She was really typecast as Ellie May, and didn’t do herself any favors by spending the rest of her life dressing and doing her hair as Ellie May. But she didn’t do much acting after that show was cancelled. She should be compensated for Mattel’s use of her likeness for this doll. I hope she wins.
I think you are right. She should have just let that role go for the rest of her life. From what I have heard, Donna Douglaw was a better person, not that she didn’t have a few skeletons in the coset. Mary Ann was slightly hotter but when you get as hot as Ellie Mae then you are good enough.
Actually I saw an interview with Max Baer and he said she actually was quite a bit more attractive in person. He said that hairdo didn’t do her any favors.
Interestingly, Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) was secretly married and Donna Doublas (Ellie Mae) had a baby back in Louisianna. She got very homesick for the baby and would have probably been better off going home to it.
Oddly enough the first two seasons of the Beverly Hillbillies have many episodes in the public domain since CBS who bought the rights failed to renew the copyright for those.