Come ride the little train that is rollin' down the tracks to the junction

Will Uncle Joe be there?

Is he moving kind of slow?

Linda Kaye Henning was the 60s version of Tori Spelling.

Mike Minor was dreamy.

Especially watching him shave!

Unfortunately, a number of years ago I caught him in the off-Broadway cast of the How-in-the-hell-did-this-not-close-in-a-week-but-it's-still-running-years-later production of "Perfect Crime". Actually, he was quite good, all considering. Looked good, too. But I think he died a few years later. He had a very nice singing voice on "Petticoat Junction" too.

pardon the way the formatting turned out

Remember the theme well. Never watched it.

Adorable show. The dog was played by the one who later was Benji in films. Very talented. And DL fave Bea Benaderet played the Mom, until she had to quit the show due to illness and dying not long afterwards.

or was she Aunt Kate?

And Benji the dog. Who was the dark haired sister? She annoyed me.

Watching this as a kid in the 70s I was familiar with the water tanks on top of buildings here in NYC, but not their steam train railway use -- so I though the sisters were swimming naked in the drinking water for the hotel.

Mike Minor lived until 2016 when he was 75.

He ended up marrying Betty Jo in real life while they were on the show, but they divorced after about five years of marriage.

Mike Minor played Erica Kane's beau Brandon Kingsley on All My Children for two years, 1980-82. He went on to play nefarious Dr. Royal Dunning on Another World for a year, 1983-84.

Petticoat JunkJunk.

Christ, even as a kid I could see it was a terrible show.

One of those shows where I liked the opening credits but the show itself was boring. I Dream of Jeannie was the same for me

I actually liked the original opening music of "I Dream of Jeannie" when the show was in black in white its first season, which was much more romantic and had a grand sweep to it. The second one I used to think of as "I Dream, I Dream of Jeannie, I Can Get Teeny Weenie, I Dream, I Dream of Jeannie, Yeah!" (It was around the time of the Beatles "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!".

./////

I like how the hotel manager appears with a boutique hairstyle though the location suggests they are a hick town.

Always loved it, and have probably seen every episode multiple times. I only liked Merideth McCray as Billy Joe - Jeanine Riley was horrible at it. Anyway, I remember being about 6 or 7 and telling my mom when I grew up I wanted to marry Steve and live in the little cottage lol. I actually think that's what heaven will be like (if there is one, and if I go there) - you take the Cannonball to the Shady Rest and everyone from Hooterville is there as well as all of your friends and family who have passed before you.

I thought Lori Sanders was so pretty when I was little. I was very confused by the revolving door of daughters on the show.

Saunders stars in a cheesy 70s horror film called So Sad About Gloria written and directed by Harry Thomason of Designing Women fame. It’s not great but entertaining enough if you catch it in the right mood

There's Aunt Kate, and her period's late...at the junction.

Does anyone still wear ... a petticoat?

Do you think any of the *-Jo gals got invited to Bea's New Year's shindig?

Gracie Allen is too busy to both with Blanche Norton's do because she'd rather tap and run around the funhouse with husband George and Fred Astaire to great George Gershwin music in "A Damsel in Distress".

It cracked me up when I moved to California that there's actually a town named Pixley.

It was a boring show for sure. Many of the Andy Griffith Show episodes still are entertaining 60 years later.

Them swimming in the water tank, so the whole town drank their stank.

They never got the fishy smell out of the Cannonball's water tower.

Dysfunction Junction

It was one of the slate of "rural" shows that got cancelled when Fred Silverman took over the network. I don't think PJ was that low rated but Silverman wanted to get rid of all "rural" shows to replace them with something more "modern."

R28 Stifle!

[quote]I only liked Merideth McCray as Billy Joe - Jeanine Riley was horrible at it.

When I was a kid I thought Jeannine Riley sang "Harper Valley PTA" ... until I saw hard-bitten road whore Jeannie C. Riley sing it on [italic]Hee-Haw.[/italic]

I LMAO'd at R30's post.

The photo caption....AND "hard bitten road whore"

LOLOLOLOL!

