Beverly Hillbillies

[Foxiekins]

Any idea of how Jed and Jethro would stat out, Strength-wise, in the Hero System?

[Duke Bushido]

Jed would be 8-10.  Jethro varies a _lot_ depending on if you're talking about TV black-and-white; TV color, or movie.

 

The early black-and-white, fifteen to twenty, easy.  Color: twelve.  _maybe_ 15.  Movie?  Couldn't tell you.  While I believe that Dietrich Bader did a wonderful job of portraying "generic ignorant hick," I don't think the movie itself really got any of the characters right, and felt more like it was deconstructing and insulting the entire premise more than making an homage to it.  Further, it's hard to see Bader believably being "Jethro strong" just based on the physical differences between Bader and Max Baer.  Max was, in his youth, a damned big man.

[Foxiekins]

Would a 20 STR let Jed and Jethro pick up a small car, one at each end, and carry it over to hide it behind some bushes...?  They did that to Sonny Drysdale's car in the first Season...

[Tjack]

   Jed’s probably about a 20-23 due to his age.  Elly Mae was about the same plus the Martial Art “Rassling” (use Judo) Jethro ran about 25-28,  I remember scenes of him lifting the back end of the truck off the ground with only minor straining.  
  BTW the whole family has a number of levels with handguns & rifles.  Their shooting contests off the back of the “cement pond” set into the wooded area beyond were a plank set with half driven nails a half mile away.  Jed drove the nails in with a revolver!  Jethro once took out 2 phone wires coming from the top of the Drysdale’s mansion while standing on the street with what looked like a .22 rifle.

[Lord Liaden]

And he did it with one bullet per wire. The Clampetts were phenomenal shots.

 

Jethro beat up a couple of muggers in New York once, and left a steel pipe one was using for a club bent more than 90 degrees. Jed came along later, apologized to the muggers, then straightened the pipe for them.

[Foxiekins]

19 hours ago, Tjack said:

   Jed’s probably about a 20-23 due to his age.  Elly Mae was about the same plus the Martial Art “Rassling” (use Judo) Jethro ran about 25-28,  I remember scenes of him lifting the back end of the truck off the ground with only minor straining.  
  BTW the whole family has a number of levels with handguns & rifles.  Their shooting contests off the back of the “cement pond” set into the wooded area beyond were a plank set with half driven nails a half mile away.  Jed drove the nails in with a revolver!  Jethro once took out 2 phone wires coming from the top of the Drysdale’s mansion while standing on the street with what looked like a .22 rifle.

Thanks for the estimate...  I was guessing Jed at 20 to 25, and Jethro at 25 to 30...  Remember the skeet shooting...  Elly Mae got a skeet with her slingshot...

[Tjack]

   Now that I’m thinking about it, that whole family tree was metahuman.  Granny (Daisy Moses) was Jed’s mother in law and was a lady wrestler for a while at an age to have remembered the Civil War so in the early 1960’s so she had to be around ninety. Jethro had a twin sister named Jethrine (also played by Max Baer jr.) who was just as strong as he was.  Their mother (Pearl Bodine) was Elly May’s aunt so she must have been Jed’s sister, and she had a sonic attack yodel that could take a man off his feet. Also don’t forget Elly’s animal empathy

   Now you have three family lines, Moses, Bodines and Clampetts all showing paranormal abilities but when the show went on location to BugTussle the nearest town to the Clampetts old cabin, the residents were odd and out of date, but not empowered.

  So what do you think happened?  A meteor like the one that fell in Wold-Newton England and caused the mutations that gave that extended family tree it’s abilities possibly irradiating the water table. Special flora like the Wakandan “heart shaped herb” being part of the recipe of Granny’s Spring Tonic, it was mandatory for all family members and did have strange effects on city folk.  Or could it be something even more astounding?

   
   It’s quarter to three in the morning here and I can’t sleep.  This is what you get.
            “Y’all come back now, ‘ya hear!”

[Lord Liaden]

I don't think it would be justified to say that Granny personally "remembered" the American Civil War. Like many folk from Tennessee, the events of the "War Between the States" -- from a Southern perspective -- were probably part of her cultural background. I'd probably peg her age at late sixties when the show started, given the average life span during that era; and the fact the show ran for eight seasons.

 

The Clampett clan's exceptional vigor was implicitly due to their rugged mountain backwoods heritage and upbringing, compared to "city folk." Rather like how Robert E. Howard distinguished between "barbarian" and "civilized" men.

[Brian Stanfield]

5 hours ago, Tjack said:

So what do you think happened?  A meteor like the one that fell in Wold-Newton England and caused the mutations that gave that extended family tree it’s abilities possibly irradiating the water table. Special flora like the Wakandan “heart shaped herb” being part of the recipe of Granny’s Spring Tonic, it was mandatory for all family members and did have strange effects on city folk.  Or could it be something even more astounding?

It turns out that it wasn’t just “bubbling crude” gurgling beneath the surface of the Clampett land . . . .

 

This is one of the weirdest threads I’ve ever seen, by the way.

[Lord Liaden]

Then you aren't spending enough time on the Internet.

[Tjack]

   I refer you to grown men discussing the sexual tastes of the characters in My Little Pony.  Not simply porn, but discussions about who might like what...and how.

   Using this as a benchmark, everybody here is boring.   Thank God.

[Brian Stanfield]

4 hours ago, Tjack said:

   I refer you to grown men discussing the sexual tastes of the characters in My Little Pony.  Not simply porn, but discussions about who might like what...and how.

   Using this as a benchmark, everybody here is boring.   Thank God.

Uh . . . I guess I should have said “one of the weirdest threads I’ve ever seen on the HERO forums.”

 

And y’all have made sure of that now!

