Clampett

Clampett is a surname that is most widely recognized in popular culture as the name of the fictional Clampett family from the American television sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies. The series, created by Paul Henning, aired on CBS from 1962 to 1971 and became one of the era’s best-known comedies.

In the show, the Clampetts are a rural family from the Ozarks who strike oil on their land, a discovery that propels them from a modest hillside homestead to the extravagant surroundings of Beverly Hills, California. The central characters include Jed Clampett, the family patriarch; his daughter Elly May Clampett; and other relatives such as Jethro Bodine and Granny Daisy May Moses. The premise centers on the ensuing culture clash between rural Appalachian or Ozark life and upscale urban society, often driven by misunderstandings and humorous misunderstandings of wealth and manners.

The Beverly Hillbillies helped popularize the fish-out-of-water trope in American television and left a lasting imprint on mid-20th-century pop culture. Since its run, the Clampett surname has been strongly linked to the series in discussions of classic TV comedy, and the characters remain recognizable as part of the broader history of American television.