The Clampett family in The Beverly Hillbillies got rich because poor mountaineer Jed Clampett accidentally struck a massive oil deposit while hunting in the swamp behind his shack in the Ozarks, making him an instant millionaire and leading him to move his family to Beverly Hills, California. An oil company bought the land, providing the family with enormous wealth (starting around $25 million) and a mansion, creating the show's central "fish-out-of-water" comedy as they navigated high society with their simple country ways.
The opening sequence shows Jed discovering oil while shooting at a rabbit, although the first episode shows the oil being discovered by a surveyor for the OK Oil Company. The company pays Jed many millions of dollars for the right to drill on his land.
Keep in mind that the money the Beverly Hillbillies had in 1962 would be $85,724,000.00 today. So today's precocious youth really needs ten million to aspire to what used to be "a millionaire". And their mansion? It just sold in 2019 for $150M.
Canonically Jedd Clampett lost all his money when it was embezzled by Mr. Drysdale .
Just how much money did Jed Clampett get for his oil well in 1960? He got according to the show's first episode 25 million dollars which in 2024 dollars would be 200 million.
Several iconic TV stars earned $1 million or more per episode, most famously the casts of Friends (Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer) and The Big Bang Theory (Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco), who negotiated equal $1 million salaries for later seasons. Other actors like Reese Witherspoon & Nicole Kidman (for Big Little Lies Season 2) and Sarah Jessica Parker & co-stars (for And Just Like That...) also reached or exceeded this figure, alongside Jerry Seinfeld, Peter Dinklage, and Norman Reedus.
After being on the market for 2 years, it finally sold for $150M to Lachlan Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch. From iamnotastalker.com (2012): Construction on the Kirkeby Mansion, which began in 1933 and took five years to carry out, cost a whopping $2 million – and we're talking 1930s money!
Mr. Drysdale is jailed for transporting Granny's white lightning and Elly's drunken bear in Jethro's truck.
An audition for the sitcom “Petticoat Junction” led to Sharon being noticed by “The Beverly Hillbillies” producer Martin Ransohoff, head of the Filmways production studio. He told Tate to wear a black wig and take a bit role in “The Beverly Hillbillies”, to help keep her appeal more mysterious.
Net worth: USD 60 Million
Another original cast member of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Adrienne Maloof hails from a family of business moguls. Her USD 60 million fortune comes from her share in the Maloof Companies, which have interests in everything from sports teams to casinos.
In a live interview, Max Baer Jr., who played Jethro on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), stated that Irene "smoked like a chimney", which made other cast members fear for her health. Had no surviving relatives; with an estate worth over $1 million, she decided to start the Irene Ryan Foundation for theatre aspirants.
Kulp and Ebsen had a somewhat frosty relationship on set in part because of their sharp political differences. Later, Kulp said of Ebsen, "He's not the kindly old Jed Clampett that you saw on the show ... It's none of his business and he should have stayed out of it."
The 2015 death of co-star Donna Douglas left Baer as the last surviving regular cast member of The Beverly Hillbillies.
Donna Douglas (born Doris Ione Smith; September 26, 1932 – January 1, 2015) was an American actress and singer, known for her role as Elly May Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971).
Sharon, too, has her tryst with health issues, as she revealed in 2002 that she was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer at just 49 years old. Known for her unfiltered persona, Sharon's journey through cancer became a very public and emotional battle.
Baer finally had to put himself to work as an actor in his movie Macon County Line (1974), which he also wrote and produced with a friend. Although it didn't let him escape his Jethro character, he did earn more than $35 million dollars in box office and (later) rental receipts.
RETRO RECALL: I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT I EITHER NEVER KNEW OR FORGOT THAT IN THE END MR. MILBURN DRYSDALE ROBBED JED OF HIS FORTUNE AND JED MOVED BACK HOME TO BUGTUSSLE PENNILESS 🙂🤓Recall that Jed Clampett and Granny deposited their oil money in the Commerce Bank, Milburn Drysdale 's bank.
The CBS network, prompted by pressure from advertisers seeking a more sophisticated urban audience, decided to refocus its schedule on new urban-themed shows and, to make room for them, the two remaining series of CBS's rural-themed comedies were cancelled. This action came to be known as "the Rural Purge".
Drysdale in The Beverly Hillbillies(1962-71)? For that tv series, he wore a toupee, but in the many movies he was in prior to that, he was usually seen without his toupee. An example of this is The Incredible Shrinking Man(1957).
The buyer of the Bel-Air mega mansion dubbed 'The One' has been revealed to be none other than Fashion Nova CEO Richard Saghian days after the estate sold well below its asking price at auction.
In 2019 the mansion was sold to Lachlan Murdoch for about $150 million, which was the highest sale price for any house in California history.
The world of Highclere still has its own community of Chefs, Gardeners and Housekeepers as well as all the other people who make the "Real Downton Abbey" such a welcoming place today.