Rural sitcoms of the 1960s

Remember thinking about all this whilst listening to the Buck Owens installments of Cocaine & Rhinestones when Tyler Mahan Coe discussed the Rural Purge and how Hee Haw ended up in First Run Syndication or whatever it’s called.

Lassie too.

Green Acres was probably my favorite of these, both because it was so wacky and because of the Odd Couple energy of Oliver and Lisa. Beverly Hillbillies I liked fine but didn’t like any overdependence on Mr. Drysdale or Phil Silvers and his shenanigans. The Petticoat Jungle theme maybe was even better than “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” although the Green Acres theme is good too, they are all keepers. I definitively liked some casts better than others on PJ although at this remove can’t remember which, probably depended on which sister I had a proto-crush on.

This thread (+ Gilligan's Island) = the shows I would watch when I stayed home sick from school.

Reminds me I started this strange Gilligan-related thread once.

Loved Green Acres--I think I picked up on the surrealism by the time I was a teenager. Watched The Beverly Hillbillies as a kid, doubt I'd get much out of it now. (Could be wrong.) Never liked Petticoat Junction. Used to watch Hee Haw, too--probably a lot of great musical performances I didn't properly appreciate.

I used to do a media thing comparing two sitcoms--a current one and something from the '60 or '70s--prefaced by a slide show with clips. Grade 6s just didn't get Green Acres at all.

Years ago somebody did a pretty good write-up in the VIllage Voice on the trilogy, god knows where it can be found now.

green acres and petticoat were the ones for me - they were on back to back, before i went to school, and i watched them almost every day. when petticoat junction would come on, my mom would peek her head around the corner and we'd both whisper "Petticoat!" and laugh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2pfjwSpjIY

I read somewhere else that the male lead of the radio series was Gale Gordon.

And here is Henning again, commenting on the purge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDVjy2Jx8Kg

https://outsider.com/entertainment/green-acres-how-show-created-cast/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FFgxJsjqkg

Still remember being pleasantly surprised to see Mr. Drucker/Frank Cady in Rear Window when it was first re-released. Not sure what else he did although I just read that he was also on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.

https://blog.aarp.org/legacy/where-was-actor-frank-cady-all-those-years-answer-everywhere

Frank Cady also has a small but memorable role in The Bad Seed.

...which I now see is mentioned in that link.

Waiting for Josefa to come back and mention his H 5-0 appearance.

I had to look up which episode that is. "Mother's Little Helper" from 1974, in which Anthony Zerbe plays a deranged right wing law-and-order vigilante. Nasty episode, but a good one.

Thanks.

Trying to remember who alternated with June Lockhart on PJ.

June Lockhart essentially filled the absence of Bea Benaderet after Benaderet died (in 1968)

Right. Who was also on Grandby's Green Acres with Gale Gordon.

Found this whilst awaiting your response: https://www.metv.com/stories/june-lockhart-quietly-turned-petticoat-junction-into-a-rather-progressive-sitcom

Feel like I could write a pretty good undergrad paper on Green Acres regarding gender roles and class politics

Do it! Link it!
Let's not forget that Pat Buttram, AKA Green Acres' fateful circuit-riding peddler (which was a real thing, town, country, and even city' one of Saul Bellow's characters did it in Chicago, showing his regular customers, retired, well-to-do immigrants, the latest watches, etc.), also shone in two v. memorable 1964 Alfred Hitchcock Hour eps: "The Jar," adapted from a Ray Bradbury story, but with a cavalcade of character actors---incl. Jocelyn Brando, Marlon's big sister, I think the older lady who had played Ma Joad, Geoge Goober Lindsay, pretty sure Mr. Ziffel--- director-stirred to a dizzying swirl of camp, though it's not bad of its kind, everybody's a total pro, come what may.
And! "Lonely Place," in which cheap-ass/insensitive/furtive yet wide-eyed, "Who, meee?" farmer Pat hires psycho Bruce Dern and won't let him go 'til crops are in, despite lonely wife Teresa Wright's increasing distress.
(Also the TV-repair shop guy from Griffith Show was on Hitchcock a bunch of times.)