[quote] I remember being about 6 or 7 and telling my mom when I grew up I wanted to marry Steve and live in the little cottage

Are you the same little CBS queen whose mother watched, aghast, as he mimicked the Here's Lucy marionette's dance moves, step by step, and then cried herself to sleep?

Love this cornball show. Way funnier than what’s on now.

R32 Didn't that little queen also perform Doris Day's run down the spiral staircase, too?

[quote]so I though the sisters were swimming naked in the drinking water for the hotel.

This always ends badly.

[quote] [R32] Didn't that little queen also perform Doris Day's run down the spiral staircase, too?

Yes, and I'm hoping he used to also spin around and throw his hat up in the air when he got a little older.

And he sings "boppity-bop" while soaking his feet.

I would say twinkling his nose too, but that's some ABC queen, who undoubtedly also pantomined putting a glove on a beer bottle and waving to it while Daddy watched, aghast.

I mortified my family by twirling like Miss Loretta Young.

I'm going to picture that, on the day he moved out of his house for good, the CBS queen gave his mother a Constance McCashin Knots Landing twirl as he sashayed out the door.

I wonder if Mr. Bradley was a little suspicious of Kate. Is it genetically possible to have one blonde, one brunette, and one red-headed daughter?

I'd like to know how the fuck Kate was the niece of Uncle Joe when she looked to be the same age as him.

I can recall the theme song so vividly but cannot remember anything else about the show.

I guess this defines largely forgettable!

Mike Minor was another example of nepotism as his real last name was Fedderson, and Don Fedderson was his dad and a famous producer (My Three Sons, Family Affair). Mike got his start as a guest on MTS.

I would have slapped those girls.

The first episode has Kate telling her skinny dipping daughters that the train is going to drain the water tank they swim in and they will be dry and bare! So it isn't the drinking water-yuck. Also never understood the name of the show. What does "Petticoat Junction" have to do with The Shady Rest Hotel. Uncle Joe is so annoying that they should have put him in the Pixley Old Folks Home. What a boring hotel. No bar. No phone. Have to eat with the owner and her brats. The hell with that.

Uncle Joe depressed me and gave me the creeps.

Was Green Acres and Petticoat Junction all part of a shared universe? If so, were there other shows in that same universe?

Are they all part of the Tommy Westphall Theory?

^ Yep they were all in Hooterville. They were also friends of the Clampetts out in California. They often visited each other's shows

Also, the water tank I believe was for the steam locomotive and not drinking water

I don't believe Kate wasn't renting out her daughters to travelers. How else could they make money?

Lovely r22! Gracie Allen couldn’t really sing and dance, her voice is thin and you can see her watching her feet, but she has so much charm! Adorable,

@r50, So, the Shady Rest was shady at best 🤔

I always found shows like this one and anything associated with "rural" very depressing. Not sure why, but I had the same feelings about Loretta Lynn, whose death reminded me of that depressing era when country/western was popular. Just.....ugh.

[quote]I though the sisters were swimming naked in the drinking water for the hotel.

Hot

@r53, I agree, although it seemed idyllic, it also seemed rather limited and isolated. Even as a kid I used to think, "Where are the people, stores, McDonald's?"

[quote]I mortified my family by twirling like Miss Loretta Young.

For a few seasons, some of those were GOWNS BY TRAVILLA.

I would love that sort of rural isolation now in my middle age.

[quote]Gracie Allen is too busy to both with Blanche Norton's do because she'd rather tap and run around the funhouse with husband George and Fred Astaire to great George Gershwin music in "A Damsel in Distress".

It was a kinder, stupider time.

[quote]What does "Petticoat Junction" have to do with The Shady Rest Hotel.

Bless your little retarded heart. Petticoat Junction was the oasis between Pixley and Hooterville.

They needed an oasis?

^ Yeah the train would stop and all the traveling salesmen would watch the girls skinny dip 😜

[quote]I always found shows like this one and anything associated with "rural" very depressing. Not sure why, but I had the same feelings about Loretta Lynn, whose death reminded me of that depressing era when country/western was popular. Just.....ugh.

