Petticoat Junction Without Kate and Floyd

Great viewpoint on this topic. This morning, MeTV aired the season 5 finale, "Kate's Homecoming." This episode, for all intents and purposes, served as the only episode- or, perhaps, the episode giving the MOST appreciation and tribute to Bea Benaderet. I watched it with special focus and Benaderet visibly teared up through the musical tributes by the band and Sam's quartet in the Pixley sequence. And, of course, it was both tragic and frustrating that Ms. Benaderet would only be in 3 more complete episodes (and in the 3rd one, only in one scene) before passing on and forcing TPTB to 'improvise' the 4th episode where Kate becomes a grandmother- and isn't actually on camera at all. Suffice it to say, I truly missed the lady.

Let's remember that in that era, either characters simply disappeared without comment or with little comment, or they were replaced with different actors. I seem to remember that the reason was that TV executives felt that the audience would not accept a death of a beloved character, especially that of a main character.

I think of Bewitched in that Aunt Clara was just not seen again after Marion Lorne passed away; and when Alice Pearce passed away, she was replaced by Sandra Gould after a few episodes with Mary Grace Canfield. (Canfield played her sister-in-law, who had come for a short stay to help out Abner while Gladys was away.) On Hogan's Heroes, Sgt. Kinchloe just vanished when Ivan Dixon left, but was replaced by Sgt. Baker, played by Kenneth Washington. The change was not mentioned; it just was.

M*A*S*H is often cited as the first show that mentioned a character's passing. (McLean Stevenson left the show and Col. Blake was killed when his plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan.) But I don't know whether that is true. When Jack Soo passed away during the run of Barney Miller, there wasn't a write-out episode per se, but there was a tribute show; and that seemed to have served the purpose of acknowledging the character's departure. M*A*S*H and Barney Miller are more modern shows in tone and temperament than Petticoat Junction, Bewitched, and Hogan's Heroes. I guess TV executives felt that the audience by then had matured enough to accept the passing of beloved characters.