Ohh yeah--here's cast of "The Jar," from the second half of Season 2, which was in 1964 "Lonely Place" was first half of Season 3, also '64):
Pat Buttram — cast: Charlie Hill
Collin Wilcox Paxton — cast: Thedy Sue Hill (as Collin Wilcox)
William Marshall — cast: Jahdoo
Jane Darwell — cast: Granny Carnation
Carl Benton Reid — cast: Gramps Medknowe
James Best — cast: Tom Carmody (also on Griffith and Twilight Zone several times)
George Lindsey — cast: Juke Marmer
Jocelyn Brando — cast: Emma Jane
Slim Pickens — cast: Clem Carter
Alice Backes — cast: Mrs. Tridden
Sammy Reese — cast: Milt Marshall (as Sam Reese)
Marlene De Lamater — cast: Eva Ann (as Marlene DeLamater)
Billy Barty — cast: The Barker

Thanks. Oliver arguing with Mr. Haney was one of the all-time classic bits that never got old to me. Thank my favorite or at least the most bizarre example was the one about the "pore key."

Hmm. Seasons 1 and 2 can be watched for free on Tubi, but that one is Season 6 and must be purchased or watched on dodgy Dailymotion etc.

I’ve noticed a little anomaly in the one season of Petticoat Junction in which Swedish actress Gunilla Hutton takes over the role of Billie Joe. She appears in a few episodes at the start and then just vanishes for about one-third of the season, during which time the series becomes effectively a two-girl show. There’s no in-show explanation for her disappearance (unless I missed it). Wonder what that was about.

Google sez hepatitis.

Huh, didn’t expect that

What was your hypothesis?

Frank Cady also makes a small appearance in Wilder's Ace In The Hole.

Seems like he was in a ton of television shows too but don't recall seeing those.

Also: The Petticoat Jungle = Best Andre Leon Talley memoir.

How does Operation Petticoat fit in?

I never got around to formulating a theory about the mysterious disappearance of Gunilla Hutton. I guess I’m getting lazy.

I remember when they only showed Floyd the Barber sitting down, and only in profile. Must've had a stroke or something

Which is my cue to post this for the umpteenth time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OlYeufpLcI

When these sitcoms were new and I was a child I watched them all, some more devotedly than others, but all with sufficient frequency to say I knew them well. I can still sing the theme songs to Andy Griffith Show, Beverley Hillbillies, Green Acres, and ofc Gilligan's Island, but not Petticoat Junction (it must have been a pretty rotten theme song for me to forget it so completely). Here's how I rate them: I just don't care any more.

Green Acres is just one weird a$$ show. They did not have a wall on the bedroom and the phone was up on top of a pole. The pig could pretty much go anywhere it wanted and sometimes would be a part of the plot of the episode.

Wondering who was that one city slicker, that one guy, that one character, the railroad man.

Charles Lane as Homer Bedloe. He was a Capra regular and did tons of tv as well.

Rotten theme song? Forget it so completely? Its lyrics and chug-a-lug choo choo train rhythm are burned on the back of James Redd’s brane as permanently as the tattoo The Scientific People affixed to Gully Foyle’s face in The Stars My Destination.

Come ride a little train
That’s a goin’ down the track
To the junction

There’s a little hotel
Called The Shady Rest
At the junction

Lots of curves
You bet
But even more
When you get
To the junction
(Petticoat
Junction)

Okay, I mixed the first and second verse a little but still

In the final iteration one of the sisters was played by Meredith MacRae, daughter of s Gordon and Sheila. Completely forgot about her, as well as her being on My Three Sons.

Speaking of unforgettable theme songs, here’s a connection I was unaware of until just now:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Saunders#Starring_roles

In 1973–74, Saunders played "Betsy" on the situation-comedy western Dusty's Trail. Created by Sherwood Schwartz and starring Bob Denver, the show was based on Gilligan's Island, but set in the wild west; her character "Betsy" was an ingénue drawn after Dawn Wells' character of "Mary Ann". Saunders quipped: "It was the same show, just no coconuts.

Oh you mentioned Meredith MacRae in the OP I see, sorry.

