<P> The Beverly Hillbillies ranked among the top 20 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 in history . It accumulated seven Emmy nominations during its run . The series remains in syndicated reruns, and its ongoing popularity spawned a 1993 film remake by 20th Century Fox . </P> <P> The series starts as Jed Clampett, an impoverished and widowed mountaineer, is living alongside an oil - rich swamp with his daughter and mother - in - law . A surveyor for the OK Oil Company realizes the size of the oil field, and the company pays him a fortune for the right to drill on his land . Patriarch Jed's cousin Pearl Bodine prods him to move to California after being told his modest property could yield $25 million, and pressures him into taking her son Jethro along . The family moves into a mansion in wealthy Beverly Hills, California, next door to Jed's banker, Milburn Drysdale . The Clampetts bring a moral, unsophisticated, and minimalistic lifestyle to the swanky, sometimes self - obsessed and superficial community . Double entendres and cultural misconceptions are the core of the sitcom's humor . Plots often involve the outlandish efforts Drysdale makes to keep the Clampetts' money in his bank . The family's periodic attempts to return to the mountains are often prompted by Granny's perceiving a slight from one of the "city folk". </P> <Ul> <Li> Buddy Ebsen as J.D. "Jed" Clampett, the widowed patriarch and head of the household . </Li> <Li> Irene Ryan as Daisy May ("Granny") Moses, Jed's mother - in - law and Elly May's maternal Grandmother . </Li> <Li> Donna Douglas as Elly May Clampett, Jed's beautiful tomboy daughter </Li> <Li> Max Baer Jr. as Jethro Bodine, the brawny, half - witted son of Jed's cousin Pearl . </Li> <Li> Raymond Bailey as Milburn Drysdale, Jed's greedy, unscrupulous banker </Li> <Li> Nancy Kulp as Miss Jane Hathaway, Drysdale's scholarly, "plain Jane" secretary </Li> <Li> Harriet E. MacGibbon as Margaret Drysdale, Mr. Drysdale's ostentatious wife </Li> <Li> Bea Benaderet as Jed's cousin Pearl (season 1) </Li> </Ul> <Li> Buddy Ebsen as J.D. "Jed" Clampett, the widowed patriarch and head of the household . </Li>

What is granny's name from beverly hillbillies