Never mind that Mr. White can't afford a car. True story: he met his future wife while exploring the idea of stealing hers.

        Jesco is a tap-dancing, Elvis-worshiping, West Virginia eccentric. He became a cult figure thanks to a documentar y made in '91 by an obscure public TV station.

        Now the director of that underground hit, Dancing Outlaw, has become an adviser to CBS as it updates The Beverly Hillbillies, using a family recruited from Appalachia.

        This is a terrifying thought. The man who brought us Jesco, in all his gas-sniffing glory, may shape the Appalachian image for prime time.

        It's also, dare I say, a reaso n to watch. Jesco was undeniably real. If CBS must remake a bad show from the '60s, at least it has an adviser with an eye for the genuine.

Meet the adviser

        His name is Jacob Young of West Virginia University.

        CBS' attempt to wring more profit out of the reality-show gimmick has infuriated some Appalachians, who rightly object to tired stereotypes.

        But Mr. Young argues that s uch critics overlook the central premise of the original Beverly Hillbillies.

        “I liked that show because, in a Jewish-writer-sort-of-way, it gave some credence to what people around here call "wood smarts,”' says Mr. Young.

        Patriarch Jed Clampett saw through Hollywood pretense. He was the show's sharpest character, forever out-thinking the rich banker.

        Mr. Young wouldn't say much about the new series, still in early stages. But he did promise this: Jesco White will not be any sort of model. He was one-of-a-kind.

Wanted: honesty

        I think the CBS show is a mistake. Wood-smart people can't be plopped in California and expected to approximate a sitcom. The very idea is patronizing.

        What TV needs instead is room for honest documentaries on the human condition — warts and all.

        My favorite image from Dancing Outlaw is Jesco tap-dancing on top of a doghouse, with a hound looking baleful below.

        Jesco learned to dance from his father, who was shot and killed trying to eject a drunk from the family land.

        In the video, Jesco gets tearful about this. He also admits to yelling, “I'm tired of eating slimy, sloppy eggs!” while holding a knife to his wife's neck.

        Then there's Jesco's mother, Birty Mae, who bore 11 children and lost four to violence or car wrecks. But she never asked for help, she says proudly, and the video shows her surrounded by smiling generations.

        Critics of Dancing Outlaw included Appalshop, the Eastern Kentucky media consortium that produces gentle films about people hunting ginseng and making chairs.

        “I agree with (Appalshop) that you need to show more than one side of Appalachia,” says Julien Nitzberg, who worked on Dancing Outlaw and is now a screenwriter.

        “But you can only show quilting women 200 million times. There is wild, cool stuff out there. Embrace it.”

        e-mail kgutierrez@enquirer.com or call (859) 578-5584.

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