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American television sitcom (1965–71) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Green Acres is an American television absurdist sitcom starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm. Produced by Filmways as a sister show to Petticoat Junction, the series was first broadcast on CBS, from September 15, 1965, to April 27, 1971.
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Green Acres | |
---|---|
Created by | Jay Sommers |
Written by | Jay Sommers Dick Chevillat |
Directed by | Richard L. Bare |
Starring | Eddie Albert Eva Gabor Pat Buttram Tom Lester Frank Cady Hank Patterson Barbara Pepper Fran Ryan Alvy Moore |
Theme music composer | Vic Mizzy |
Composer | Vic Mizzy |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of seasons | 6 |
No. of episodes | 170 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer | Paul Henning |
Producer | Jay Sommers |
Camera setup | Single-camera |
Running time | 25 minutes |
Production company | Filmways |
Original release | |
Network | CBS |
Release | September 15, 1965 – April 27, 1971 |
Related | |
The Beverly Hillbillies Petticoat Junction |
Although it received solid ratings during its six-year run, Green Acres was cancelled in 1971 as part of the "rural purge" by CBS. The sitcom has been in syndication and is available on DVD and VHS releases. A reunion movie aired in 1990.
In 1997, the two-part episode "A Star Named Arnold Is Born" was ranked No. 59 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time.[1]
Green Acres derives from Granby's Green Acres, a comedy show aired on the CBS radio network from July 3 to August 21, 1950. The eight-episode summer series was created by Jay Sommers, who also wrote, produced, and directed.[2]
The principal characters, a married couple played by Bea Benaderet and Gale Gordon, originated (although under a different surname) on Lucille Ball's My Favorite Husband. The Granby's premise was that a big-city banker fulfills a lifelong dream by moving his family to a rundown farm, despite knowing nothing about farming. The nearby feed store is operated by the absent-minded Mr. Kimball, and the Granbys hire an older hand named Eb (voiced by Parley Baer, who guest-starred in several episodes of the television series), who often comments on incompetent management.[3] Benaderet later played Kate Bradley, a main character in Petticoat Junction, which was in the same fictional universe as Green Acres.
Following the success of The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction, CBS offered producer Paul Henning another half-hour slot on the schedule, without requiring a pilot episode. Faced with running three shows, Henning encouraged Sommers to create a series for the time slot.[4] Sommers later wrote and produced about one-third of the episodes.[2]
In pre-production, proposed titles were Country Cousins and The Eddie Albert Show.[5]
Green Acres is about Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert), a prominent and wealthy New York City attorney, fulfilling his dream to be a farmer, and Lisa Douglas (Eva Gabor), his glamorous Hungarian wife, uprooted unwillingly from an upscale Manhattan penthouse apartment to a dilapidated farm in Hooterville that Oliver purchases from the ever-hustling Mr. Haney, to the disbelief of the residents.
The debut episode is a mockumentary about their decision to move to a rural area, anchored by former ABC newscaster John Charles Daly. Daly was the host of the CBS game show What's My Line, and a few weeks after the show's debut Albert and Gabor returned the favor by appearing on What's My Line as that episode's Mystery Guests, and publicly thanked Daly for helping to launch their series.[6]
Although many Green Acres episodes were still standard 1960s sitcom fare, the show developed a regular undercurrent of surrealism and satire. The writers soon developed a suite of running jokes and visual gags, and characters often broke the fourth wall, such as looking around to try and figure out where the fife music is coming from when Oliver launches into one of his frequent "American dream" monologues.[7]
The show is set in the same television universe as Henning's Petticoat Junction, featuring such towns as Hooterville, Pixley, Crabwell Corners, and Stankwell Falls, as well as sharing characters such as Joe Carson, Fred and Doris Ziffel, Sam Drucker, Newt Kiley, and Floyd Smoot.[8]
The main theme, composed by Vic Mizzy, is notable as an unusual example of a TV theme song in which the lyrics are sung by the stars of the show (Albert and Gabor), rather than by anonymous session vocalists.
