Green Acres (1965–1971)

A New York attorney and his wife try to live as genteel farmers in the bizarre community of Hooterville.

Creator:

Jay Sommers

Stars:

Eddie Albert, Eva Gabor, Tom Lester

4 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Eddie Albert	...	Oliver Wendell Douglas (170 episodes, 1965-1971)
Eva Gabor	...	Lisa Douglas (170 episodes, 1965-1971)
Tom Lester	...	Eb Dawson (149 episodes, 1965-1971)
Frank Cady	...	Sam Drucker (142 episodes, 1965-1971)
Pat Buttram	...	Mr. Haney (141 episodes, 1965-1971)
Alvy Moore	...	Hank Kimball (135 episodes, 1965-1971)
Hank Patterson	...	Fred Ziffel (80 episodes, 1965-1971)

Storyline

Manhattan lawyer Douglas drags his protesting socialite wife and her finery to the rural backwash of a rundown farm outside Hooterville. They attempt to get the farm fixed up. Farmer Fred Ziffel's pig Arnold watches TV and is in many ways smarter than the Hootervillians.

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Plot Keywords:

farm | famous opening theme | pig actor | 1960s | multiple actors for one character | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Family

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 September 1965 (USA)

Also Known As:

Country Cousins

Filming Locations:

General Service Studios - 1040 N. Las Palmas, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Filmways Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min 30 min (170 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

4:3

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although the names of the towns in this show are assumed to be made up, there is an area of southern Tulare County, California - a rural community about 175 miles north of Los Angeles - that has several towns whose names are suspiciously similar to those in this series: Porterville ("Hooterville"), Dutch Corners ("Crabwell Corners") and, in fact, there actually is a town in the vicinity called Pixley.

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Goofs

In the opening song when Oliver sings "You are my wife," he reaches for Lisa with his left hand. As Lisa sings "Goodbye city life," Oliver reaches in and grabs her with his right hand.

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Quotes

Oliver Douglas: You mallet head!

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Crazy Credits

In some episodes, the opening credits appear in unusual locations (e.g.: chicken eggs, towels, writing on walls, newspaper headlines). In other episodes, the characters - particularly Lisa - react to the appearance of the credits.

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Connections

Referenced in Petticoat Junction: The Windfall (1966)

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Soundtracks

"Green Acres"
Sang by Eddie Albert & Eva Gabor

User Reviews

The most surreal show ever

This show was to be the obverse of "The Beverly Hillbillies" and instead turned out to be perhaps the most surreal TV show ever done in on American TV.

Oliver Wendell Douglas is the button-downed, successful New York lawyer who longs to be a farmer (he even grows corn on the balcony of his Park Avenue apartment). So off he goes to Hooterville with his glamorous Hungarian wife where they begin to farm Green Acres and live a house so ramshakle that even the Joad family in "The Grapes of Wrath" probably wouldn't live in.

Oliver tends the farm every day in suit and tie and Lisa wears elegant gowns while cooking the only meal that she knows how to make---"hots cakes" which possess extraordinary qualities---some are like granite, others bubble like sulfur mud baths, and others are stickier than any adhesive known to science. The house itself is hilarious---the bedroom closet sliding door which flys off its runners each and every time Oliver touches it, the phone which is at the top of the telephone pole, the "pore-key" hole for the house which makes it impossible to paint the place. And occasionally Arnold the Pig, perhaps the smartest inhabitant of Hooterville, regularly comes in to watch television which is always showing the same show--a wild Western gunfight between cowboys and Indians.

That's just the house. The townspeople are an assortment of extreme oddballs. Hank Kimball, the memory-gapped county agent, Ed and Doris Ziffel who are the parents of Arnold, and Mr. Haney who is the biggest flim-flam man since P.T. Barnum (he sold Oliver the house in the first place) and who has a seemingly unlimited assortment of things to peddle to Oliver. Meanwhile, the Monroe Brothers, Alf and Ralph, are perpetually trying to repair Oliver's house. Ralph is a woman and probably the first female tradesman in the history of American television, decades before women were welcomed into the construction industry. Oliver's hired hand, Eb, lives in the barn. Even Eb gets surreal---one great episode has him trying to win a radio "name that tune" call-in show. Every song snippet that is played is exactly the same as the previous one but Eb always comes up with some bizarre new title which turns out to be right.

The entire world around Oliver is insane but he gamely struggles along, erupting on occasion but absolutely determined not to give up farming and regularly trying to inspire his neighbors with stirring speeches about the nobility of the American farmer---the backbone of the economy, while his neighbors keep wondering where the patriotic music-- which always accompanies Oliver's speeches--comes from.