10 Actors You Didn’t Know Played The Same Character In More Than One TV Show
7. Frank Cady - Sam Drucker (Petticoat Junction & The Beverly Hillbillies)
The Beverly Hillbillies was a huge hit in the early '60s. Created by Paul Henning, the show followed the Clampetts, a poor family that moves to Beverly Hills after they strike oil. Rags-to-riches, fish-out-of-water hilarity ensues. You know the drill.
The show's popularity was so great that 16 of its episodes are among the 100 most-viewed TV episodes in American history. Henning followed his smash creation up with Petticoat Junction, a show about a family of hoteliers, which spawned a spinoff called Green Acres.
Frank Cady appeared as general store owner Sam Drucker across a combined 310 episodes of both Petticoat Junction and Green Acres, establishing himself as a regular presence on American television.
Henning decided to also include Cady's character on The Beverly Hillbillies. Drucker appeared in ten episodes of the show in its final seasons, implying that the shows were connected without ever outright stating it.
You might think this is breaking our "no spinoffs" rule, but the two shows were never explicitly linked. Besides, Cady should be better known for his work during one of TV's golden ages. So there.