all you need to do is add the family.

and the mansion in Beverly Hills with the cement pond!

Nice custom. You do excellent my friend!

Really neat custom, I forget who drives that thing, at first I thought Jed, but now I'm remembering it seems like Jethro was the one who drives them around.

The actual vehicle was a 1921 Oldsmobile, not a 1927 Ford. But awesome custom work

Jed drove "Shot Gun"...with a Shot Gun!!

Awesome custom Stangfreak!

You did a great job of the Klampets truck! I picked up a Beverly Hillbillies puzzle last weekend at a garage sale for $2. It is complete & from 1963. I couldn't pass it up.

And it was a Barris custom, built specifically for the show. (Look at the rounded radiator...that is not a Ford) Oldsmobile did not make a pickup truck...however, during WWII with gas rationing trucks had priority, so a lot of cars were made into light trucks during that time. I've seen suggestion the Aussie UTE predates all of this, nevertheless I think this car into pickup thing influenced the El Camino and Ranchero. Back to Beverly Hillbillies...I am inclined to think Barris picked up (pardon the pun) on this car into truck idea which would have still been fresh enough in the minds of the audience so that butchering an old car would seem "natural." Another influence, largely forgotten, is the Okie exodus to California because of the Dust Bowl. A lot of cars were turned into makeshift trucks for that migration as well. Think Merle Haggard and "Okie from Muskogee," since he lived in Bakersfield where a lot of the Oklahoma migrants settled. (Grapes of Wrath is another clue) So while the Beverly Hillbillies is a bit of light hearted fantasy, there is some underlying reality, and a good bit of it is not so light hearted.

BTW, I read recently Donna Douglas (Ellie Mae) passed away, and learned it was in 2015. That leaves Max Baer jr (Jethro) as the last surviving cast member.

I think the reason this has been sidestepped by makers so far is the complexity. The Batmobile and Munster's Coach (and Dragula - all Barris customs), and Monkeemobile and Black Beauty (Green Hornet - both by Dean Jeffries) all are comparatively simple castings compared to this. And how many reissues can you make? As a cobbled up '21 Olds, it's not like you can do a stock version too, at best you have half a car to work with. So I do understand. I'd love to see one made just the same, but between wooden spoke wheels, a rocking chair, a sidemount spare (and that is a Rube Goldberg), thin 1920s windshield stanchions, a wooden stakeside flatbed...I can go on. To do this one justice would be a masterful work of art, extremely complex, probably multiple casting pieces that would have to assemble just so, and no reruns. Maybe like Christine you could run it over and over...IF there is sufficient demand, but I don't see enough demand to warrant the expense. I want to, I really do, but this would be a halo car like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and likely the company would not recover the cost to make it *properly*. And I'd rather not see it made improperly, I would rather live without than to see some miserable mosh try to be passed off as the real thing. (No reflection on the custom, I've always admired it in the spirit it is meant)

They should make it !

BTW, did you know Buddy Ebsen was a dancer? Hard to picture uncle Jed cuttin' a rug, but that was how he broke into show business. He was supposed to be the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, and there is footage still in the movie with him (as they race into the poppy field in the middle of the movie). He had a severe allergic reaction to the aluminum paint they used for makeup, and had to bow out.

The last of the Munchkins...the Coroner (ironic, isn't it?)...passed away a couple years ago.


Buddy Ebsen dancing with Shirley Temple