Hi, I've recently started watching Green Acres on TV. (hello not having cable!) I wasn't born whenit was out, so obviously I'm watching themout of order when ever they are on. I've seen comments on this messages board about if some characters are insane or not, and "surreal" episodes. Can anyone explain what this is referencing? I've been watching a while (and all out of order) and I have yet to see an episode like that. Thanks in advance!
shareI can try, but others might disagree with me:
The phone on the telephone pole that couldn't be brought into the house.
Mr. Haney and everything he had for sale. This guy showed up at the farm with all kinds of things for sale and a banner on his truck to fit the occasion.
The closet that opened up to the outside.
Arnold Ziffel, the pig who was more like a person.
Mrs. Douglas's horrible cooking. It was so bad, when Oliver's car broke down, he had her make some of her biscuits or pancakes and he used the dough to make a new head gasket for his car.
Eb insisting he's Oliver's son.
Ralph, the lesbian handyman.
Hank Kimball, the guy who worked for the state or whatever and how aloof he was.
The sounds of fifes playing every time Oliver got on his soapbox.
Those are the few I can think of.
The times when the show opened and we saw show credits on newly laid eggs or superimposed over the scene which was noticed and commented on by Lisa as if that sort of thing happens all the time.
The dehydrated dinners Mr. Drucker sold that would spring into hot, full course meals whenever water was added.
The whole Molly Turgis episode, in which the ghost of a dead woman would cause poltergeist phenomena whenever her name was spoken.
The fact that a wooden crate has a "nerve center" that, when struck hard enough, makes the crate fall apart, thereby simplifying the unpacking process.
The talking horse that Mr. Handy brought to the farm once.
The time Eb saw a UFO but whenever he tried to describe it to the military, all that came out was "Bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep!" because the aliens were censoring him.
The time Eleanor the cow swallowed Eb's transistor radio but it kept playing inside her, allowing him to keep track of a guess-the-song contest.
The time the hens laid square eggs.
The time Lisa and Oliver went to Washington and saw the Eiffel Tower outside their hotel window.
And many others.
Maybe the ultimate surreal aspect is how much 1920s culture and technology turns up. Seems that in Hooterville, clothing, vehicles, and appliances are either up-to-date (for the time) or else still in the 1920s, and even before. The 1930s-1950s somehow never left any impression there.
"Truth is its own evidence." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Eb watching Petticoat Junction, when the characters presumably lived right down the road.
Arnold the pig going to school.
A crown appearing on Oliver's head when he opens a case of margarine.
The Hungarian curse.
Receiving radio signals through the TV.
At least three different stories about how Oliver and Lisa met.
Oliver having an identical double (though every show did this then).
>>>At least three different stories about how Oliver and Lisa met.
But later on in the show, they explained why the stories of how Oliver and Lisa met were different each time.
Ralph was not a lesbo..
You Have a Hard Lip, Herbert..
Better Living Thru Chemistry
You should have access to youtube.com to see some of the eps referred to here, such as "The Ballad of Molly Turgis," or "Arnold Gets Drafted," or "Old Mail Day."
shareThank you all so much for your responses... As I was reading the list many of them started to strike me as quite odd...(like Arnold the Pig, for example) I guess I initially thought of them just as gags, but as I read your lists it all started to come together for me.
Thank you again for responding to my inquiry!
Keep watching the show. You will start to see some of the craziness!!!!!
shareHaney's "Baskethound" Cynthia falling in love with Arnold Ziffel. Just like Romeo and Julius, according to Mrs Douglas.
shareThings like, Oliver talking to Lisa in the kitchen, then he walks into the livingroom and she's sitting in there, or Lisa going into the bed room and comes out 2 seconds later wearing a different dress.
Eb moving his mouth, then his voice coming out a second later, them actually being able to read the credits, etc...
Create a society in which you would like to live, not knowing what you're going to come into it as.
The Fife Music that plays whenever Oliver makes a Speech that everyone can hear but him.
shareIt's not that surreal, but one of my favorite running gags has Eb, (among others) insinuating that Oliver is a drunk..
shareThe siding on the house could not be painted. It would show the color for a few seconds, and then the old wood would suck up the color and go back to looking old and decrepit.
I think the floor plan of the house was a little weird, seems like they would leave one room and arbitrarily pop out in whatever room they were supposed to be in.
Arnold understanding everything spoken around him and acting accordingly.
It was a little surreal to see their nice convertible amidst all the old rotten stuff on their farm
Oliver would never admit how wacky his ideas were about going back to farming when he knew NOTHING about anything farm related.
Oliver farming in his suits . Toaster popping when Lisa and Eb said 5 .
Fix the error reports on this site
I just saw the one today where Lisa is having a conversation speaking Hungarian to a Guatemalan woman speaking Spanish and they understood each other perfectly.
shareOlivers mysterious 'Thing" was the effil tower , Arnold going to the movies and getting drafted .Arnold going to Hollywood to be a star.
He replaces the Horse in Movie . Then He get replaced by horse .
He goes out on the Big town .
Lisa understands him .
Fix the error reports on this site
Adding to a post by winterview » Tue Dec 3 2013 10:15:41
The siding on the house could not be painted. It would show the color for a few seconds, and then the old wood would suck up the color and go back to looking old and decrepit.In one episode there was some kind of key to tighten up the wood on the side of the house, so that it would take the paint and keep it painted. The problem they found after taking a piece of board off the side of the house, you could hear the board "gasping for air"
I like to suspend all reality and enjoy the show for what it is, a surreal romp that comments on society roles, American culture, the 1960s era, and so on. It's so much better that way. When I was little I really didn't understand the show. Now I realize that a lot of the jokes and sight gags were going over my head. Green Acres, on some level, is one of the most adult oriented comedies out there.
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Wherever you go, there you are.
One episode had the opening credits printed on the clothes Lisa was hanging on the line. She asks Oliver how/why they got that way.
And of course anything Arnold-related, like when he becomes a painter and does a series of "nudes" --which, like his other paintings, don't look like anything--except maybe to Lisa.
I always thought it was funny how Lisa doesn't want to go in the theme song, but she fit right in. Oliver didn't.
"Well, for once the rich white man is in control!" C. M. Burns
In one episode there was some kind of key to tighten up the wood on the side of the house, so that it would take the paint and keep it painted. The problem they found after taking a piece of board off the side of the house, you could hear the board "gasping for air"
I don't know if this qualifies as surreal or not, but I remember the episode where the robbers stashed jewelry in cereal boxes. Everyone kept getting priceless gems in their boxes with the exception of Mr. Douglas who kept getting baseball cards of Yogi Berra!!
Now that you said that, if I recall you are absolutely right.😁
If you rob Peter to pay Paul, what about Mary?
Nobody's mentioned this yet, but there's an episode where Mr. Kimball can't stop whistling a six-note melody of unknown origin. At the end of the episode, a televised symphony is performing Mr. Kimball's melody.
share1. Eb suspended in mid air on an imaginary bed.
2.A running gag is they all get in and out of the house and place to place in unknown ways, like Oliver will be with Lisa in the house then walk outside and she will be out there.
3. Lisa changing clothes in 2 seconds. I wondered why she didn't apply thst method when she wand Oliver were late once and it was taking her forever to get dressed.
Create a society in which you would like to live, not knowing what you're going to come into it as.