While The Beverly Hillbillies utilized plenty of farcical moments and outlandish comedy to make an audience laugh, turning the show into a success was pretty serious business.

For creator Paul Henning, one thing was clear: the laughter would come later, when the series had a network to call home and a regular airing schedule. But before the series had found an audience, Henning made it his mission to ensure that television viewers knew The Beverly Hillbillies.

According to The Beverly Hillbillies by Stephen Cox, part of Henning's strategy for the show's success was to ensure that his actors were synonymous with the characters they played.

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Max Baer Jr. was offered a guest spot on a different sitcom, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Because the episode would have aired just before The Beverly Hillbillies, Baer was forced to refuse the guest offer.

"In my opinion, if Max had appeared just ahead of us in a different role, his believability as Jethro on our show would have been largely destroyed," said Paul Henning.

Henning also issued a proclamation in 1962, the same year that The Beverly Hillbillies began airing.

"For the present, I would prefer that Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer cease to exist as themselves," said the creator. "The dissemination and publication of personal biographies, personal hobbies, and idiosyncrasies, so-called 'squibs,' 'blurbs,' 'plants' in columns and photographic layouts of them at home are to be discouraged by every means at our disposal! NO STORY IS BETTER THAN THE WRONG STORY!...and a wrong story is one that damages the television image of our hillbilly characters."