In the 1960s, there were still a lot of rural areas in the US.

Personally, I preferred the East Coast money vibe of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. It also had a better theme song.

Now I'm picturing the Here's Lucy gayling doing a soft shoe tap to the end theme of Petticoat Junction.

Kate had great gams...

Aunt Kate was Jethro's mother on the Beverly Hillbillies,

Kate wasn't "aunt" Kate, she was the girl's mother

[quote]Aunt Kate was Jethro's mother on the Beverly Hillbillies,

No, the same actress played both roles. So, I guess you have a point. An idiotic one, but a point.

Mother clapped through her tears when I showed her the twirling dance I choreographed to this little tune!

^ So LOL. So.. true.

[quote]@[R53], I agree, although it seemed idyllic, it also seemed rather limited and isolated. Even as a kid I used to think, "Where are the people, stores, McDonald's?"

McDonald's were not that ubiquitous in the '60s. I grew up in a heavily populated metro area and there was no McDonald's in our area until at least 1970.

No love for me, ya poo-stabbers?

Why did the dog have a petticoat? Was he a cross-dresser?

[quote]I actually liked the original opening music of "I Dream of Jeannie" when the show was in black in white its first season, which was much more romantic and had a grand sweep to it.

I love it too—it reminds me of '40s swing or Big Band. The other is just full-on campy silliness.

I would never leave young children anywhere near Uncle Joe or Sam Drucker. They are both creepy as fuck.

Frank Cady had to be the luckiest character actor on TV. He played the same role on three different series : Petticoat Junction and Green Acres , where he was a regular, and The Beverly Hillbillies, where he made many appearances.

Bea Benedaret left the show when she was battling cancer, then returned when she thought she beat it. But it came back again not too long after. Her final scene was supposed to be when Betty Jo had her baby, but she was too weak to appear, so the scene has a stand-in with her back to the camera giving motherly advice to Betty Jo. The voice, however was Bea Benaderet.

June Lockhart is a fine sitcom actress, but she was all wrong for this show.

[quote] I wonder if Mr. Bradley was a little suspicious of Kate. Is it genetically possible to have one blonde, one brunette, and one red-headed daughter?

R41 Not only did Kate have physically diverse daughters, but she had 3 Billie Jos, 2 Bobbie Jos, and 1 Betty Jo (whose father was the producer). I don't know how Kate had time and energy left to do the cookin', bakin', cleanin', and keepin' Uncle Joe in line.

[quote] Gracie Allen couldn’t really sing and dance, her voice is thin and you can see her watching her feet, but she has so much charm!

R51 As you probably know, George and Gracie were vaudeville hoofers. They were good dancers for that type of entertainment (which I recently learned on the latest Arlene Francis thread was not considered the "legitimate theatre").

Gracie was very nervous about dancing with Fred Astaire. He sensed that, and in the first dance rehearsal with George and Gracie, he deliberately tripped and fell to help Gracie relax. What a gentleman! Fred, being the consummate dancer he was, was probably actually interested in learning how the two hoofers moved when they danced.

I remember seeing reruns in the 80s and Steve made me all tingly.

As a child viewer, I was concerned about where the train actually went to. Did it just run from Pixley to Hootersville?

Uncle Joe, soon to be moving mighty slow, at junction!

[quote] As a child viewer, I was concerned about where the train actually went to. Did it just run from Pixley to Hootersville?

[quote] The single-tracked Hooterville to Pixley spur line was cut off from the rest of the railroad 20 years before the start of the show by the demolition of a trestle.

R79 You weren't the only one who was concerned. From his first episode on the show, actor Charles Lane as Homer Bedloe was trying to get that spur line shut down to save the railroad company money.

Also, "HooterSville" is what Eva Gabor on "Green Acres" called Hooterville to get a laugh. When Petticoat Junction premiered in 1963, I doubt "Hootersville" would have made it past the censors. But for Eva Gabor's character it was a deliberate mispronunciation from a character speaking English with a Hungarian accent, so it got by.

R80 Homer Bedloe did it! He hated that spur line to Crimea.

