i watched all 3 growing up. billies,junction and acres.even though i liked junction it was the weakest of the 3 and ended(rightfully so)a year earlier than the other two. billies had weak scripts the last 2yrs BUT acres was creative right till the end. not many shows do that.
shareHave to say I agree with every point you make. While I enjoyed Petticoat, it was by far the least funny of the three. Green Acres got the big cancellation by CBS along with every other show designed to appeal to people not on either coast before they ran out of gas.
Last year I completed watching all of the Beverly Hillbillies series and most of the episodes in the final two years are truly not funny. But those early years were about as funny as anything in TV history.
I loved the silliness of Green Acres. As a kid, Hank Kimball was my favorite. As an adult, I enjoy him, but think Mr. Haney's way of always having handy whatever Oliver might need even funnier.
I grew up on a farm, so Green Acres was definitely my favorite! We were poor in the 60s living on a farmer's income, and things got a little better when my mom went to work. It just blew my mind that a wealthy attorney would not purchase a better tractor! My dad was great at working on the old tractors and keeping them going since we couldn't afford the fancy stuff. I guess Oliver wanted to do everything the old fashioned way. I found a lot of humor in the show and compared the people to those in my town. I did have a pet pig I picked out in the barnyard when I was little and made friends with him, but he didn't communicate like Arnold.
I loved the Beverly Hillbillies too since they had ties to TN (I think). Living in a rural area and imagining what it would be like to move to BH really working on the imagination of a child in the 60s. It always confused me how a simple man like Jed could be talked into leaving his land and moving to town, but it had to happen for the premise of the show.
I was never much of a Petticoat Junction fan. I liked Uncle Joe and his cheapskateness and the way Kate tried to keep him in line.
Why don't we have shows like that now? All we have are reality shows and trash. How about a reality show about a REAL farm. I know there are not many full time farmers these days, but it would sure be an eye opener to a lot of people. The ratings probably wouldn't be good since people looke for drama and glamour. You won't find that on a true farm. You will see hard work and finanancial struggles. That's what people need to see, but they don't want to.
I'll just keep watching my DVDs and Netflix.
How about a reality show about a REAL farm. I know there are not many full time farmers these days, but it would sure be an eye opener to a lot of people.
The Douglas's did buy a new tractor, only IIRC Mr. Ziffle got in in one of their out of left field twists.
The tractor wasn't just a tractor, it was a challenge, a test of his resolve. He's seen doing repairs on many episodes, including major work like changing the engine.
Man without relatives is man without troubles. Charlie Chan
I watched them too in the 60s, and GA was the best. I think it was due to having a better supporting casts and storylines than the others. But Lisa was lovely to look at, and so funny. Her wardrobe (by Nolan Miller! at the time).
PJ stories were redundant, and jumped the shark when they married off one daughter and then had kids. PJ also lost Bea as Kate and brought in June Lockhart (Mom on Lassie and Mom on Lost in Space) so it was never the same.
Lisa was devoted to Oliver no matter what.
I still watch it now.. never gets stale or old.
I just a adore a penthouse view,
Darling I love you but give me Park Avenue!
gets me everytime!!
THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES just went on for too long. Their failed attempts to fit into Beverly Hills society just got old after awhile. In the final years they tried to spice things up by having Jed and the gang travel to England, NY, Washington DC, and even Hooterville, but it didn't help much. I thought it really went bad when they tried to do shows about hippies, women's liberation, and civil rights.
I thought PETTICOAT JUNCTION had the potential to be the best of the 3 shows, but frequent cast member changes and the death of its star (Bea Benaderet) was just too much to over come. The first 3 seasons are classic, but with season 4 it went down hill fast. I can't believe it survived 7 seasons.
GREEN ACRES never really got as tiresome as the other 2 shows. I loved how Oliver struggled to understand all the weirdness that went on around him. I think the show could have survived a few more seasons.
I could't stand Petticoat Junction, since the girls were so straight-laced and boring, along with Betty joe's husband who was a big bore. When he would sing I would mute the TV. To me Uncle Joe was absolutely NOT funny, and the only interesting and funny character on that show was their dog.
Beverly Hillbillies were hillarious when they were trying to understand the culture of Beverly Hills, and I adored Ms. Jane, Mr. Drysdale and his wife. I loved seeing episodes when Ms. Drysdale would intereact with the Clampetts. She was so cute and funny and when mr. Drysdale got upset over the thought of loosing the Clampetts money, and what he sent Ms. Jane though had me laughing.
To this day, I still watch the Hillbillies and Green Acres, and NEVER Petticoat Junction. To me, Green Acres is the most funniest show to see Oliver Wendell Douglas deal with all the crazy people in town, including his wife. The whole town is NUTS, and Douglas plays that part to a tee. I just adore Lisa and her beautiful clothes, and her and Oliver have perfect chemistry together.
Its 2014 and I laugh at scenes in that show.
Petticoat Junction suffered immensely in syndication, because the first two seasons (in black-and-white) weren't included and they are the best episodes. GA creator Jay Sommers produced season two (and three) and the show shared some of GA's sensibilities at that point. The girls were much more interesting (Billie Jo was sharp-tongued, and Betty Jo hadn't yet been domesticated by her dull husband). And most importantly, Kate was there. Unfortunately, Viacom chose only to syndicate the color episodes, eliminating almost half of Kate's onscreen time, and leaving mostly the later, duller years in circulation. Too bad.
shareIt's been talked about quite a bit and pushed by me in terms of PJ should have been retooled around 1968 or 1969. See my comments over on the PJ IMDb board.
shareIn my eyes, PJ was definitely the weakest of three because it didn't include any undercurrent of social commentary. GA & BH were basically the same "culture clash/fish out of water" stories in reverse.
In BH, the Clampetts represented the naive, good-hearted, grounded country folk attempting to adapt to the pretentious, greedy, self-serving people of Beverly Hills. GA was the opposite. Oliver was the sensible, practical, level-headed urbanite struggling to relate to a bunch of unsophisticated, provincial country hicks.
Like the Warner Bros "Looney Tunes" (which were brilliantly written in such a way so that both juvenile & adult movie audiences found them appealing), the humor of GA & BH was outwardly dressed in a silly veneer. However, the writers also managed to slip in editorials surrounding the vices & virtues of urban and rural life simultaneously.
Personally, I never observed this clever, edgy duality in PJ---which made it a little too saccharine and short on substance for my taste.
With out a doubt PJ was the dullest of the three and a bore in general. In turn that means there was potential there to be tapped in terms of comedy and emotion. It would very seldom have had any social comment to make but that can be alright as not all sitcoms were socially relavent.
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