Granny (Beverly Hillbillies character)

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Daisy Moses, forever known as "Granny" was a character in the 1960's situation comedy, The Beverly Hillbillies and the 1993 movie remake of the same name. In the television show, considered a classic, she was played by actress Irene Ryan, who was twice nominated for the Emmy Award for "Best Actress" for her work in the role. Cloris Leachman played Granny in the 1993 film.

[edit] Cantankerous matriarch

Granny (born Daisy Moses) was the de facto matriarch of the Clampett family. Her daughter, Rose Ellen Moses, was the wife of Jed "JD" Clampett, and she was the grandmother of Elly May Clampett and pseudo-grandmother of Jethro Bodine. She is also far and away the most conniving and cantankerous of the family.

She is the only one of the family who is dead set against anything with the city, mainly because she cannot practice her unlicensed mountain doctoring and her making of lye soap pollutes the air. She is usually known for making a fuss about everything and anything. In fact, when the family moved from the hills to Beverly Hills, she refused to leave, and finally the family was forced to make her ride in the rocking chair on top of the truck. In the television series, Granny was not tied to the chair, but in the theatrical movie, she was.

Granny also has a tendency to feud with anyone, and she made some enemies while living in California. She was usually feuding with someone for some reason, no matter how petty that reason was. In Bugtussle, her rival was one Elverna Bradshaw (Elvia Allman).

In Beverly Hills, her rivals were Margaret Drysdale, the snobbish wife of Milburn Drysdale; and Dr. Roy Clyburn, who always threatened Granny with malpractice charges, due to that she was unlicensed. She occasionally "scrapped" with Jed's cousin and Jethro's mother, Pearl Bodine, particularly in matters of matriarchal supremecy such as who is in charge of the kitchen although they are generally good friends.

Sometimes, Granny could be downright conniving, and always scheming to get her granddaughter, Elly May Clampett married off. These results usually met with failure, and whenever she didn't get her own way, which was often, she would invariably let out a scream "Aaaaaaahhhhhh!" Elly May is the joy of her life but she is forever worried that her curvacuous grandchild is on the eve of spinsterhood, being past the age most females had wed at "back home".

Elly came close to marriage with Mark Templeton, a naval officer that she loved, but Granny's fear of water (she never learned how to swim) and her lack of knowledge of what a Naval Frogman really was, made her believe that Mark turned into a real frog.

Although she loved Jed dearly, she would usually connive and scheme her way out of things. She would almost always whine that she was "nothin' but an old widow woman an' all I want is muh roomatiz medicine!". Her so-called "Roomatiz" medicine was really moonshine, that she cooked up in a still.

Sometimes, Jed was fooled by her conniving, but usually he wasn't. He also thought that she was quite stubborn and, in his own words, "mule-headed". Jed was often called into situations where he would have to extricate Granny from a misunderstanding that she herself created.

Her relations with Jethro, while loving, had a tone of exasperation not found in her love for Jed or Elly May. Although she, like Jed, can brag on Jethro's "sixth-grade education", Granny clearly feels Jethro is a bit of an idiot and she is frequently inclined to slap or threaten to "take a switch" to him when he gets on her nerves.

One thing, and perhaps the only thing, she liked about her new house was her large kitchen; and she was forever screaming at anyone to get out of it. Even with all her new appliances, she still did things the old-fashioned way. She was irate that the stores in Beverly Hills had no collard Greens or Possum innards.

She was also a unreconstructed Confederate, and would always raise the Stars and Bars whenever she was feuding with someone. This peculiarity was also evident when she would recall details of the war in which, to her mind, the South won, and not the other way around. When anyone tried to correct her on those details, she would invariably fly into a total rage. She also frequently toted her rifle.

The only city person whom she really liked, was Jane Hathaway, whom she called "Miss Jane". In a Women's Lib storyline during the show's last years, she and Elly may were bitten by the liberation bug, and for a time, stayed in Jane's apartment.