Intro...

Hello, everyone.

If you want the full on history of the show, check out the Wikipedia page for Green Acres (or GA as we'll call it) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Acres. It's pretty solid.

I just wanted to say a few things before we get started with the individual reviews.

Something important that you need to remember here is:

1962 - The Beverly Hillbillies
1963- Petticoat Junction
1965 - Green Acres

All, more or less, part of the same world. The characters in Petticoat Junction lived on the edge of the town that the people of Green Acres lived in the center of. I always think of it this way...You're driving down a rural road, in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly, you see a sign saying "You are Now Entering _____". Then, in quick succession, you see a gas station, a store, some buildings, some people and then you're in the wilderness again. We always used to say "Wow! That was some town. Four buildings, a phone booth and a dog." But, of course, the town is really off of this main road, where the people live. They're the town.

Kate, Uncle Joe and the gals (Hi, Betty Jo!) of Petticoat Junction live on this main road (or off the main train line). They run the Shady Rest Hotel. They rely on folks coming to stay at the hotel for as long as possible. So, a lot of Petticoat Junction is about people passing through, Encountering the pleasant folks on the outskirts of the farming community of Hooterville.

Green Acres is off the main road. It's set in the place where folks live. We see Sam Drucker and his general store often enough but rarely go to the Shady Rest. Why would we? I grew up in Rochester, NY. I remember very clearly being out with friends one night. We were in a parking lot. Two women walked up and said "Where do we get a cab?" We had no idea. They got kind of mad. But, really, why would we know? This is our town. We're not passing through. The Shady Rest is where you pass through. The farms are where you live.

The Beverly Hillbillies connection is far briefer and much stranger. Oliver Douglas and his wife Lisa appeared on a few episodes of BH when the Clampetts came to Hooterville. Simple as that...except for the episode of GA called "The Beverly Hillbillies". In that episode, they perform a scene from the hit TV show "The Beverly Hillbillies". And, on more than one occasion, people on Green Acres mention watching BH. So, at some point, Oliver & Lisa and Eb & everyone go from enjoying the wacky adventures of these hillbillies to having Thanksgiving Dinner with them. How or why? On GA, no reason is necessary.

Once you finagle all the shows into the same world, GA sticks out quite alarmingly. BH is satire. It's watching backwoods folks adjusting (or not) to city life. PJ is about country folk and their lazy living. GA is about a city couple and the strange town inhabitants who would fit quite well into Twin Peaks. It's this slight madness running through the show that I love about it.

Of course, it you look at the 1965 Season...Two of the other big shows were Get Smart! and (mid-season) Batman. That was a heck of a season. Over the past two years, I've watched all three of those shows in order, from beginning to end. All three are great. GA is the best. Sorry. Batman is a hell of a lot of fun. But, as there is absolutely no character development, everything relies upon the endless comic book variations on a theme. For the first two seasons, they kick ass. Season Three they lose it. It seems to be correcting itself by the end but much of that last season is kind of tedious. Get Smart! is wonderful but has a similar problem. Every episode in the first three seasons (except multiple part stories) is self-contained and wacky and fun but there's never much impetus to see what's going to happen next. I could go ages in between episodes. Once Season Four hits, Max & 99 get engaged and you actually care about them. That's when Get Smart! is at its absolute best.

GA gets pretty nutty. There are long stretches of self-contained episodes but much of the first season is a continuous series of episodes as Oliver slowly puts together the farm and the house. By time it reverts to standard sitcom plotting, we like the characters. We want to see what they're going to do next, especially Oliver & Lisa. That is the best part of the show, there. Oliver & Lisa love each other and are best friends. The chemistry between Eddie Albert & Eva Gabor is wonderful. They're playful, charming and love to tease one another. When they get mad at each other, it's uncomfortable for everyone. They need to resolve it quick. Several episodes end with them going into the bedroom & leaving us in the living room as they close the door. We see the house for a brief moment...and the bedroom light goes out. C'mon! What other couples on TV in 1965 were like that? This stuff is wonderful. As nutty as the situations get, their relationship keeps us tuned in and interested.

The first couple on American TV to sleep in the same bed were Herman & Lily Munster. They were, of course, dead. The first living couple who shared the same bed were Oliver & Lisa. 'Nuff said.

As the episode guide progresses, we'll meet the characters so I won't go in-depth here. The first few episode reviews might be a bit more serious than the ones that follow. But, I'm setting everything up so just hold on a bit, please. I want this blog to have a fun feel to it. I want to move through the 6 seasons and 170 episodes and learn about Oliver & Lisa and the Poople of Heeterville. They're nice. They deserve the visit.

C'mon, let's go down to the Valley.