The Beverly Hillbillies
December 16th, 2014
I was late getting into The Beverly Hillbillies. I’m not embarrassed by this, as it seemed to be the type of stupid rural fodder, which on the surface seemed like low-quality programming. But at some point a few years back, I decided to buckle down and give the show a chance, having heard that the early black and white episodes were among the best. Sure enough, although it’s not soon going to be among my top ten sitcoms, I was enjoying it enough. And as often happens, it began to get under my skin to know that two of the main characters were out there alive and well and I had not met them…and I hadn’t known them to appear at any collectors shows in recent days. Read the rest of this entry »
…and hold out some money…and you’d be surprised who answers. Tony Orlando himself! He’s the guy with the cheesy mustache and the two hot girls collectively known as “Dawn” flanking him on those great album covers of the 1970’s. He crooned his way into our hearts with Knock Three Times (ya know, twice on the pipe), Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree, and the grammatically incorrect He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You). Those tracks went to number one on the Billboard charts, so I’m quite familiar with him. And he cracked the top ten with songs like Candida, Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose?, and Steppin’ Out (I’m Gonna Boogie Tonight). 
What can I say? I have an affinity for child actors… especially if they worked back in the black and white days. Jimmy Hunt met both qualifications, so I greeted him at the Chiller Theatre Show in Parsippany, New Jersey, on October 27, 2012. I’m sure to some, the movie Invaders from Mars is classic 50’s science fiction at its finest…but I wouldn’t know because I’ve never seen it. But what I can tell you is that the Jimmy Hunt as young boy named David MacLean is the center of the story. That’s pretty darn cool.