60 years ago today, September 26, 1962. The Beverly Hillbillies premiered. It originally broadcast for nine seasons on CBS from September 26, 1962 to March 23, 1971, starring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer, Jr.
The series is about a poor backwoods family transplanted to Beverly Hills, California, after striking oil on their land. A Filmways production created by writer Paul Henning, it is the first in a genre of "fish out of water" television shows, and was followed by other Henning-inspired country-cousin series on CBS. In 1963, Henning introduced Petticoat Junction, and in 1965 he reversed the rags-to-riches model for Green Acres. Panned by many entertainment critics in its time, it quickly became a huge ratings success for most of its nine-year run on CBS.
The Beverly Hillbillies ranked among the top twenty most watched programs on television for eight of its nine seasons, twice ranking as the number one series of the year, with a number of episodes that remain among the most watched television episodes of all time. It accumulated seven Emmy nominations during its run. The series remains in syndication on MeTV, and its ongoing popularity spawned a 1993 film remake by 20th Century Fox.
In 1997, the episode "Hedda Hopper's Hollywood" was ranked #62 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. The Beverly Hillbillies was one of the very few network situation comedies to feature multi-episode story arcs and was among the earliest farce comedy series on American television.
It finished its first season at #1, averaging 36 million viewers a week! It finished season two at #1, averaging 39 million viewers a week!