Noted Spanish muralist / TUE 4-9-24 / Some Art Deco works / First doll to be marketed as an "action figure" / Hey Mr. Gazillionaire from Omaha / Nickname shared by two Spice Girls

Constructor: Caroline Sommers and Freddie Cheng

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: You Name It! — famous names ending -ET or -ETT are reimagined as "[verb] + IT" phrases directed at the people with those last names:

Theme answers:

• "WARREN, BUFF IT!" (20A: "Hey, Mr. Gazillionaire from Omaha—go shine the car!")
• "LYLE, LOVE IT!" (34A: "Hey, Julia Roberts's ex—you're doing great!")
• "JED, CLAMP IT!" (42A: "Hey, patriarch of '60s television—shut up!") 
• "CATE, BLANCH IT!" (56A: "Hey, acclaimed Australian actress—prepare the broccoli!")

Word of the Day: Jed Clampett (42A) —

The Beverly Hillbillies is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1971. It had an ensemble cast featuring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer Jr. as the Clampetts, a poor, backwoods family from Silver Dollar City in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, who move to posh Beverly Hills, California, after striking oil on their land. The show was produced by Filmways and was created by Paul Henning. It was followed by two other Henning-inspired "country cousin" series on CBS: Petticoat Junction and its spin-off Green Acres, which reversed the rags-to-riches, country-to-city model of The Beverly Hillbillies.

The Beverly Hillbillies ranked among the top 20 most-watched programs on television for eight of its nine seasons, ranking as the No.1 series of the year during its first two seasons, with 16 episodes that still remain among the 100 most-watched television episodes in American history. It accumulated seven Emmy nominations during its run. It remains in syndicated reruns, and its ongoing popularity spawned a 1993 film adaptation by 20th Century Fox. [...] 

Good-natured patriarch Jed Clampett (portrayed by Buddy Ebsen) has little formal education and is naive about the world outside the rural area where he lived but has a great deal of wisdom and common sense. His forebears are revealed in series 1, episode 25, to have come to America before the Mayflower arrived. However, he later denies this to avoid offending Mrs. Drysdale. He is the widower of Granny's daughter, Rose Ellen (Buddy Ebsen was only 5 years younger than Irene Ryan). He is the son of Luke Clampett and his wife and has a sister called Myrtle. In episode 13, it is revealed that Jed's grandfather was 98 when he married Jed's grandmother, who was 18. In an early episode, Jed tells Elly May that she is the spitting image of her mother. He is usually the straight man to Granny and Jethro's antics. His catchphrase is, "Welllllll, doggies!"

• • •

["ANGELA ... BASS IT!]

Short one today because there's really not a lot to say about this one. You either find the wacky cluing funny today or you don't, and mostly the whole thing felt way too contrived. Those theme clues are trying really hard to be wacky, possibly because they're the puzzle's entire reason for existing. The problem was that after getting one, I didn't really need to read the whole latter part of the remaining theme clues. I knew what the trick was and so "Julia Roberts's ex" was enough, -NCHIT was enough (didn't even have to read the clue there). The problem was also that they weren't that funny. Lots of forced zaniness for a kind of ho-hum payoff. It's not that the theme is bad—seems like a reasonable kind of Tuesday theme, but the humor doesn't land, possibly because once you get your first themer, the rest are kind of like "yeah, you already told that joke, got it." It's like when a kid makes you laugh and then keeps going back to the same well to try to recreate that laugh. You're adorable, kid, but the moment has passed. Also, there's one glaring inconsistency in the theme clues, which is that three of the "[blank] IT!" phrases are commands (imperative mood), but "LOVE IT" is just an "I"-less statement—no command involved. If there'd been more going on with the theme, something more interesting and complex than what we've got here, that "LOVE IT" aberration probably wouldn't even have registered with me. But this one doesn't have a next level, a revealer or other element to make you go "Oh!" It just shows you its trick and then putters along showing and reshowing it to you. Meanwhile, the rest of the grid (almost all 3s 4s and 5s) has very little to show you beyond a few nice longer answers. So this is a sturdy, puzzle-shaped puzzle, familiar in every way—nothing to make you cringe, but no good surprises either. 