"The Beverly Hillbillies" got a ton of mileage out of the hillbillies' misunderstandings of Beverly Hills.

"Green Acres" leaned heavily into surrealism (Eva Gabor pouring pancake batter into the toaster to make waffles, etc.)

"Petticoat" didn't really have a signature. Even the three girls didn't seem to have distinct personalities, which could have been fun.

Mike Minor was a fucking slice, though.

R4 Yes, I wanked to Mike Minor's character shaving on his honeymoon more than once

The original Bobbie Jo was played as quite studious with a talent for singing. When the new Bobbie Jo turned up, she was ditzy and it was her sister Billie Jo who suddenly was the singer. Betty Jo went from tomboy to sappy newlywed.

R85 Pat Woodell, the actress who played Bobbie Jo, was a singer that auditioned and got the part. From what I've read and heard her say, she was quite serious about, and focused on, her music career, and I don't know if she had the acting chops to play ditzy comedy well. Pat was so focused on building her singing career that she left the highly rated show after two seasons. I think Lori Saunders was an actress first, and although she could sing, and she released recordings, I don't think she wanted to be a singer rather than an actress as did Pat.

Sharon Tate was originally cast as Billie Jo, but was replaced before airing by Filmways producer Martin Ransohoff. He took one look at her and signed her to a seven year film deal, one of the last actresses to get a studio contract. Ransohoff had Sharon do bit parts on various tv shows to get experience in front of the camera before giving her a film role. Some say Sharon was pulled from Petticoat because of previous nude photos, but that's complete bs. Sharon posed nude twice, but that was after PJ not before, once screen testing for The Cincinnati Kid (1964) and once on the set of The Fearless Vampire KIllers(1966), the photos were shot by Roman Polanski as film publicity.

[quote]Not only did Kate have physically diverse daughters

Which one of you conductors is my father?

The paper dolls of Kate and the girls was very creepy. I can see Uncle Joe abusing himself while playing with these.

Pixley must have been in the same universe as the Doris Day show.

The one where everyone looks very rustic and rural for the first few seasons, and then suddenly has chic clothing and beautifully coiffed hair.

Is there a video clip of Mike Minor shaving?

Never mind, found it here. Thought he'd be shirtless!

Wasn't Mike Minor's character with the blonde sister at first. How did he switch sisters, I can't remember.

Hank Kimball and I had a secret relationship for years.

When I was in 1st & 2nd grade, a lot of the rural sitcoms were in an afternoon block on one of our local, non-national network stations (the Fox/CW channels before Fox & CW existed). I hated most of them and would skip around to other channels. Andy Griffith bored the shit out of me. The Beverly Hillbillies was just stupid and I found myself siding with the rich people. I tried to watch Green Acres, but I got fed up with all the characters and their lack of logic. I found myself getting very frustrated for Oliver because he was the only one on the show who had any sense of logic or intelligence and they shit all over him. (Of course, back then I didn't know all of this, I just got annoyed.) I felt the same way about Gilligan's Island. I hated it because it made no sense.

Petticoat Junction was just "logical" enough that I could tolerate it and I would watch it every night. It was the last show before my bedtime.

R95 Are you a scientist?

[quote]Ransohoff had Sharon do bit parts on various tv shows to get experience in front of the camera before giving her a film role.

Wearing a black wig, Tate appeared in several episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies as a bank secretary.

[quote] [R95] Are you a scientist?

I'm actually a writer, but one very rooted in logic.

None of those Bradley girls could hold a candle to their long-estranged half-sister Jethrine.

R99 Wasn’t there a TV series about her called, “The Girl With Something Extra?”

Those girls were everywhere.

[quote]Hank Kimball and I had a secret relationship for years.

Well, not exactly secret ...

I'd be the little gay nephew, waiting until the sisters leave the house to go shopping, hoping to see Steve shaving again....

[quote] Wasn’t there a TV series about her called, “The Girl With Something Extra?”

Starring Renee Richards!

I hate everyone who contributed to this thread (including myself) because I cannot get this fucking theme song out of my head. Quick, someone show me a photo of Bea Benaderet and Frances Baiver scissoring so I go into shock.

