Paul Henning
Encyclopedia
Paul William Henning was an American
producer
and writer
. Most famous for the successful TV sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies
, he was crucial in the development of several "rural
" comedies for CBS.
. While working in a drugstore
as a teenager, he met future President Harry S. Truman
, who advised him to become a lawyer
. Although he did attend the Kansas City School of Law, his ambition was to be a singer on the radio. When the local radio station KMBZ (KMBC at the time) had no money for writers to create the "filler" between songs, he became a writer as well as a singer.
, and later such television series as The Dennis Day Show
, The Real McCoys
, and The Andy Griffith Show
. Henning was also the creator, writer and producer of The Bob Cummings Show
, where he first met many of the actors who were subsequently to appear in his later series. Another series produced by Henning was The Ray Bolger Show
. He also wrote or co-wrote such feature films as Lover Come Back
(1961), for which he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) but lost to William Inge
and also wrote for Bedtime Story
(1964).
, a sitcom based on his past experiences while camping in the Ozarks near Branson, Missouri
. He also wrote the music and lyrics for the theme song, The Ballad of Jed Clampett
, which became as popular as the show itself.
The Beverly Hillbillies was one of the highest-rated series of all time, even becoming a feature film about three decades later. Henning also had a hand in developing Green Acres
and created Petticoat Junction
, which had a starring role for his daughter (who shared a September 16 birthday with Paul) Linda Kaye Henning
(billed as "Linda Kaye", portraying (Betty Jo Bradley). The latter two shows were set in the small town of Hooterville and Petticoat had, particularly its later seasons, frequent crossovers with Hillbillies. All three programs were popular, but changing times led their parent network, CBS to look down on the so-called "ruralcoms" and move in a more "adult", sophisticated direction with series such as All in the Family
and The Mary Tyler Moore Show
. Thus in 1971, in spite of continued high ratings, The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres were canceled as a result of the rural purge
, joining Petticoat Junction (which ended the year before) in syndicated reruns.
on whom Paul partially based the character of Elly May Clampett, Carol Alice and Paul Anthony Henning.
It is interesting to note that Ruth Henning often told her husband about how she and her female cousins often visited her grandparents at the tiny hotel, they owned near the Rock Island
Railroad station located in Eldon, Missouri
. This later became the concept for Petticoat Junction
.
Later in life Henning and his wife Ruth donated land to a conservation area near Branson, Missouri
. The conservation area is 1,534-acres of oak and hickory forest, steep hills, and glades with four designated trails created by the Missouri Department of Conservation and one longer trail created largely by the members of Boy Scout Troop 2001. His wife Ruth Barth Henning died, aged 88 from a heart attack
on January 15, 2002 at their home in Los Angeles, California
. Henning retired to Toluca Lake, California, dying in a Burbank
hospital on March 25, 2005, aged 93.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
. Most famous for the successful TV sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Beverly Hillbillies is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for nine seasons on CBS from 1962 to 1971, starring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer, Jr....
, he was crucial in the development of several "rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
" comedies for CBS.
Early life
He was born and grew up on a farm in Independence, MissouriIndependence, Missouri
Independence is the fourth largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri, and is contained within the counties of Jackson and Clay. It is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area...
. While working in a drugstore
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
as a teenager, he met future President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
, who advised him to become a lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
. Although he did attend the Kansas City School of Law, his ambition was to be a singer on the radio. When the local radio station KMBZ (KMBC at the time) had no money for writers to create the "filler" between songs, he became a writer as well as a singer.
TV writer
Writing proved the more lucrative of the two and he abandoned singing, eventually writing for such series as Fibber McGee & Molly and the The Burns & Allen ShowBurns and Allen
Burns and Allen, an American comedy duo consisting of George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen, worked together as a comedy team in vaudeville, films, radio and television and achieved great success over four decades.-Vaudeville:...
, and later such television series as The Dennis Day Show
The Dennis Day Show
The Dennis Day Show was a half-hour 1953–1954 NBC comedy/variety show starring Irish singer and radio and television personality Dennis Day , whose career otherwise was rooted as a supporting cast member of the long-running The Jack Benny Program on CBS and later NBC.From 1952 to 1953, Day hosted...
, The Real McCoys
The Real McCoys
The Real McCoys is an American situation comedy co-produced by Danny Thomas' "Marterto Productions", in association with Walter Brennan and Irving Pincus's "Westgate" company...
, and The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
. Henning was also the creator, writer and producer of The Bob Cummings Show
The Bob Cummings Show
The Bob Cummings Show is an American sitcom starring Robert "Bob" Cummings which was produced from January 2, 1955 to September 15, 1959, and originally sponsored by R.J. Reynolds' Winston cigarettes...
, where he first met many of the actors who were subsequently to appear in his later series. Another series produced by Henning was The Ray Bolger Show
Where's Raymond?
Where's Raymond? is a 1953-1954 ABC situation comedy television series starring Ray Bolger as Raymond Wallace, a song-and-dance man who is consistently barely on time for his performances...
. He also wrote or co-wrote such feature films as Lover Come Back
Lover Come Back
Lover Come Back is a 1961 Eastmancolor romantic comedy released by Universal Pictures. The film stars Doris Day and Rock Hudson in their second film together. The supporting cast includes Tony Randall, Edie Adams, Ann B. Davis, and Donna Douglas....
