Max Baer Jr.

[on being called Jethro now] It's like somebody calling you a son of a bitch. If he's your friend, it's okay. If he's your enemy, it's not.

[on the death of co-star Donna Douglas] She was Elly May until the day she died. When I saw her for autograph signings or other gatherings, she always dressed the same with pink or blue and of course those signature pigtails. Show less «

[on his on- and off-screen chemistry with Buddy Ebsen, who played Jed Clampett]: Buddy was much of a regular gang as you can get. Buddy tried to teach me how to sail, I didn't learn much about sailing, but I learn a lot about drowning. I got knocked off the boat more than once and he was saying, 'Well, you do this and you do that,' and he says, 'Coming about!,' and I stood up, I was up and I said, 'What did you say, Buddy?' The boat hit me and it knocked me out of the ocean, I made him laugh all the time because I was so crazy. I mean, I was always pulling pranks and doing stuff on the set and everything. Show less «

[Who compared his relationship with Buddy Ebsen, his surrogate uncle, to his real-life father, Max Baer]: Buddy told me a funny story one time, where he was at Madison Square Garden (this was back in the 1930s). My dad was supposed to fight. Buddy was sitting there, waiting and down near ringside. All of a sudden, this guy comes in, and he sits down next to him, he's got a robe on it and everything. But my dad was just real easy, just like nothing was going on, just sitting there in his robe and his shorts and Buddy was very excited because of the fact that (A) My dad sat down there and (B) Years later, the coincidence that he would star in the series with his son. Show less «

[Of Buddy Ebsen]: Buddy was more of a surrogate father to me, because my dad had died in '59 and this was '62; and he (Buddy) kinda took over, the same age as my dad; both about the same time and he knew my dad pretty well. So, it was pretty easy for Buddy and I to become close. I would go down there and he would teach me to sail on his 36 ft. lapwards down in Balboa Island, where he had a house, and as a sailor, I was a very good anchor, because it was hard for me to ever had me on a boat. He said, 'When the boat comes about,' He said, 'You'll pull it on a lynch.' He said, 'You'll pull in quick, because if you don't, the sail will pull up with air and it'll be too hard to pull in.' And so, the first time we were out, he said, 'We're comin' about.' Stood up, 'What, bang, boom, hit me right in the ocean, and he was laughing, said, 'Well, you can forget about being a sailor, too.' But I used to go out and have dinner, like once a week to go out someplace he would take me like Paso Franks on Hollywood Blvd. to Cook's Pacific Dining Car. He had some little places he would take me to and sometimes in lunch, he would have a little dinner with George and George will cook for him in his dressing room and he would have lunch with him. We didn't have too much in the afternoon, because it was a 2 martini lunch; cause if he had to remember some lines, he'd have a 1 martini lunch and if he had to remember lines, it was 1, if he didn't have a lot of lines, in the afternoon, he may have 2, and that was pretty much it. Show less «

[Who talked about one of Buddy Ebsen's off-camera gags]: We play a lot of these flubs, all these screw-ups, we play all these fu*** ups, at the end, at a Christmas party, whenever there was a blooper for all of us; and one time, Buddy was in bed and he was supposed to be sick, but he had his clothes on. I knew he had his clothes on, so, Granny and Elly May came up and the ideal was for Granny and me to pull down his covers and say, 'See, he ain't sick, Granny,' and I pulled it down, and he got this thing, sticking out of his crotch about a foot long, 2 ft. long. Everybody laugh, except Donna. Donna said, 'That's nasty!' Everybody else was laughing, that was Buddy's and Irene's gag. Show less «

[As to why, like everybody else in Hollywood, his acting mentor [Buddy Ebsen] was the #1 star on television, after years of performing in Vaudeville]: What happened as Buddy used to say, he was starring on Broadway and he was at MGM, and he was going to be doing 'The Tin Man,' in The Wizard of Oz, but they put the metal paint on him, he was allergic to it and he wound up in the hospital and Bert Lahr end up playing the part, but then, he went to the Coast Guard and he came out and people weren't casting movies in those days and they didn't know who he was, cause he came from Vaudeville, he was a dancer. They didn't know he could act and he ended up in the mid 50s; when he did Davy Crockett, with Fess Parker and that brought him back to television and he did the movie called: Attack, with Jack Palance and Eddie Albert, and then, when he did Breakfast at Tiffany's, he played the husband of Audrey Hepburn; in the movie. It was a kind of a hilly, country guy; and he was the only one on the cast that didn't do anything. Paul Henning wanted Buddy Ebsen; as the father image, and Buddy almost didn't do it, because he didn't want to be a slapstick, he didn't want to do that. He was in his 50s and he didn't want to do it, he rather be the straight man and Granny and I were the slapstick. Show less «

[About [Buddy Ebsen] being a hard worker]: When you say 'work harder,' what do you mean? He was basically so easygoing that Buddy would go to sleep, waiting in the shots for them to roll, 1/2 the time, when we would be in the truck and I would be sitting, behind the wheel and he'd be the passenger and you'd get out of the truck to have your stand-ins come in and they liked the scene. Well, Buddy and I wouldn't even get out of the truck; we were just sitting in the truck, 1/2 the time, Buddy fell asleep and when they get ready to roll, I said, 'Buddy, they're ready,' and he just said, even before they said, 'Action!' He'd said, 'Drive on, boy!' He knew he could be too far off, because we were coming in or going out, one of the two, so, I just give them a nudge of my elbow and he just say, 'Drive on, boy!' That was funny! It was funny, because he'd be going to sleep anywhere. Show less «