How about one of Mr. Drucker and Uncle Joe DPing Clara Edwards?

I want one of Mike Minor blowing his load.

Would you settle for Eb and Arnold "makin' bacon?"

Here, r105. Maybe it’ll get you halfway

R109 Oh. My. God.

Mike SINGS!

He could put his ace in my hole!

I remember watching this as a child, and loving the theme song, and loving the nice sisters, (mi9ne were car wash cunts), but actually have no idea what it was about...they ran a hotel or something?

I highly doubt that they would still be using steam engines in the mid 1960s.

Isn't anyone going to mention ME, Meredith MacRae brought on to be Mike's love interest? My little sister wasn't such a tomboy after all and stole my man right from under me 😠 Of course being that Mike was the only eligible straight man in town all three sisters learned to share the hunky pilot 😛

Also, there's no connecting railway so it's not technically a junction at all.

@r115, Of course, that wasn't nearly as strange as finding Lassie's mom Lost in Space and replacing our mom with her

I grew up with the NYC local stations in the '70s. We had Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, Andy Griffith, and Mayberry RFD. For whatever reason, we never got The Beverly Hillbillies. Not even on channel 9! It wasn't until about 1981 when we got cable, that I finally saw Beverly Hillbillies on WTBS.

I guess Beverly Hillbillies wasn't successful in syndication. It's interesting to consider what worked in syndication and whay didn't. I don't think any of Norman Lear's show were too successful in syndication. But MASH was a smash.

@r114, "I highly doubt that they would still be using steam engines in the mid 1960s. "

"Engine 557 last operated at Nenana, where the regular flooding of the Tanana and Nenana rivers made it difficult for the diesel traction motors on most of the engines to run. In 1962, it was the last steam locomotive in regular service on the railroad."

@r116, "Also, there's no connecting railway so it's not technically a junction at all. "

True

"The train on this line only travels between the farming community of Hooterville and its small neighboring town, Pixley. Smack in the middle between the two locations is Petticoat Junction, which is where Bradley’s hotel is located. A journey of twenty-five miles in either direction takes you to the town of choice.

Despite being called a junction, the location of the hotel was really at a water stop and not an actual crossing."

^According to a poster upthread, there had been a connected railway before the trestle washed out so, technically it had been a junction.

I remember seeing Bobbie Jo SMOKING in a TV commercial for Newports and little Mary me was scandalized.

R118 we had Beverly Hillbillies and Andy Griffith. I vaguely recall seeing a few episodes of the others but they never held any interest for me and when the others quit rerunning it was always the first two still going in syndication.

I did like the intro to Green Acres.

On my local independent station the afterschool lineup in the 80s was:

4:00 - (in rotation) Petticoat Junction/Green Acres/Beverly Hillbillies - They would run all the seasons of PJ, then play all the seasons of GA, then BH, then start over again.

4:30 Batman

5:00 Get Smart

5:30 Brady Bunch

6:00 Andy Griffith Show

6:30 What's Happening

7:00 The Jeffersons

7:30 Good Times

I grew up in Florida and we had Channel 6 and UHF channels 33 and 45 as our local stations that ran syndicated programming, movies and local shows. In the early 80s we got another local station but I forget the channel. I just remember that they launched with the premiere of Madame's Place and a showing of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

But I remember our afternoon/even syndication packages included everything from The Dick Van Dyke Show, Love, American Style, I Love Lucy, The Brady Bunch to some of the Sid & Marty Krofft shows like The Bugaloos and Sigmund & The Sea Monsters.

And of course, in the morning before school, and right after school, we got The Flintstones, Underdog, Looney Tunes, and a mix of the Hanna Barbera cartoons.

r117 June Lockhart is 97 and still with us.

Meredith McRae died 22 years ago at 56.

Linda Kaye Henning slowly morphed into Patti Deutsch during the run of PJ, but Lori Saunders stayed gorgeous throughout.

Who was the girls' father? Why was he NEVER mentioned??

Uncle Joe didn’t always move kinda slow, r127.

[quote] so the whole town drank their stank.

