What state is the show set in?

if you look over on the board for Green Acres, which was a spinoff of PJ, you'll see that that's been a subject of debate for a long, long time. The prevailing consensus is either southern Illinois or Missouri.

Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans

According to Wikipedia---

Extra Information:

Tropiano, Stephen (2000). TV Towns. New York, NY: TV Books L.L.C.. ISBN 1-57500-127-6.


The town of Eldon, Missouri (the town which Hooterville is based) was founded in 1882 and was supported schools and businesses for smaller surrounding communities.

The hotel in Hooterville was based on the Burris Hotel in Eldon.

It's never specifically revealed which state Hooterville is set in. The creator, Paul Henning, said that the motivation for the Shady Rest Hotel in Petticoat Junction came from his wife's grandparents that built a hotel in the middle of the country along a railroad near Eldon, Missouri in the south central part of the state. He grew up in Noel, Missouri, which is the far SW corner of the state near the Arkansas and Oklahoma borders. My guess is that it was probably intended to be either southern Missouri, northern Arkansas, or possibly eastern Oklahoma or southern Illinois.

It was revealed in 2 different episodes that I recall, that it definitely was not Indiana or Connecticut.

In one episode where Eb wants Mr. Douglas to send him college, Eb says he wants to go to MIT. Picute Oliver's bewildered look when he says "Massachusetts Insitute of Technology?" and replies no, "Middle Indiana Tonsorial. I want to become a barber." Mr. Douglas says "I'm not sending you all the way over to Indiana."
The second was in an episode where Oliver and Lisa go back to NYC for a vacation to visit old friends. One of Oliver's old female friends says that she heard he bought a farm in Connecticut and he says, no not Connecticut. The woman is talking a mile a minute and Oliver doesn't get to tell her where Hooterville is.

I would summarize the situation this way:

1. During the creation of Petticoat Junction, the show was set in southern MO, where the real-world inspiration was located. Evidence for this includes the early proposed title "Ozark Widow". Also, the fact that the train ride involves lots of curves (albeit fewer than when you get to the junction) suggests the Ozarks more than most of the generally flat Midwest.

2. During the actual run of PJ , the setting was generic middle America. The evidence here is the show's obvious avoidance of ever mentioning a specific state. As the various indirect "clues" for a particular state are contradictory, you can't trust any of them.

3. On Green Acres and on episodes where the GA reality spilled over onto PJ, Hooterville was obviously located in the Twilight Zone.

I believe it's Missouri. Though never stated on the show Paul Henning based the show on a hotel his wife family owned back in the 1930's and that hotel was in Eldon, MO. He visited that area often so I am betting his ideas were based from that area.

It might be in episode 1 where I recall Bedlow referring to a map where the Cannonball rail spur runs across the Missouri / Arkansas state line. I'll guess Hooterville is in MO, Pixley in AR, and the Shady Rest lies somewhere in the middle.

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New Jersey? Lol.