Not till April, but I just saw a promo and I am the Happiest Little Girl in all of Toyland. I’m planning to tape every episode.
If you’ve never seen this show, grab it–a brilliant absurdist parody of its contemporaries The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction, it frequently reached the heights of Burns & Allen. Hilarious, and it got better as it went along and lost all touch with reality.
“Zis has been a Filmvays Presentation, dahlings”
Indeed! Creator Paul Henning wrote for George and Gracie’s TV show.
My favorite character is Hank Kimball. I absolutely adore him. Well, I don’t actually adore him, but I’m very fond of him. Well, not really fond, but I like him. Well, not actually like but I can tolerate him. Well, not tolerate, but…well actually I’ve never seen an episode.
“Look, Olivair, dahling, it’s ze ‘Directed By’ egg!”
I am so looking forward to this.
I loved Green Acres and give the credit not to Henning, but to Richard L. Bare. Bare directed every episode, and its mood is completely different from Henning’s other shoes (Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction) and much more like the “Joe MacDoakes” shorts Bare directed in the 40s and 50s – wild, surreal, anything goes (take a look at Sam Drucker in both GA and PJ and see how different the character was).
Bare was also the master of the running gag. He’d establish it, then it would show up in episode after episode (the phone on the telephone pole, Lisa’s hotcakes, the generator blowing out, etc.). And it wouldn’t be belabored – as the audience became familiar, you’d just see a quick shot and move on. Plus he was able to wring all sorts of variations on them.
I definite will be watching.
From the Green Acres website, one reason to watch, dahlings!
I would just caution you not to get too excited. TVLand has a habit of ordering a selected number of programs from a series, and just showing those same ones over and over. “Green Acres” looks like there are about 170 episodes. They did run the entire 170+ series of “Adam-12,” and I believe they ran the entire “Bewitched” series (250+), but that is definitely not always the case.
I had a friend who grew up in a town called Arnold, Maryland. He swears that he once played on a softball team called the Arnold Ziffels.
Alf and Ralph! Mr. Haney! Eb! and best of all – Mr. Kimball!!!
I can hardly wait. I’m getting my fife out of mothballs so I can be ready for Oliver’s first patriotic speech.
Ahh, I love “Green Acres.” Oliver and Lisa had such great chemistry together. You really felt that the actors were really fond of each other and were just having the best time. I love Oliver’s little porch railing.
And the DVDs are great. A little awkward since they’re two sided and without any extras but you get the complete episode without any time edits.
“Times Sqvare!”
Remember the episode where Eb is trying to win the radio contest by calling in and indentifying the songs?
Only Oliver noticed that all the songs were the same.
Samples of the radio show Granby’s Green Acres here.
I’m kinda curious, I remember watching it on Nick At Nite when I was a kid. Hafta wonder how it’s held up.
Good GOD. Nick at Nite is going into reruns of reruns!
I still think of the song, “You’re My Pizza Mama” to this day.
Green Acres was born on the radio…
You can download several episodes to compare.
I really must learn to read closer.
I wonder if Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet (terrific performers, both) had the kind of Burns and Allen rapport that Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor did, though? And if the radio show got into the kind of flat-out po-mo goofiness the TV show did?
Did anyone ever mention or even notice that one of the Monroe Brothers was a woman? Remember when Lisa’s “hotscakes” were used as automobile tires? And when Arnold the pig got drafted?
Were they used as tires or are you misremembering? Well, if you want to go in fresh then don’t read this. I know that when you punched out 3 with a cookie cutter they remainder made a perfect gasket for the truck they borrowed.
The female Monroe Brother did explain that. I wont spoil it for you either. It occurs early in the season.
Being surprised is such a great part of this show.
Ah, you’re right—remember, I haven’t seen most of these shows since they first aired more than 30 years ago!
God, I’m old . . .
I loved the bit when Mr. Haney attempted to sell Oliver a “genuine Stradivarius piano.” It was from one of the later episodes when, IIRC, a little girl was living with the Douglases. Like Eve, I am old and haven’t seen most of the episodes since they originally aired.
I think Green Acres was one of the most underrated shows in TV history. My personal favorite was where everybody bought Oliver and Arnold the same birthday card verse, but for a different card. “Happy Birthday, O Husband O Mine,” “Happy Birthday, O Boss O Mine,” “Happy Birthday, O Pig O Mine,” “Happy Birthday, O Cheapskate O Mine.” There may have been more variations but they were great characters and had great scripts.
Wasn’t there an episode where the Ziffels broke the news to Arnold that he was adopted? Or am I just starting to make plots up at this point?