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The Beverly Hillbillies, "The South Rises Again," Flavor 6, Episode 13. Directed by Joseph Depew. Written by Paul Henning and Buddy Atkinson.

Release Engagement: November 29, 1967.

Some of you may thinkThe Beverly Hillbillies is a strange choice for my kickoff review, but it makes perfect sense to me. Watching this episode in afternoon syndication is i of my first memories of the Ceremonious War in popular culture. Critics more often than not think Season six is when The Beverly Hillbillies "jumped the shark" considering information technology began with a woeful multi-episode trip to England, but information technology does comprise this precious stone. I call it a gem because about of the jokes are still funny. What's more than, they're Civil State of war jokes—and Civil War jokes (at to the lowest degree good Civil War jokes) are not easy to find.

I typically won't spend much time here summarizing plots, but I'll make an exception this time because "The South Rises Once again" is a little tough to track downward. The climax of a three-episode arc, it focuses on Granny's (Irene Ryan, hilarious) mistaken belief that the Union Army is invading Los Angeles. A movie production crew is filming a Civil War battle down the street from the Clampett mansion and Granny thinks the Blue- and Grayness-clad actors are the real deal. Of item business organisation, Ulysses S. Grant himself (William Mims—who went on to briefly play William H. Seward in North & Due south) appears to exist leading the regular army, despite having been expressionless for almost a century.

Much of the humor comes from two sources, both relevant to this blog: Granny's condition as a thoroughly unreconstructed southerner and Grant'south alcoholism. Grant, of course, isn't actually in Beverly Hills, but is being played by a fictional actor who, for maximum joke efficiency, happens to be a full-diddled alcoholic with a raging hangover. This both legitimizes Granny's view of Grant equally a drunkard and also opens up the script for numerous boozer jokes.

Of class, Grant'south incompetence and alcoholism are key tenets of the Lost Cause and Granny is a veritable encyclopedia of pro-Amalgamated rhetoric. Yankees are "bushwhackin' foreigners" whose military prowess doesn't approach that of her "boys in greyness." Indeed, Granny is so thoroughly embedded in this mythology that she'south taken it to its logical conclusion and convinced herself that the Confederacy really won the Civil War. Early on, Granny describes Sherman's "retreat to the body of water" and later encourages a group of Confederate soldiers to rally because "we beat out 'em in one case, nosotros tin do it once more." Furthermore, Granny is clearly well-schooled in the Lost Cause interpretation of Matrimony occupation policy. The episode opens with her ordering Jethro (Max Baer, Jr.) and Elly May (the recently deceased Donna Douglas) to gather up all of the animals on the property and hibernate them from the Yankees—fifty-fifty a bear, which Granny believes are now extinct in Georgia thanks to Sherman.

And yet, although the episode makes heavy apply of Lost Cause tropes, it doesn't endorse that estimation. Ambulation in 1967, "The South Rises Again" came on the heels of the Ceremonious War centennial, which was marked, in part, by its tolerance for the Lost Cause. It would be piece of cake to but see the episode as a reflection of the Lost Cause'south cultural authorization in the 1960s—in many ways it is—and Granny every bit embodying the image of the fiercely loyal Confederate woman fostered by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in the late 19th and early 20th Century.

But here's the affair: The episode may well speak the language of the Lost Cause but information technology considers that linguistic communication ridiculous, even delusional. Granny's zealotry is e'er played for laughs and never meant to generate sympathy. Surely some of this is attributable to the writers looking mainly for laughs with footling regard for which historical narrative they were or weren't promoting—after all the "rural comedies," of which Hillbillies was the precursor, derived much of their sense of humor from mocking the rural lower class—but at that place'southward also a full general undercutting of bad history and regional boosterism. Indeed, in that location'due south but one character who seems at all knowledgeable nearly the Civil War and it's noteworthy that the writers made him an active Usa Army General (and not Granny's version of the USA: "Undefeated Southern Americans"). In the twentieth century, Hollywood loved the Lost Cause, simply I'g not convinced information technology was ever 100% comfortable with it. I can already think of a few additional examples of Hollywood using the Lost Crusade, merely maintaining a counter-narrative; sometimes subtly, sometimes non. I'll be testing this theory as nosotros motion frontwards.

Additional Dispatches (with apologies to the AVClub for ripping off their "Stray observations" concept):

  • Granny assesses Yankee martial skill subsequently seeing Elly'southward monkey wearing a Spousal relationship compatible: "With his brains, the Yankees will promote him to major by sundown." After the monkey grabs a pig, she attacks Yankee morality: "Meet, the minute they put on a blue uniform, they get to pilferin'."
  • Granny fifty-fifty uses Confederate superiority to explain Grant'south remarkable longevity: "The only mode I can explain it, is if he was smokin' Virginny tobaccy and drinkin' Tennessee whiskey."
  • In an attempt to ingratiate himself to Granny, the Clampett'due south banker Mr. Drysdale poses as a Confederate general and calls himself "General Milburn Beauregard Nathan Bedford Stonewall Drysdale." Again, the Lost Cause is something the writers understand but conspicuously don't take seriously.
  • There's also an interesting gender dynamic going on between Granny, Jed, and Drysdale. Granny is the UDC platonic: motivating her men to fight even when they refuse (as Jed does) or carrying on when they lose their nervus (as Drysdale does). Drysdale as well revels in his function as a patriarchal protector of the Clampett homestead, declaring: "My trunk shall provide a human shield to protect the blossom of southern womanhood."
  • The episode ends on a reconciliationist note. Once Granny captures Grant on the battleground, she attempts to nurse his light wounds by giving him moonshine. They bond over their honey of hard liquor, get drunkard, and stop the episode singing "Dixie." Grant also promises Granny he'll shoot Phil Sheridan for called-for the Shenandoah Valley.
  • Unsurprisingly, the episode makes no mention of slavery. Indeed, there isn't even a single African American on camera. I recall I might keep a tally of how many other items I review hither ignore slavery.
  • Yous can watch many of the best jokes from this three episode arc here: http://world wide web.youtube.com/watch?v=l_2eHbbGV2s
  • Thanks to my parents way upward in Canada for tracking down a copy of this episode.

Next Entry: Point of Laurels, "Airplane pilot"