MovieChat Forums > Petticoat Junction (1963) Discussion > What happened to Steve + Betty Jo's baby...

What happened to Steve + Betty Jo's baby boy?

posted 11 years ago by diof09
30 replies | jump to latest

Season 6, episode 25 Tune In Next Year threw me for a huge loop. In it, June Lockhart's Janet Craig is (once again) leaving the valley this time to become a neurologist. But alas, the clencher (and talk about dropping a bomb!) was she was going to stay because news from a far away big city confirmed that Betty Jo and Steve were now pregnant with a baby boy! So many problems with that! Needless to say, no word was mentioned of it again and how implausible could it possibly be that a doctor would turn down such an attractive offer to play baby doctor to Steve and Betty Jo? And was the medical technology advanced enough in 1969 that doctors could really determine the mother was having a baby boy at clearly what would have been the first trimester of her pregnancy? It's almost like they didn't know how to end this show and pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat.

[–] sjbradford 11 years ago

[–] pfanderson5 10 years ago

Perhaps Betty Jo had second thoughts and decided she didn't want it and had an abortion in between seasons. That baby would have been just one more thing tying her to her controlling husband. It certainly would have certainly shaken up the Valley.

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Seriously? This was a television script that was written over 40 years ago. Betty Jo didn't really have a baby, and Steve Elliot wasn't a real husband. They were actors who went home at the end of the day.

[–] FlushingCaps 10 years ago

Actually, pfanderson, when the actors who played Steve and Betty Jo went home at the end of the day, they went to the same house because they were married.

[–] pfanderson5 10 years ago

LOL! That's right, they were.

[–] nycruise-1 9 years ago

The death of that poor little baby boy by abortion has haunted me all my life.

I pray for his soul every night, asking God to forgive the sin of mother and father - Betty Jo and Steve Elliott - for having aborted him!

I am a gay man in love with Steve Elliott - but I know a SINNER when I see one!

Betty Jo and Steve violated God's law when it comes to life...now I must VIOLATE Steve...

"Don't call me 'honey', mac."
"Don't call me 'mac'... HONEY!"

[–] diof09 11 years ago

My own take is the producers were planning to get rid of Dr. Craig but at the 11th hour, the higher ups (perhaps CBS executives?) decided to keep her on. They therefore had to scramble to come up with something big to make her stay. Considering how they left a huge loose end with Kate Bradley "being away" I guess they decided to just ignore the second pregnancy for the 7th season. I'm surprised they just didn't take this episode out of rotation so it never had to be brought up again. I have read from good authority that the only reason for the 7th season of Petticoat Junction in the first place was that CBS wanted to be able to bundle a 5-year color package for the rerun market.

[–] shopguyperry 10 years ago

It's a shame CBS choose money over quality. I wonder what would have happened to the show if Lost in Space hadn't been cancelled and June Lockhart proved unavailable?

[–] sjbradford 10 years ago

In the long run, the show would have been better off syndicating the first five seasons, even though two of them were in black-and-white. The quality was much higher, and my guess is that it would have had a longer run in syndication like its sister series.

[–] shopguyperry 10 years ago

You're right. They should have done that.

[–] diof09 10 years ago

I think the reason they ignored the first two seasons was the whole point was to sell the color too. B&W was the old fuddy and color was hip and in and the happenin'.... or the way they talked back then. :)

[–] IveGotASecret 10 years ago

I was excited at the prospect of Janet Craig leaving. I generally love June Lockhart, but couldn't stand her or her character on Petticoat Junction.

I also wondered why they brought her on, when the last time they had the Kate look-a-like Rosemary Forsyth fill in.

I think what made it worse was none of the Bradley girls ever mentioned their mother again after Betty Jo gave birth. She went back to take care of a relative and it's like she never existed for them.

[–] diof09 10 years ago

Actually they did mention her again at the beginning of the 7th season after they were teaching toddler Kathy Jo to swim in the water tower. Bobbie Jo said wistfully that, "mom taught us to swim in the water tower too."

[–] willowtara 10 years ago

I remember at least one mention of "since Mom died."
Also, Uncle Joe mentioned that Kate had left the girls the Shady Rest.
I regret they didn't have a show about her death but that wasn't done back then

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] diof09 10 years ago

Comedy didn't really recognize a main character dying back then. I think they could've at least written a story explaining her absence better even if they didn't want to acknowledge her death.

[–] trollomatic 10 years ago

<<<Comedy didn't really recognize a main character dying back then. I think they could've at least written a story explaining her absence better even if they didn't want to acknowledge her death.

Actually, the tv show "Make Room for Daddy"/"The Danny Thomas Show" did years before Petticoat Junction ever premiered.

Also the show "The Real Mc Coys" did way before the PJ episodes without Kate premiered.

[–] cmulwee001 10 years ago

That does not mean she died though. People often talk about things their parents taught them even while they're alive. That WAS a very unusual episode. The focus is almost entirely on dog. The people seem to fade into the background after the MOONLIGHT BAY number

That episode was okay but as a whole,Season 7 was quite bad.