It's weird that a grid can have six Downs of 7 letters or more and still feel this bland, but after those six Downs (and the themers, of course), literally every answer in this 76-answer puzzle is a 3, 4, or 5. Sixty-six short answers, am I doing the math right?? That's enough to put you in a crosswordese COMA—though thankfully the puzzle steers clear of most true Crosswordese (the short stuff you see almost exclusively in crosswords). Only EKE and RAHS really fall in that category. Oof, and ERTES, sorry, my brain's really trying to suppress that one (27D: Som Art Deco works). But that's just three oofy bits. Otherwise, the grid is polished well enough, it's just that you can only do so much, sparkle-wise, when your grid's almost all 3-4-5s. And the clues don't seem to be trying that hard to be interesting either. I know I've complained about clues trying too hard lately—hopefully there's a happy medium out there somewhere. 

[Just an incredible "People Also Search For" assortment]

Since I am old and knew the "Patriarch of 60s television" with just JED in place, the theme was easy to pick up and there were almost no speed bumps to be found after that. Just open highway, right to the end, with only a little wobble as I tried to remember which of the seemingly endless spellings of "CATE" Ms. Blanchett was. Actually, I guess there's just KATE and CATE, but it feels like there might be a CAIT or KAYT lurking out there, so I just let the crosses tell me the answer. Oh, one other wobble—I had no idea GOYA did murals (!?!?). [Spanish muralist] to me is SERT, which is a tic only a true crossword-solving veteran is going to have. They used to throw SERT at you every week. Here a SERT, there a SERT. Nowadays you only see him about once a year, but back in the Maleska era, hoo boy. Anyway, GOYA was also (apparently!) a noted muralist, in addition to being a painter and printmaker, wow, OK. Here's some information about that:

The Black Paintings (Spanish: Pinturas negras) is the name given to a group of 14 paintings by Francisco Goya from the later years of his life, likely between 1819 and 1823. They portray intense, haunting themes, reflective of both his fear of insanity and his bleak outlook on humanity. In 1819, at the age of 72, Goya moved into a two-story house outside Madrid that was called Quinta del Sordo (Deaf Man's Villa). Although the house had been named after the previous owner, who was deaf, Goya too was nearly deaf at the time as a result of an unknown illness he had suffered when he was 46. The paintings originally were painted as murals on the walls of the house, later being "hacked off" the walls and attached to canvas by owner Baron Frédéric Émile d'Erlanger. They are now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. (wikipedia) (my emph.)

[Witches' Sabbath, 1819-23]

Favorite answer of the day, by a mile, was OVERPACKED (which debuts today) (30D: Brought nine possible outfits for a one-night stay, e.g.). I am not what you'd call an overpacker, and yet I do not think that I have ever felt like I underpacked, which means I'm overpacking all the time. Every time we travel, we reassure ourselves, "they have stores where we're going." You know, in case you end up really needing something you didn't bring. I once bought running shoes on a trip to CO because the weather was so nice I couldn't not run. Got so mad that I left my shoes at home that I just went out and bought a pair. Best pair of running shoes I ever owned. The only kinds I'll wear now. Not telling you which kind until Saucony agrees to an endorsement deal. Dammit, I mean, Asics! Brooks! Keds! Definitely not Saucony.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. one last thing: I don't think "CLAMP IT" is something people say. I googled ["clamp it" shut up] and the first hit was the NYTXW site. "ZIP IT" I'd believe, or "STIFLE IT," if you're patriarch of '70s TV Archie Bunker:

[OK, this clip doesn't have "STIFLE IT" in it but it made me laugh so it's the clip I'm showing]

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