DVD Talk review of 'The Beverly Hillbillies - The Official Third Season'
03-27-09, 01:08 PM
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DVD Talk review of 'The Beverly Hillbillies - The Official Third Season'
I read Paul Mavis's DVD review of The Beverly Hillbillies - The Official Third Season at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=36763. Paul, thanks for another great vintage TV review!
As for your comment about in-character commercials for Winston cigarettes... well, I don't know about this season, but they certainly existed for the first season, because they are included on the MPI BH sets. And some funny stuff there is in those old commercials, too. Granny trying to smoke a Winston through her corncob pipe... Granny wrapping each cigarette individually for Christmas presents... and Granny mangling the sponsor's slogan into "Winston tastes good like a cigarette had oughta!"
So Paramount probably is editing out these commercials, which makes the disclamer even more annoying. And since these commercials can also reference the story we just saw, it's also unfortunate.
As for your comment about in-character commercials for Winston cigarettes... well, I don't know about this season, but they certainly existed for the first season, because they are included on the MPI BH sets. And some funny stuff there is in those old commercials, too. Granny trying to smoke a Winston through her corncob pipe... Granny wrapping each cigarette individually for Christmas presents... and Granny mangling the sponsor's slogan into "Winston tastes good like a cigarette had oughta!"
So Paramount probably is editing out these commercials, which makes the disclamer even more annoying. And since these commercials can also reference the story we just saw, it's also unfortunate.
03-27-09, 01:33 PM
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Re: DVD Talk review of 'The Beverly Hillbillies - The Official Third Season'
Hey, Tim -- thanks for the nice feedback!
I know Winston advertised on The Flintstones at the same time, and had Fred and the adults smoking...
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But they dropped those commercials when Pebbles was born. Could they have done the same thing after a couple of years into Hillbillies, when they realized it was skewing heavily towards families (and when pressure was just starting to build on tobacco ads on TV)? There are closers showing Tempo cigarettes here (just a hand holding up the package), but it's the same ad, used over and over again (with the Tempo package also superimposed over the end credits). I guess until we find out if the cast was still shooting in-character commercials for Winston in the third season, we won't really know for sure.
And you're right, a lot of the commercials tie in with the episodes (they even used Arthur Treacher in one of the Kellogg's, after he guested as Mr. Drysdale's butler). It's that "historical context" apology that really annoys me -- and before every single episode, no less!
I know Winston advertised on The Flintstones at the same time, and had Fred and the adults smoking...
, But they dropped those commercials when Pebbles was born. Could they have done the same thing after a couple of years into Hillbillies, when they realized it was skewing heavily towards families (and when pressure was just starting to build on tobacco ads on TV)? There are closers showing Tempo cigarettes here (just a hand holding up the package), but it's the same ad, used over and over again (with the Tempo package also superimposed over the end credits). I guess until we find out if the cast was still shooting in-character commercials for Winston in the third season, we won't really know for sure.
And you're right, a lot of the commercials tie in with the episodes (they even used Arthur Treacher in one of the Kellogg's, after he guested as Mr. Drysdale's butler). It's that "historical context" apology that really annoys me -- and before every single episode, no less!
03-30-09, 04:00 PM
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Re: DVD Talk review of 'The Beverly Hillbillies - The Official Third Season'
Great, exhaustive review. Regarding Paul's point about BH being the last hurrah before "the hillbilly stereotype" was tipped "squarely into the negative column," I've got to think that the news coming out of the South at that time (and let's be frank, by the '60s rural = Southern for most Americans) had something to do with the change in perception. Given the news reports that started in the late '50s and increased through the '60s (firehoses, burnings, bombings, murders, etc.) it was awfully hard to continue to think of the South as being full of harmless, picaresque characters like Jed, Granny, Andy, Gomer, and Uncle Joe. The effect wasn't immediate, since many of these "rural" shows lasted into the early '70s, but it does seem to have become permanent.
That being said, I still have great memories of these BH episodes, particularly the Mammoth Pictures arc. The conclusion of the Hedda Hopper chapter, which features the cast in a parody of a silent movie, is hilarious. Nancy Kulp & Max Baer in a faux-Valentino dance has to be seen to be believed.
That being said, I still have great memories of these BH episodes, particularly the Mammoth Pictures arc. The conclusion of the Hedda Hopper chapter, which features the cast in a parody of a silent movie, is hilarious. Nancy Kulp & Max Baer in a faux-Valentino dance has to be seen to be believed.