[–] cclowell 10 years ago

The oddest mention of "Kate" following Bea Benaderet's passing occurs in the episode after they announce that Betty Jo and Steve are going to have another baby (TUNE IN NEXT YEAR?). I just saw this episode on ME TV a couple of days ago. I think its' title is BY THE BOOK.

In it, Betty Jo is clearly very pregnant and much is made of her condition. When she sits on Steve's knee, he jokingly yells as if she's crushed it and when she takes his dinner tray out to the kitchen, she has trouble fitting through the kitchen door with the tray because of her condition.

The plot has Steve trying to land a government contract to help pay for the new baby who he kiddingly refers to has "Herschel." Betty Jo wants to order some baby supplies but Steve tells her to hold off until he finds out if he's been awarded the contract or not.

There are several very unusual aspects to this episode: 1. Although she had passed away some time ago, the opening credits for this episode show Bea Benaderet as the star with the old lyrics "It is run by Kate come and be her guest, etc....) 2. I think this is the last time Betty Jo is shown to be pregnant with the new baby. In the next episode Betty Jo and Steve move into the Shady Rest with Kathy Jo.; 3. Dr. Craig doesn't appear in the episode; 4. After one of the musical numbers with everyone gathered around the piano singing, Sam Drucker says: "That's why I kind of miss Kate. Oh, no offense Billie Jo (who was playing the piano), but your mom used to play louder and that helped cover up our mistakes." Billie Jo laughs and says: "Well, SHE'LL BE BACK SOON."

If any episode should have been pulled from the syndication package it should have been this one. It makes no sense at all. What were they thinking?

PS I like June Lockhart's performance as Dr. Craig. She was very pretty and she had a nice edge to her personality that kept things from becoming too "folksy." I like Rosemary DeCamp, but I'm glad they didn't keep her on as the "Aunt Helen" character who filled in for the absent "Kate" when Benaderet's illness first caused her to miss several episodes.

[–] sjbradford 10 years ago

That episode was made for earlier in the season - Betty Jo was pregnant with her daughter in that one. That's why Kate is still in the credits and Janet is nowhere to be seen - it was made with Bea Benaderet was still alive and before June Lockhart joined the cast. Why it was held until the end of the season is beyond me, though.

[–] joe_538 10 years ago

I told myself she miscarried, and they never spoke of it again. As for the baby’s gender, wishful thinking?

[–] boxerrebellion 10 years ago

There were many 'folksy' ways people predicted babies back then.... round vs. pointy belly is the one that comes to mind - but I'm guessing that wouldn't apply in the first trimester.

[–] accountinggeek2003 10 years ago

"Tune In Next Year" was intended to be the last episode of PJ when it was originally filmed because it was widely believed that the show was going to be canceled due to poor ratings. That's why the writers threw in the loop about the new baby at the end since they didn't think that they would have to expand on the idea with any more episodes.

But the good folks at CBS decided not to cancel the show because they wanted another season of color episodes for syndication purposes. Back then having 5 years of color episodes were considered crucial for selling reruns of a TV show. Ratings for the 7th season actually improved and the cast and crew thought that there would be an 8th season. But, it didn't happen.

[–] crlnrgbrght5 10 years ago

Betty Jo ended up with Steve? The episodes I'm watching is the ones where the blonde sister is interested in him.

[–] thetaylors604 10 years ago

In the earlier seasons, Steve was Billie Jo's boyfriend. But when the real-life actors fell in love, it was decided that their characters would too.

[–] thetaylors604 10 years ago

I can only guess that they expected it to be the last episode of the show, then it was not cancelled after all and came back the next fall. No, it wasn't possible to predict the baby's sex back then. Dr. Craig was guessing or hoping it would be a boy since the Elliotts already had a girl.

[–] Videoguy7579 10 years ago

And was the medical technology advanced enough in 1969 that doctors could really determine the mother was having a baby boy at clearly what would have been the first trimester of her pregnancy?

No, I don't believe they had that kind of technology back then. I think the earliest era when doctors could tell the gender (and even then, it was often hit or miss) was around the mid-1980s. (I may be off on the time - someone else may have more accurate info on that.)

By the early 90s, it was pretty common to know the gender.

[–] cd31989 10 years ago

Having watched Seasons 6 and now 7 on METV, I was confused when seeing "By The Book" after "Tune In Next Year". I looked it up, and apparently "By The Book" was the original 4th produced episode of S6, however, after "Only A Husband" (the 3rd episode of S6) Bea got sick again, and probably wouldn't return, so the producer decided to skip to the episode where Betty Jo has the baby to include Kate, who only was well enough to provide her voice. After that, "By The Book" must have been forgotten, so they inserted it at the end of the season. But it doesn't make sense. It would have been fine to keep it in order, because in the birth episode, Kate is suddenly away again. She was in this episode, and they mention this, even with her credits still on screen. It's a shame they still play it in that order in syndication.