Years before the hillbilly Clampetts moved to Beverly Hills, The Real McCoys ruled the country sitcom roost. It was the first of its kind, spawning not only The Beverly Hillbillies but Andy Griffith, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, Mayberry RFD and eventually The Waltons, HeeHaw and the Dukes of Hazzard. It also gave three-time Academy Award winner Walter Brennan a new career as a television comic.
Writers Irving and Norman Pincus came up with the idea of a West Virginia family that moves to California's San Fernando Valley to start a new life. Brennan played patriarch Amos McCoy, the cantankerous grandfather who had no use for modern inventions, much to the dismay of his son Luke. Luke and new wife Kate lived with Grandpa and siblings Hassie and Little Luke. Helping to keep the family farm (and Grandpa) in check was Pepino Garcia, the Mexican farmhand who "came with the house" and addressed Amos as "Senor Amos." The scripts were standard sitcom fare, but the urban-rural twist helped make them appear relatively fresh for the time. Ironically, The Real McCoys almost never made it to the airwaves. The Pincus brothers couldn't sell the idea to any of the networks. But thanks to some clout (and funding) from Danny Thomas' production company (which would also launch Andy Griffith and The Dick Van Dyke Show, in addition to Thomas' own hit sitcom), The Real McCoys found a place at ABC in the fall of 1957. It was ignored at first, but two years later, The Real McCoys became the first sitcom in ABC's history to reach the top ten.
The McCoys move from Smokey Corners, West Virginia to a ranch in the San Fernando Valley of California, where Grampa Amos McCoy has inherited from his brother Ben.
They meet their neighbors, George MacMichael, who because Grandpa's best friend, and Flora, George's spinster sister who had had eyes for Amos. George and Amos are members of the Royal Order of the Mystic Nile Lodge.
But in spite of a seemingly idealic life, Grandpa seems to always be missing his life back in "West Virginny."
The undisputed star of the show, was Grandpa, a porch-rockin', gol-darnin', consarnin' old geezer with a wheezy voice who liked to meddle in practically everybody's affairs, neighbors and kin alike. Grandpappy Amos was an incorrigible codger who was against anything anyone else was for. He had the regulation Heart of Gold stuck away somewhere, but he was cantankerous as all get out. With his shoulders and arms jumping, Amos walked like a chicken with a limp. He bullied, he blustered, he cajoled, he did everything he could to get his own way.
The show ran on two different networks. First it was on ABC-TV for four seasons, and then it went to CBS-TV for its last two and during its six year run the show went on to win Emmys for actors Walter Brennan and Richard Crenna. The last time this show was ever seen was recently on TNN (formerly The Nashville Network before it changes the logo to The National Network). For those who like some down home spun country humor with a message in between, The Real McCoys was the show to watch and set the standard for other country sitcoms to follow


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