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Author
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Topic: Paul Henning dies at 93 - created "Beverly Hillbillies"
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Tim Reed
Better Projection Pays
Posts: 5246
From: Northampton, PA
Registered: Sep 1999
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posted 04-14-2005 08:40 AM
I'm surprised you guys missed this, from a couple weeks ago.
Early in his career, Henning wrote for "Fibber McGee and Molly" on radio. Now I know why I like that show so much on XM -- it's hilarious!
Hollywood Reporter article
March 26, 2005
Paul Henning dies; created 'Hillbillies,' spinoffs for CBS
By staff and wire report
Paul Henning, the radio and TV writer-producer who created the 1960s silly-sitcom triptych of "The Beverly Hillbillies," "Petticoat Junction" and "Green Acres," has died. He was 93.
Henning, who lived in Toluca Lake, Calif., died Friday in a Burbank hospital of natural causes. He had been sick for some time, his daughter Carol said.
Henning's broad CBS comedy farces, starting in 1962 with the debut of "Hillbillies," have endured as icons of their era and remained popular in reruns in syndication and on cable.
Veteran comedy writer Hal Kanter called Henning "an overlooked folklorist" in "The Laugh Crafters," a 1999 book about radio comedy writers.
Henning's shows were big hits for CBS, and they typified the network's strength in fielding broad-based shows with appeal in rural and urban markets. But they were famously swept out in 1970 and 1971 by then-CBS programming chief Fred Silverman as part of the network's broader image makeover with a new breed of shows including "All in the Family" and "M*A*S*H."
Henning created "Hillbillies" based on his encounters with residents during camping trips in the Ozarks with the Boy Scouts, his daughter said. Henning also penned its memorable theme song, "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," which was sung by Jerry Scoggins and performed by Nashville bluegrass stars Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs on guitar and banjo.
The fish-out-of-water comedy starred Buddy Ebsen as the patriarch of an Ozark clan who moves into a Beverly Hills mansion after stumbling upon an oil well.
Spinoff "Petticoat Junction," which starred his daughter, Linda Kaye Henning, arrived in 1963, revolved around the goings-on of the Clampetts' friends and family back home in Hooterville.
"Green Acres," which bowed in 1965, flipped the "Hillbillies" culture-clash formula by featuring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as successful urbanites who decide to move back to the country.
In their heyday, the shows frequently had crossover story lines and characters. "Green Acres," which Henning co-created with writer Jay Sommers in 1965, was known for its absurdity.
Henning was born Sept. 16, 1911, on a farm in Missouri and grew up in Independence. As a teenager, he worked behind the soda fountain at Brown's Drugstore, where he met Harry Truman, who advised the young boy to become a lawyer, his daughter said.
He graduated from Kansas City School of Law but soon went to work writing for radio.
He worked in radio as an actor and writer in Kansas City, Mo., before moving to Chicago to write for NBC's radio hit "Fibber McGee and Molly." In the early 1940s, he moved to Los Angeles to work as a writer for Rudy Vallee, George Burns and Gracie Allen, among others.
He segued into television in 1955 with "The Bob Cummings Show," which had a four-year run on NBC and CBS.
Henning also worked in films, writing the 1964 film "Bedtime Story," starring Marlon Brando and David Niven. The film later served as the basis for the 1988 feature "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels."
Later in his life, Henning and his wife, Ruth, donated land near Branson, Mo., to the state for a conservation area.
Henning is survived by two daughters, a son and two grandsons.
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