Not quite as surreal as Green Acres itself but
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbfX4bi8Epo

The first Bobbie Joe was Pat Woodell, whose acting career took a suprising final turn when she appeared in a few lurid drive-in films, such as Jack Hill's The Big Doll House with Pam Grier, and The Roommates with Marki Bey (of Hal Ashby's The Landlord).

Interesting.

Earlier speedwatched the "Christmas in Hooterville" episode of The Beverly Hillbillies. Mind = blown.

Starts out promisingly with Jethro opening his presents under the tree and talking to Jed on the phone.

Then there's some business with Mr. Drysdale in bed with Ellie's bear.

There's some stuff about Eb pitching woo with Elly Mae on a tiny hand-pumped two-person stand-up railcar and Grannie thinking Mr. Drysdale is about to propose to her.

Frank Cady as usual seems to steal every scene he's in. Finally, time stops when Steve and Betty Jo walk in and Steve sings some kind of sub-Robert Goulet number.

Steve and Betty Jo were married in real life for several years as well. She was the daughter of the show runner (although don't think they had that word back then), Paul Henning.

Along with Lori Saunders, Jeannine Riley was also in Dusty's Trail, thereby making it a cross-pollination of Gilligan's Island, F Troop AND Petticoat Junction.

In summary, at this point I feel like Green Acres is the only one I'd be willing to watch a random episode of from beginning to end, whereas with the other two there would have to be a lot of cherry-picking.

Wish I could find the Hitchcock interview I thought I recalled with him talking about how much he liked Frank Cady.

I’ve seen sources that mistakenly conflate Jeannine Riley with Jeannie C. Riley of “Harper Valley PTA” fame. Two different people.

Yes, have see something like that as well. Also, I need to type “Elly May” again a few times to remember how it is actually spelled.

Yo, Aimless!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRhi8Tk9nNE

^still leaves me kinda indifferent

https://www.metv.com/stories/mike-minor-made-a-date-with-linda-henning-his-first-day-on-petticoat-junction

xpost wikiTVT Records was launched in 1985 with the release of Television's Greatest Hits' first issue, the double LP compilation 65 TV Themes! From the 50's and The 60's. Creem's reviewer opined that the Talking Heads should cover the Petticoat Junction theme, and can still imagine Byrne playing and singing, all of them aboard that antsy, chuggin' momentum, down the track but not too fast, comin' to the Junction.

And yes, droppin' their Gs along the way.

Already can't remember if we discussed Frank Cady being in the Andy Griffith Show pilot playing the town drunk but maybe they wanted a more conventional portrayal.

https://www.metv.com/stories/this-andy-griffith-show-episode-had-a-subtle-tie-back-to-the-pilot-episode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfQPTpFXbvk

Happy Birthday June Lockhart!

Also: Pat Buttram based Mr. Haney on an old acquaintance: Col. Tom Parker. #onethread

Slogging my way through Petticoat Junction s4 in which goddamn Steve Elliott sings a boring song in almost every episode. But he does sport a nice variety of windbreakers and together with his tapered chinos and suede Chelsea boots he cuts a nice figure as a 1960s casual action man. This is the the season when Billie Joe fully thinks Steve is gonna marry her, little does she know.

Guess I never told my story about sending away for celebrity photos from an ad in the back of a comic book when I was about 8. There wasn't even an order form to select from, so you could select any star. I had crushes on Anne Francis from Honey West, Goldie Hawn, and Jeannine Riley (who happened to look much like my third grade teacher) so I ordered those. The first two arrived fairly quickly, and then after a long delay a second shipment arrived... with a photo of Jeannie C. Riley. I was crushed.

Mo Rocca recently did a good piece on the Rural Purge: https://mobituaries.com/news/the-podcast/the-rural-purge-death-of-the-country-broadcasting-system/

*bookmarks thread*

It’s so sad when Charley Pratt leaves the Junction because they give him what is clearly, in retrospect, a send-off show just months (weeks?) before the actor Smiley Burnette passed away. Floyd and Charley are such a dependable source of laughs on the show. And then suddenly Floyd is running the train by himself with no room given for mourning.