupke, what are we to dooooo?!?
Gee, Officer Krupke -- KRUP YOU!!!

[–] bradford-1 9 years ago

Miscommunication was a regular part of the show: after all, Dash Riprock thought Miss Jane was Elly Mae when he first met her!

May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?

[–] willjohn 8 years ago

Like most comedies of that time very little of the show did make sense.

[–] gary-64659 8 years ago

It's called being comedic -- more talent involved here, far wittier and more fun than any modern sitcom.

[–] FlushingCaps 8 years ago

"I guess it was just done for the sake of the plot" That was what someone else posted amidst their discussion on your topic.

Without having read about this or talked to the producers, I think it safe to say that I am 100% certain the mixup Miss Hathaway made was done solely for the reason stated.

A great many of the Beverly Hillbillies plots would have been ruined if Drysdale had simply stayed around to show them whatever new activity he devised for them. But he was always having something delivered--like the boat--and letting them figure out how to do it.

In one of the best episodes, Drysdale arranged to play golf with Jed and Jethro, but then was called away, leaving our heroes to wind up being caddies for two of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Again in that show, the Dodgers, or any real life golfer at a country club, would never have logically thought the two oddly-dressed men they encountered were caddies, but without stretching logic, we would never have had this episode.

For my money, the way things happened were close enough to logical/believable that it didn't ruin the episode. But you are right that Miss Jane would realistically have never figured the Clampetts were domestic help.

[–] HarlowMGM 8 years ago

The Clampetts were just moving into the house so it's natural she would presume the "staff" would be there first and newly hired. The reason she wants them to change immediately is because they were dressed inappropriately to be servants. You would presume people would dress appropriately immediately for showing up on a job the first time but anyone who has ever been a manager knows that is not always the case. I'd suspect more than a few newly hired servants have been told their clothes are not appropriate for the job they have showed up to do, then and even now.