(1961), for which he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) but lost to William Inge
William Inge
William Motter Inge was an American playwright and novelist, whose works typically feature solitary protagonists encumbered with strained sexual relations. In the early 1950s, he had a string of memorable Broadway productions, and one of these, Picnic, earned him a Pulitzer Prize...
and also wrote for Bedtime Story
Bedtime Story (film)
Bedtime Story is a 1964 comedy film made by Pennebaker Productions, The Lankershim Company and Universal Pictures. It was directed by Ralph Levy and produced by Stanley Shapiro with Robert Arthur as executive producer from a screenplay by Stanley Shapiro and Paul Henning. The music score was by...
(1964).
Most popular television series
In 1962, Henning created The Beverly HillbilliesThe Beverly Hillbillies
The Beverly Hillbillies is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for nine seasons on CBS from 1962 to 1971, starring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer, Jr....
, a sitcom based on his past experiences while camping in the Ozarks near Branson, Missouri
Branson, Missouri
Branson is a city in Taney County in the U.S. state of Missouri. It was named after Reuben Branson, postmaster and operator of a general store in the area in the 1880s....
. He also wrote the music and lyrics for the theme song, The Ballad of Jed Clampett
The Ballad of Jed Clampett
"The Ballad of Jed Clampett" was the theme song for The Beverly Hillbillies TV show and movie, providing the back story for the series. The song was written and composed by Paul Henning, and sung by Jerry Scoggins, who was accompanied by bluegrass musicians Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs...
, which became as popular as the show itself.
The Beverly Hillbillies was one of the highest-rated series of all time, even becoming a feature film about three decades later. Henning also had a hand in developing Green Acres
Green Acres
Green Acres is an American television series starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm...
and created Petticoat Junction
Petticoat Junction
Petticoat Junction is an American situation comedy produced by Filmways which originally aired on CBS from 1963 to 1970. The series is one of three interrelated shows about rural characters created by Paul Henning; the others are The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres.The setting for the series...
, which had a starring role for his daughter (who shared a September 16 birthday with Paul) Linda Kaye Henning
Linda Kaye Henning
Linda Kaye Henning is an American actress who starred on the 1960s sitcom Petticoat Junction.-Early life:Henning was born in Los Angeles, California. The television producer Paul Henning, is her father, and her mother is Ruth Henning. In her youth, Linda Kaye Henning was a student of the ballet...
(billed as "Linda Kaye", portraying (Betty Jo Bradley). The latter two shows were set in the small town of Hooterville and Petticoat had, particularly its later seasons, frequent crossovers with Hillbillies. All three programs were popular, but changing times led their parent network, CBS to look down on the so-called "ruralcoms" and move in a more "adult", sophisticated direction with series such as All in the Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...
and The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns that aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977...
. Thus in 1971, in spite of continued high ratings, The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres were canceled as a result of the rural purge
Rural purge
The "rural purge" of American television networks was a series of cancellations between 1969 and 1972, the majority of which occurred at the end of the 1970-71 television season, of still popular rural-themed shows and shows with demographically-skewed audiences...
, joining Petticoat Junction (which ended the year before) in syndicated reruns.
Personal life and death
He married Ruth Barth in 1939 and the couple had 3 children; Linda Kaye HenningLinda Kaye Henning
Linda Kaye Henning is an American actress who starred on the 1960s sitcom Petticoat Junction.-Early life:Henning was born in Los Angeles, California. The television producer Paul Henning, is her father, and her mother is Ruth Henning. In her youth, Linda Kaye Henning was a student of the ballet...
on whom Paul partially based the character of Elly May Clampett, Carol Alice and Paul Anthony Henning.
It is interesting to note that Ruth Henning often told her husband about how she and her female cousins often visited her grandparents at the tiny hotel, they owned near the Rock Island
Rock Island
- Islands :* Rock Island * Rock Islands , an island in Ontario- Communities :* Rock Island, Quebec, a community within the ville of Stanstead- Islands :* Rock Island , one of the minor Elizabeth Islands...
Railroad station located in Eldon, Missouri
Eldon, Missouri
Eldon is a city in Miller County, Missouri, United States. It is thirty miles southwest from Jefferson City. The population was 4,895 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Eldon is located at...
. This later became the concept for Petticoat Junction
Petticoat Junction
Petticoat Junction is an American situation comedy produced by Filmways which originally aired on CBS from 1963 to 1970. The series is one of three interrelated shows about rural characters created by Paul Henning; the others are The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres.The setting for the series...
.
Later in life Henning and his wife Ruth donated land to a conservation area near Branson, Missouri
Branson, Missouri
Branson is a city in Taney County in the U.S. state of Missouri. It was named after Reuben Branson, postmaster and operator of a general store in the area in the 1880s....
. The conservation area is 1,534-acres of oak and hickory forest, steep hills, and glades with four designated trails created by the Missouri Department of Conservation and one longer trail created largely by the members of Boy Scout Troop 2001. His wife Ruth Barth Henning died, aged 88 from a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
on January 15, 2002 at their home in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. Henning retired to Toluca Lake, California, dying in a Burbank
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
hospital on March 25, 2005, aged 93.