We’ve had such a spate of 60’s TV series and movie remakes inflicted on us in recent months (and years), and I got to wondering why we haven’t had a “Petticoat Junction” movie yet. Or have we? I lose track. Then I tried to make up a mental list of other 60’s TV series and movie remakes that we HAVE had. Then I got in a pointless and ultimately unresolvable (for the time being) argument about whether “Green Acres” was a spinoff of “Petticoat Junction”, or vice versa. Then I couldn’t remember whether we’ve had a “Green Acres” movie or not.
So here’s my list of 60’s remake movies we have already had.
Addams Family
Gilligan’s Island
My Favorite Martian
Beverly Hillbillies
George of the Jungle
the Avengers
Dennis the Menace (which is kind of a borderline 50’s/60’s show)
Partridge Family, Mary Tyler Moore, and Brady Bunch are sort of borderline 60’s/70’s shows, and anyhow we had them.
Here are the 60’s remake movies that, to me, are conspicuous by their absence (or maybe we did have them but they came and went real fast down at the Multiplex 24, and I just didn’t notice).
Petticoat Junction
Green Acres
all the westerns–Bonanza, Big Valley, Gunsmoke
That Girl
Bewitched? Didn’t we have a sort of “Little Tabitha All Grown Up” TV-movie?
the Dick Van Dyke show
Did we have a Get Smart movie?
Did we have an I Dream of Jeannie movie?
Star Trek, of course, never went away. To paraphrase the book of Matthew, “the Enterprise you will always have with you.”
Nobody ever accused Hollywood of being too creative, or as H.L. Mencken put it, “Nobody ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” Or as P.T. Barnum put it, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Or as the book of Proverbs put it, “A fool and his money are soon parted.”
Anybody want to get up a petition begging for a “Petticoat Junction” movie?