Oliver and Lisa are both depicted as fish out of water. While Oliver instigated the move from Manhattan to Hooterville over Lisa's objections, he is typically uncomprehending of and impatient with his new situation. Lisa, on the other hand, somehow understands the sometimes surreal world of their neighbors, and they in turn are accepting of her own bizarre notions.[9]: 106 [11]: 61
Shady Rest Hotel owner Kate Bradley (portrayed by Bea Benaderet) appears in a few early episodes. She tries to help Lisa adapt to country living, most notably giving her the recipe for her hotcakes, which Lisa ends up botching, resulting in Lisa's infamous "hotscakes". Uncle Joe Carson (portrayed by Edgar Buchanan) is seen at times playing checkers, loafing, or mooching fruit at Drucker's Store with Petticoat Junction regulars Newt Kiley (portrayed by Kay E. Kuter) and train conductor Floyd Smoot (portrayed by Rufe Davis) while also developing a romantic interest in Eunice Douglas. Betty Jo Bradley appears in one episode as Eb Dawson's date. Her sister Bobbie Jo appears in the same episode. Blonde-haired Billie Jo is the only Bradley sister never to appear in Green Acres. Western film actor Smiley Burnette guest-stars several times as railway engineer Charley Pratt in 1965 and 1966. Burnette and Pat Buttram (Mr. Haney) were both comic sidekicks of singing cowboy Gene Autry in his 1950s Westerns.[16]
In the March 1967, episode "The Beverly Hillbillies" (season 2, episode 23), the Hooterville theater puts on a play in homage to "famous television show" The Beverly Hillbillies. Oliver plays Jethro opposite Lisa as Granny Clampett.[15]: 172
Starting in 1968, The Beverly Hillbillies aired episodes with the Clampetts in Hooterville visiting distant cousins the Bradley family. This brought the world of all three shows into the same reality. "The Thanksgiving Story" includes a split-second insert of Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor at the dinner table with the casts of all three series.[15]: 48 There is a subplot with Eb Dawson falling in love with Elly May Clampett that continues in the following episode, "The Courtship of Homer Noodleman".[17] The Clampetts return to the Shady Rest Hotel in "Christmas in Hooterville" with Eb still fawning over a reluctant Elly May.[18]
In addition, the crossovers from Petticoat Junction cast members, most frequently, were:[15]: 152–203
During its six-season run, many familiar actors guest-starred on the show, along with other lesser-known performers who later achieved stardom, among them John Daly, Elaine Joyce, Gary Dubin, Herbert Anderson, June Foray, Bob Cummings, Sam Edwards, Jerry Van Dyke, J. Pat O'Malley, Johnny Whitaker, Jesse White, Al Lewis, Gordon Jump, Bernie Kopell, Len Lesser, Bob Hastings, Don Keefer, Don Porter, Alan Hale Jr., Melody Patterson, Rusty Hamer, Regis Toomey, Heather North, Allan Melvin, Parley Baer, Jack Bannon, Reginald Gardiner, Rick Lenz, Al Molinaro, Pat Morita, and Rich Little in a cameo as himself.[15]: 152–203
In 1970–1971, during the series' sixth season, Green Acres placed 34th out of 96 shows. Despite the respectable ratings and winning its timeslot, the network cancelled the show in the spring of 1971 after 170 episodes.[19]
CBS at the time was under mounting pressure from sponsors to have more urban-themed programs on its schedule. To make room for the newer shows, nearly all of the rural-themed shows were cancelled, later known as the "rural purge," of which Pat Buttram said, "CBS cancelled everything with a tree – including Lassie."[20][21]
As a result of the sudden cancellation, there was no series finale. The final two episodes of Green Acres were backdoor pilots for two shows that were never picked up by a network. In the penultimate episode of season 6 ("Hawaiian Honeymoon"), Oliver and Lisa take a trip to Hawaii. Most of the episode focuses on hotel owner Bob Carter (Don Porter) and his daughter Pam (Pamela Franklin), thus the proposed title for the new series was simply Pam. The final episode of season six (and ultimately the Green Acres series) heavily featured Oliver's former secretary in Manhattan, Carol Rush (Elaine Joyce), with proposed spinoff titles said to be Carol or The Blonde.[22]
The surviving members of the cast (except for Eleanor Audley, who had retired from acting 20 years earlier) were reunited for a TV movie titled Return to Green Acres. It aired on CBS on May 18, 1990. Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor also recreated their Green Acres characters for the 1993 CBS special The Legend of the Beverly Hillbillies.[23]
On November 19, 2007, original series director Richard L. Bare announced that he was working on a revival of Green Acres.[24]
Variety announced on July 22, 2012, that a Broadway-aimed musical was in development, with an initial draft of the book written by Bare. No composer, lyricist, or director was attached.[25] Bare died in 2015.
MGM Home Entertainment released the first three seasons of Green Acres on Region 1 DVD. The entire six-season run of the series is available for purchase via Amazon's video-on-demand service.[citation needed]
On July 7, 2017, Shout! Factory announced it had acquired the rights to release future seasons of the show. It subsequently released Green Acres – The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 on October 17, 2017.[26]
Shout! Factory released season 4 on November 28, 2017.[27] They released season 5 on February 27, 2018, followed by season 6 on July 10, 2018.[28][29] A DVD & Blu-ray released on Studio Distribution Services its 35th anniversary.
DVD name | Episodes | Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 |
---|---|---|---|---|
The Complete First Season | 32 | January 13, 2004 | January 15, 2007 | N/A |
The Complete Second Season | 30 | March 8, 2005 | N/A | N/A |
The Complete Third Season | 30 | December 6, 2005 | N/A | N/A |
The Complete Fourth Season | 26 | November 28, 2017 | N/A | N/A |
The Complete Fifth Season | 26 | February 27, 2018 | N/A | N/A |
The Complete Sixth Season | 26 | July 10, 2018 | N/A | N/A |
The Complete Series | 170 | October 17, 2017 | N/A | N/A |
In the 1990 reunion TV movie Return to Green Acres,[31] made and set two decades after the series, Oliver and Lisa have moved back to New York but are miserable there. The Hootervillians implore the couple to return and save the town from a scheme to destroy it, cooked up between Mr. Haney and a wealthy, underhanded developer (Henry Gibson). The Monroe brothers still have not finished the Douglases' bedroom, while a 20-something Arnold survived his "parents" and subsequently bunks with his "cousin", the Ziffels' comely niece. With a nod to the times, Haney's latest product is a Russian miracle fertilizer called "Gorby Grow". The film was distributed by Orion Television Entertainment, the successor to Filmways.
Until his death in March 2015, Bare was working on a film version of the TV series, and he teamed with Phillip Goldfine and his Hollywood Media Bridge to produce it. A Broadway version was also in development.[32]
In 1984, the USC School of Cinematic Arts gave a retrospective of Green Acres to honor Sommers.[33]
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