# Golly, Tom Lester is back on Heavenly Green Acres. He was 81. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 21, 2020, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golly-tom-lester-is-back-on-heavenly-green-acres-he-was-81/852238 "2020-04-21T00:45:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golly-tom-lester-is-back-on-heavenly-green-acres-he-was-81/852238/1 "2020-04-21T00:45:47Z")
Oliver Douglas,Lisa and Eb are my favorite characters on Green Acres. Tom Lester did a great job portraying Eb. He brought a innocence and truthful approach to Eb. I would have enjoyed a glass of lemonade and a basketball game with Eb. RIP and tell Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor I said Hey! > **['Green Acres' star Tom Lester dead at 81](https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/green-acres-star-tom-lester-dead-at-81)** > > Tom Lester, a devoted evangelist who starred as friendly farmhand Eb Dawson on the ‘60s series “Green Acres,” has died. He was 81.  > [@](#): > > “I might not make it, but at least I’m going to try,” Lester said. “And I would’ve rather gone out there and tried and failed than to never have gone out there at all. And I read an article once where they asked Don Knotts who was Barney Fife on ‘The Andy Griffith Show,’ 'How in the world did you ever get into movies?’ Because he didn’t look anything at all like Rock Hudson. And he said, ‘I figure everybody in Hollywood was good-looking and had a good physique. I figure they needed somebody a little different.’ And he was. > > Lester said he went to Hollywood with no real plan. > > “I didn’t figure there were a lot of folks like me in Hollywood, so the way I went, no job, no place to stay, didn’t know anything about the motion picture business,” he explained. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golly-tom-lester-is-back-on-heavenly-green-acres-he-was-81/852238/2 "2020-04-21T00:50:27Z")
No doubt he went shoosting up to the sky! RIP, Eb. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golly-tom-lester-is-back-on-heavenly-green-acres-he-was-81/852238/3 "2020-04-21T03:50:47Z")
One of my favorite Eb moments: Lisa is in the kitchen stirring a pot. Oliver asks what she’s making and Lisa says hot water soup. “HOT WATER SOUP???” Oliver yells. “There’s no such thing as hot water soup! That’s just hot water!” Eb enters the kitchen and says, “Mmmm-mmm! Is that hot water soup I smell?” Like they used to say on Nick at Nite: “Green Acres - It’s not stupid; it’s surreal!” RIP, Eb ‘ ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golly-tom-lester-is-back-on-heavenly-green-acres-he-was-81/852238/4 "2020-04-21T03:52:44Z")
I _just_ used him as a “Can’t believe he’s still alive” example, and said that since Ed Drucker and Ralph died, he was the last one standing… now he’s more… prone. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golly-tom-lester-is-back-on-heavenly-green-acres-he-was-81/852238/5 "2020-04-21T04:19:34Z")
> [@Labdad](#): > > Lisa is in the kitchen stirring a pot. Oliver asks what she’s making and Lisa says hot water soup. > > “HOT WATER SOUP???” Oliver yells. “There’s no such thing as hot water soup! That’s just hot water!” > > Eb enters the kitchen and says, “Mmmm-mmm! Is that hot water soup I smell?” Oh, fer…! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golly-tom-lester-is-back-on-heavenly-green-acres-he-was-81/852238/6 "2020-04-21T04:26:20Z")
Elly May Clampett would be heartbroken. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golly-tom-lester-is-back-on-heavenly-green-acres-he-was-81/852238/7 "2020-04-21T14:42:07Z")
Damn. Was he the last Green Acres cast member still alive? > [@Labdad](#): > > One of my favorite Eb moments: > > Lisa is in the kitchen stirring a pot. Oliver asks what she’s making and Lisa says hot water soup. > > “HOT WATER SOUP???” Oliver yells. “There’s no such thing as hot water soup! That’s just hot water!” > > Eb enters the kitchen and says, “Mmmm-mmm! Is that hot water soup I smell?” > > Like they used to say on Nick at Nite: “Green Acres - It’s not stupid; it’s surreal!” > > RIP, Eb > ‘ One of my favorite exchanges too. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golly-tom-lester-is-back-on-heavenly-green-acres-he-was-81/852238/8 "2020-04-21T17:48:42Z")
I remember watching Green Acres as a kid. Then it was just another comedy show to watch. I appreciated much more when I watched the reruns about 20 years ago. My husband and I are now watching them again (Covid-viewing). We laugh out loud many times throughout an episode. We’re really enjoying them again. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golly-tom-lester-is-back-on-heavenly-green-acres-he-was-81/852238/9 "2020-04-21T21:37:05Z")
I remember once when Lisa was making pancakes and offered some to Mr. Ziffel, who accepted them gladly, with pleasure. Oliver asked him quietly, “How can you stand those?” since Lisa’s cooking was so awful. Mr Ziffel gestured to where he was reshingling his roof, with all the round shingles. I always liked Arnold Ziffel, but Eb was fun too. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golly-tom-lester-is-back-on-heavenly-green-acres-he-was-81/852238/10 "2020-04-21T21:53:42Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I remember once when Lisa was making pancakes and offered some to Mr. Ziffel, who accepted them gladly, with pleasure. Oliver asked him quietly, “How can you stand those?” since Lisa’s cooking was so awful. Mr Ziffel gestured to where he was reshingling his roof, with all the round shingles. > > I always liked Arnold Ziffel, but Eb was fun too. There was also the episode where they used the hotcakes to make a head gasket for the truck. 😃 I always wondered if Eb’s folks were still around. I don’t recall him mentioning them much if at all, and he often called Oliver “dad”, asking if he could borrow the car, etc. But he had to be living somewhere, he wasn’t staying at the Douglas’s, he just showed up every day for work. Unless maybe he was shacking up in the barn with Eleanor… ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golly-tom-lester-is-back-on-heavenly-green-acres-he-was-81/852238/11 "2020-04-22T00:34:12Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > There was also the episode where they used the hotcakes to make a head gasket for the truck. 😃 > > I always wondered if Eb’s folks were still around. I don’t recall him mentioning them much if at all, and he often called Oliver “dad”, asking if he could borrow the car, etc. But he had to be living somewhere, he wasn’t staying at the Douglas’s, he just showed up every day for work. Unless maybe he was shacking up in the barn with Eleanor… Yeah, he was living up in the hayloft in the barn. I remember a couple of times when Oliver shared space with him overnight. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golly-tom-lester-is-back-on-heavenly-green-acres-he-was-81/852238/12 "2020-04-22T01:54:25Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I remember once when Lisa was making pancakes and offered some to Mr. Ziffel, who accepted them gladly, with pleasure. Oliver asked him quietly, “How can you stand those?” since Lisa’s cooking was so awful. Mr Ziffel gestured to where he was reshingling his roof, with all the round shingles. > > I always liked Arnold Ziffel, but Eb was fun too. As a child in the 90s I came up with an idea for a TV movie where NASA was trying to get Lisa hotcake recipe to tile the space shuttle. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golly-tom-lester-is-back-on-heavenly-green-acres-he-was-81/852238/13 "2020-04-22T02:04:39Z")
I could see Arnold being sent into space too. He could grunt in seven languages.