Critters were not a factor
Television, over the years, has given us a surprisingly-large number of supporting females who might have been more interesting than the nominal leads: Mary Ann rather than Ginger, Bailey Quarters over Jennifer Marlowe. I’m sure you can think of others.
On what might seem to be an unrelated subject, last week Fillyjonk described herself as having “a late-19th century sort of face,” a phrase which stuck in my mind but for which I had no practical application.
Until yesterday morning’s Parade, which contained, courtesy of Walter Scott, a question about whatever happened to Donna Douglas, whose best-known role was as Elly May Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies. I looked at that and scoffed: “Geez. Admittedly she wasn’t the bubble-head she played on TV, but where’s the love for the one smart character in the show?”
Which was, of course, Jane Hathaway, Mr. Drysdale’s sharp (and, when circumstances demanded, sharp-tongued) secretary Jane Hathaway, played by Nancy Kulp, who, it suddenly occurred to me that morning, had a late-19th century sort of face: patrician in a Victorian sort of way, or perhaps the other way around. Add to that Miss Jane’s impeccable comic timing and killer legs, and why would I bother with the pneumatic Elly May?
If nothing else, this little exercise proves one point: I never throw away a perfectly good throwaway line.
Nancy Reyes »
24 August 2009 · 11:06 pm
Douglas is alive and well and living near Baton Rouge.
link
no, she’s not an important person, but she made us laugh, and that’s alot in this day and age.
Lisa Paul »
25 August 2009 · 6:30 am
And sadly Nancy Kulp is no longer with us having died of cancer at the age of 69. However, it’s interesting to note she had a degree in journalism and was working on her masters in English Literature. Also was a decorated vet of World War II. Quite a gal.
Tom Sawyer »
25 August 2009 · 4:47 pm
Ellie May wasn’t a bubble-head. That was Jethro Bodine, product of a sixth-grade edumacation and WWAAYY too many trips to the movie-house.
Ellie was a rough-and-tumble tomboy who loved her critters and innocently turned the boys’ heads. She wasn’t book-smart, she was hills-smart (cf. street-smart).
But yeah, Jane Hathaway deserved more attention than she got on the show.
CGHill »
25 August 2009 · 5:33 pm
Jethro would have to cram to pass the bubble-head exam. (Miss Hathaway, for some reason, found him charming in some elemental, Rousseauvian manner.)
CT »
26 August 2009 · 2:11 pm
Kulp certainly had a matriarchal 19th-Century visage. That didn’t stop Redd Foxx from ripping on it during her latter-day TV work on “Sanford and Son” (basically whenever Aunt Esther wasn’t around to serve the same purpose).