DUKE BECOMES A FATHER was from Season 1 of the Beverly Hillbillies CBS comedy series, first shown in April, 1963. There are two interwoven story lines. Mademoiselle Denise is a beautiful young French woman who is visiting Beverly Hills with her purebred dog and snobby Mrs. Drysdale thinks her own poodle is the father of the new litter...but as the episode's title reveals, it's Jed's bloodhound Duke with the honors. Meanwhile, Mlle. Denise has entranced Jed and since she cannot speak English, he enlists the aid of Miss Hathaway to give him a lesson speaking French. It's his expectation that after one hour he will be able to completely understand his new-found love that reminded me of how so many apps and language learning courses nowadays make similar claims when becoming fluent in another tongue is much more involved and usually necessitates a degree of immersion in its home environment, surrounded by its speakers. Jed sits and stumbles through Miss Hathaway's language lesson and, perplexed when it is almost over with very little progress made, says "Them last five minutes must be doozies!". Granny and Jethro both shine in this episode, and Jed makes his recurring comment about his cousin Pearl's son, "One of these days I'm gonna have to have a l-o-o-n-g talk with that boy!"...
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