Hooterville's (general) location pegged?

[Stanislav]

We've had these "Where is Hooterville?" discussions before, usually in the context of the Beverly Hillbillies/Petticoat Junction crossovers. To-wit, from a recent thread:

While I liked all those Paul Henning/Filmways sitcoms, I remain ambivalent about the BH/PJ/GA crossover arcs.

As we previously have discussed, the Clampetts are clearly Southerners. (Granny was even an unabashed Rebel in the earlier seasons, with displays of the Confederate flag and references to “President Jefferson Davis.”) While even within BH their roots were malleable (early on, they were referenced as being from Tennessee, while later episodes, especially the Silver Dollar City arc, implied an Ozarks origin), they were clearly from south of the Mason-Dixon.

PJ and (especially) GH, OTOH, always struck me as having more of a Midwest-flavored milieu, with the relatively flat terrain in stock establishing shots, the lack of discernible Southern accents and dialect (more like generic TV “country” accents – you don’t hear any “y’all’s” in PJ/GH, for example), and the mentions in GH of Chicago being in relatively close proximity (I believe one GH ep referred to Chi-town as being about a 300-mile trip.) Actually, I don’t recall how (plot-wise) the two TV worlds even came together, or how and why the Clampetts made their Hooterville connection in the first place. (Help me out here...) So, there is a contrivance factor that dampens my enjoyment of these crossovers.

Exactly where Hooterville is, is full of red herrings, much as the location of
Springfield on either "Guiding Light" or "The Simpsons." I guess it's wherever
you want it to be, but personally I like to see these towns located in specific states.

I’ve always thought of Hooterville being perhaps in far downstate Illinois – it is largely farm country, and it would fit the geographical proximity to Chicago, as well as the overall Midwest “feel” to the shows.

Well, last night, I happened to tune into an episode of PJ on a local Christian channel that runs some old "family-friendly" sitcoms. The context eludes me (having joined the episode in progress), but it was one of the handful that guest starred Tom Lester as Ed Dawson. In the scene I caught, Ed and Kate are discussing Eb's recent activities (which seem to perhaps be about some business venture or other of Eb's), and Kate asks him where he'd branch out to after conquering such "metropolises" as Pixley and Crabwell Corners. Among the big cities Kate suggests are Cedar Rapids, Omaha, and Indianapolis -- Midwest cities all. In fact, if you look at a map, Illinois would be right between these points. Along with the occasional mentions of Chicago being fairly close-by in both PJ and Green Acres, and I'm more convinced than ever than Hooterville is in that general vicinity, centered on downstate Illinois. Which makes the notion of the very Southern Clampetts going "home" there for the holidays even more obviously contrived and discontinuous, almost a "retcon" of the strongly implied Tennessee or Ozarks roots in earlier seasons.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

At one point I thought Hooterville might have been in rural California, based on the GA episode where Hooterville seceded from the union and made Oliver their king. In that episode, the governor of their state was an ex-movie actor (like Ronald Reagan), and the state motto was "Have A Good Day" (a play On "Have A Nice Day", a saying which even then was sort of associated with California). But I'm thinking downstate Illinois more and more.

 

[Tom Wells]

I had decided Hooterville was somewhere in Kentucky, where the hills are fading off into the distance.
I do know that the contrivance somehow was based on Sam Drucker and Granny being sweet on each other in the past.
So I figured Sam had left the hills and moved on up to Hoooterville.
Just my calculatin,' fer right or wrong.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I don't know why, but for some reason I had the Clampetts originating in West Virginia.

 

[landtuna]

I don't know why, but for some reason I had the Clampetts originating in West Virginia.

That's what I always thought. Note the reference to "mountaineer" in the theme song (Mountaineer being the nickname of WVU).

 

[Stanislav]

I don't know why, but for some reason I had the Clampetts originating in West Virginia.

That's what I always thought. Note the reference to "mountaineer" in the theme song (Mountaineer being the nickname of WVU).

