Sitcom: The Beverly Hillbillies
Episode: Home for Christmas
Year: 1962
Story line: The Clampetts fly home for Christmas
Details: Through the magic of metadata, my Tivo actually recorded a 1965 episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, “The Clampetts Versus Automation,” in which a bank clerk is replaced by a computer and the Clampetts come to his rescue. I’m putting this up anyway because I found it fascinating that even in 1965, the dehumanizing effect of computers already was weighing on people’s minds. Even the Hillbillies.
Killer quote: “He’s grinnin’ like a baked possum.” Jethro, commenting on Mr. Lester after he got into Granny’s rheumatism medicine and passed out.
Ebenezer alert: Mr. Drysdale, or course, who dumps the hapless Lester like yesterday’s garbage when he finds a cheaper way to get the job done but eventually comes sniveling back when the computer inevitably fails.
Childhood memory: I was a Hillbillies junky as a kid, watching them mostly in reruns. My father often referred to me as Jethro, and I still identify strongly with Jethro’s mathematical prowess: “One times naught is naught … two times naught is naught … three times naught is naught …”