[Matt the Bruins]

I'd say Jed was about as strong as Jethro, though likely at his age he had less endurance. Granny was clearly the strongest of the bunch by a good margin, as evidenced by her giving as good as she got in her running fight with a silverback gorilla.

[massey]

21 hours ago, Matt the Bruins said:

I'd say Jed was about as strong as Jethro, though likely at his age he had less endurance. Granny was clearly the strongest of the bunch by a good margin, as evidenced by her giving as good as she got in her running fight with a silverback gorilla.

 

I love this show so much.

 

I don't know about anybody else, but I think 1960s television is perhaps the most enjoyable thing you could possibly watch.  Amazing for something that's nearly 60 years old.

[Tjack]

  I forgot about the gorilla fighting.  Although about half of those were her beating up a guy in a gorilla suit hired by Mr. Drysdale. The rest were her against a real one they liberated from the zoo.
  Even if I accept Lord Liaden’s lower estimation of Granny’s age I still stand by my opinion of the Clampett’s entire family tree being paranormal rather than just robust.

[CaptainCoulson]

Maybe they were distant, poor-until-recently, long lost relatives of the Addams family?

 

[CaptainCoulson]

Actually, based on the size and strength of them, maybe more of a branch of the extended family of Herman Munster. In fact, the Clampett family do seem like they'd go along with the Munster running gag of considering Herman to be extremely handsome and Marylin to be so unattractive that she'd scare off anyone who she tried to date.

[Tjack]

On 6/29/2020 at 3:40 PM, PsiJudge McCabe said:

Actually, based on the size and strength of them, maybe more of a branch of the extended family of Herman Munster. In fact, the Clampett family do seem like they'd go along with the Munster running gag of considering Herman to be extremely handsome and Marylin to be so unattractive that she'd scare off anyone who she tried to date.

   I’ve given your idea some thought, (damn, I’m bored) but I’d have to disagree.  The Munster family were all originally from Northern Europe,  Sam Dracula (Grandpa’s real name) and Lily were from Transylvania and all Herman’s parts were originally German.

   The Clampett clan however was originally Scottish. Do you remember the season of the show when the family went to Scotland so that Jed could inherit his family castle and estate?
   I think the Addams clan may be a closer relation. They also had abilities that were more paranormal than magical.  Gomez’s branch of the family were South American but I don’t believe the Frump’s (Morticia’s maiden name) background’s were ever gone into.

     I say again....damn I’m bored.

 

 EDITED  SEPT 29 

Upon seeing the re-run again on Pluto TV the Clampett Castle was in Kent England. 

[Badger]

On 3/9/2020 at 8:38 AM, Brian Stanfield said:

It turns out that it wasn’t just “bubbling crude” gurgling beneath the surface of the Clampett land . . . .

 

This is one of the weirdest threads I’ve ever seen, by the way.

Granny had access to a Lazarus pit

[Badger]

On 3/9/2020 at 3:43 PM, Tjack said:

   I refer you to grown men discussing the sexual tastes of the characters in My Little Pony.  Not simply porn, but discussions about who might like what...and how.

   Using this as a benchmark, everybody here is boring.   Thank God.

Well at least they don't have foot fetishes. That would too weird.

 

For them maybe a hoof fetish

[Badger]

Herman and Jethro were both scouted by Leo Durocher

[Tjack]

53 minutes ago, Badger said:

Well at least they don't have foot fetishes. That would too weird.

 

For them maybe a hoof fetish

   If you don’t use protection that can lead to hoof and mouth disease.

[steriaca]

On 6/27/2020 at 7:29 PM, PsiJudge McCabe said:

Maybe they were distant, poor-until-recently, long lost relatives of the Addams family?

 

While wierd and deformed, most of the family other than the main cast are rather sickly.  Heck, even Gomez was incredibly sickly till he met Morticia. 

[steriaca]

9 hours ago, Tjack said:

   I’ve given your idea some thought, (damn, I’m bored) but I’d have to disagree.  The Munster family were all originally from Northern Europe,  Sam Dracula (Grandpa’s real name) and Lily were from Transylvania and all Herman’s parts were originally German.

   The Clampett clan however was originally Scottish. Do you remember the season of the show when the family went to Scotland  so that Jed could inherit his family castle and estate?
   I think the Addams clan may be a closer relation. They also had abilities that were more paranormal than magical.  Gomez’s branch of the family were South American but I don’t believe the Frump’s (Morticia’s maiden name) background’s were ever gone into.

     I say again....damn I’m bored.

The Frump side of the family hails from French and Gypsy blood...and guts... and spleen...

 

As for the spellcasting, that would be more from the Frump side. Grandma, and a suggestion that Morticia knows a few spells. In the cartoon, depending on the joke, even Wensday and Pugsly can cast magic.

 

And have you seen what the original panel strip portrayed It as? A head, torso, and two arms (and nothing else). A far cry from our disembodied arm or hand.

[Tjack]

 Yes I’m familiar with the original cartoons. And they were great.

  But for goofiness like this I like to keep SOME set of boundaries for myself so I’m trying to only count the 1960’s TV shows for all three and not any of the later movies or remakes of the series.  
   I can see French and Gypsy (Romani?) roots for the Frumps even if I can’t think off hand of any references in the show to support it.   The Addams side were at the Salem witch trials so I’ll guess an English background for them.  
   I do remember some society lady thinking they might be related to the John Quincy Adams but Morticia shot that idea down HARD.

  For my own amusement much like my suppositions about the source of the Clampetts abilities I figure that the Addams family left Salem one jump ahead of the witch finders and settled in Arkham MA.  All that Lovecraft stuff sounds right up their alley.

 

             I should have a Masters Degree in some nonsense course for all this work.