As we've discussed before, early seasons explicitly placed the Clampetts' origins in Tennessee, even naming their home town (or, at least, the closest town to their rural shack), Bugtussle. The later Silver Dollar City story arc had SDC as an actual town (as opposed to the tourist attraction it is IRL) -- local actor Shad Heller even played the "Mayor" -- that was also a sort of "homecoming" for the family (which would imply it being somewhere near Bugtussle), and though it was never explicitly mentioned in those episodes, the actual SDC is in the Ozarks (near Branson, Missouri).

As for "mountaineer," the theme song certainly uses it in the generic sense, with a small "m" (no direct reference to WVU implied, I'm sure). Come to think about it, that's another disconnect -- you wouldn't refer to country folk in the flat Midwest as "mountaineers" (or "hillbillies," for that matter), so the Clampetts are still out of place (and continuity) in Hooterville.

I do like the notion of Sam having known Granny when she lived in the hills, and then later moving to Hooterville. A tenuous explanation for the Clampett/Hooterville connection, but clever.

 

[catfishal]

My vote would be downstate Illinois as well. I would say around Carbondale or Marion where it is still farm country but starts to get somewhat hilly.

 

[jwk1979]

I do like the notion of Sam having known Granny when she lived in the hills, and then later moving to Hooterville. A tenuous explanation for the Clampett/Hooterville connection, but clever.
[/quote]But in an earlier episode of PJ, both Uncle Joe and Sam Drucker state they are graduates of Hooterville High when a classmate of theirs returns home to "Hooterville" and doesn't remember them until they dressed like they did in high school and then she remembers "Slim" Carson and "Curly" Drucker. Also, the running joke was that Granny was at least 20 to 25 years older than Sam Drucker.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

I don't know why, but for some reason I had the Clampetts originating in West Virginia.

That's what I always thought. Note the reference to "mountaineer" in the theme song (Mountaineer being the nickname of WVU).

I always assumed that the Clampetts were from Arkansas--particularly the northwestern part of the state as (at least I assumed) they were Ozark mountaineers. (Now maybe they could have originally lived in Tennessee before moving to Arkansas--then striking oil and moving to Beverly--Hills, that is ;D ;D ;D).

Then again, believe it or not I actually used to think that The Dukes of Hazzard actually took place in Texas--in spite of the hills. (Then again, Little House on the Prairie was supposed to be set in Walnut Grove, MN--but I didn't know there were hills and summer-like temperatures at Christmastime in southwestern Minnesota).

 

[Prais]

It's in the fictional state of West Kenintenas.

For heavens sake, boys....IT's fiction!!!!

 

[RicoGregg]

I had decided Hooterville was somewhere in Kentucky, where the hills are fading off into the distance.
I do know that the contrivance somehow was based on Sam Drucker and Granny being sweet on each other in the past.
So I figured Sam had left the hills and moved on up to Hoooterville.
Just my calculatin,' fer right or wrong.

It couldn't be Kentucky. The Bluegrass State was not part of the Confederacy.

 

[Stanislav]

It's in the fictional state of West Kenintenas.

For heavens sake, boys....IT's fiction!!!!

We know that...but this sort of speculation is fun! (Don't be a party-pooper...)

 

[quadraphonic]

I always figured Hooterville to be in the Ozarks. I can't remember the details of what made me think that, probably just the same bits and pieces yall experts are outlining, though. It seemed like the Douglases moved halfway across the country, so that would be about right. And I grew up in NC, so knowing what people are like here, I'm sure that wanting Hooterville to be as far as probable away from here figured into my thinking too.

Last I heard, they were going to reveal Hooterville's location at the end of the decade.

 

[jh]

It's in the fictional state of West Kenintenas.

Whatever state it's in has the kangaroo as it's mascot. (It was on an episode of Green Acres.)

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Prior to its premiere, one of the developmental titles of PJ was Ozark Widow.

 

[jwk1979]

It's in the fictional state of West Kenintenas.

Whatever state it's in has the kangaroo as it's mascot. (It was on an episode of Green Acres.)

The University of Missouri-Kansas City atheletic teams are known as the Kangaroos, so maybe that the Kangaroo state. Also, Granny was the only one who stated that she was from Tennessee, the rest of the Clampett family never once stated where back home or the hills were at.