Return of the Beverly Hillbillies Max Baer Jr. (the original Jethro) who declined to participate. The film was produced and written by original series creator Paul Henning and was intended as a pilot for a proposed revival of the series, but this never materialized. "Return of the Beverly Hillbillies" premiered as "The CBS Tuesday Night Movie" on October 6, 1981. Following the death of Granny, Jed Clampett returned to his roots to live in a backwoods cabin in the town of Bug Tussle rather than living alone at his Beverly Hills mansion after having voluntarily divided his massive fortune between daughter Elly May and nephew
The Beverly Hillbillies time in the CBS-TV retrospective television special, "The Legend of the Beverly Hillbillies", which ranked as the fourth-most watched television program of the week—a major surprise given the mediocre rating for the 1981 TV movie. It was a rare tribute from the "Tiffany network", which owed much of its success in the 1960s to the series, but has often seemed embarrassed by it in hindsight, often downplaying the show in retrospective television specials on the network's history and rarely inviting cast members to participate in such all-star broadcasts. "The Legend of The Beverly Hillbillies" special ignored several plot twists of