I think that water tank was specifically for the train boiler.

I STILL want to know why the dog had a petticoat!

Interesting article, R119, but even if there was a crossing, it still wouldn't be a junction. I know it's only Wiki, but this explains what a rail junction actually is.

But what was its FUNCTION?

r132, have you no compunction?

Sounds like it was malfunction junction

Hopefully not Extreme Unction...

There are 666 (!) total episodes for BH, PJ and GA. If only one episode of the 666 aired per day, it would take over two and a half years to get through one cycle of all of them. That's a long wait for a rotation, R123!

R127, the father was mentioned a few times, I think. His name was Bill. The specific mention I recall is when Kate revealed that Bill had left a small amount of money for Billie Joe to start medical school -- it was his dream for her -- and Billie wanted to take the money to travel to Hollywood to be a movie star.

[quote]and Billie wanted to take the money to travel to Hollywood to be a movie star.

Which one, r136? Jeannine Jo, Gunilla Jo or Meredith Jo?

r136 Bill Bradley? Kate was married to a basketball star and US Senator?

I only watched it because I was fascinated by the elevator in the lobby, although it never worked.

Jeannine Jo, R137. Any by the way, she was a Republican, and the other girls were staunch Democrats, so they never got along that well.

[quote]Billie Joe

Oh, dear.

Sammy jo!

^ They're all named "Jo" because their father wanted a boy but he could only shoot girlsperm

I assumed they were all named after Uncle Joe, their father's brother.

[quote]I only watched it because I was fascinated by the elevator in the lobby, although it never worked.

They needed to learn how to get it to work.

[quote]I assumed they were all named after Uncle Joe, their father's brother.

Don't think Uncle Joe was the brother of the girls' father.

Uncle Joe's last name was Carson. The father's last name was Bradley.

According to the Wikipedia entry, Kate is Joe's niece. That means Kate's father and Joe Carson were brothers.

Why did they have to take the train everywhere? Why didn’t they just buy a car?

^ They don't have any roads... or at least that's what I thought when I was a kid

They have some roads, or at least they did in Green Acres.

BTW Linda Kaye Henning was the daughter of the shows creator Paul Henning who basically created this show as a starring vehicle for Bea Benaderet they had known each other since their days on the George Burns and Gracie Allen show. Bea Benaderet also appeared on The Beverly Hillbillys also created by Paul Henning..

I always hoped that train would derail.

Homer Bledsoe (Charles Lane) was always trying to shut it down.

In the later years, cars pulled up to the Shady Rest, so they must have got roads at some point. Bobbie Jo’s boyfriend (I want to say Warren? He was some kind of ranger or something) used to pull up in his Jeep in the final season.

I loved Betty Jo and Steve’s honeymoon cottage when I was a kid. What a fag!

[quote] What a fag!

Yes, but can you do the Lucy marionette opening credits dance?

I cannot, R154, but I WAS total obsessed with that opening credits sequence as a kid. Loved that puppet, especially when she pulled down the spotlight or bumped it with her puppet ass!

[quote]Yes, but can you do the Lucy marionette opening credits dance?

I'll have you know that I PERFECTED Jeannie's hip check with "air push off" in my suburban living room.

[quote] Yes, but can you do the Lucy marionette opening credits dance?

We discussed this upthread - many a mother was driven to drink and regret when she found her son imitating the Lucy marionette.

Here's a lady MD

She's as pretty as can be

At the Junction!

(Petticoat Junction!)

[quote]Homer Bledsoe (Charles Lane) was always trying to shut it down.

BEDLOE.

[quote]Sammy Jo!

Her full name was "that tramp Sammy Jo."

[quote] "Green Acres" leaned heavily into surrealism (Eva Gabor pouring pancake batter into the toaster to make waffles, etc.)

[quote]"Petticoat" didn't really have a signature. Even the three girls didn't seem to have distinct personalities, which could have been fun.

Actually, the first two seasons of "Petticoat Junction" had the surreal element that they later used in "Green Acres." Then Doug Henning decided to shift all his surreal energies into "Green Acres," which was a kind of masterpiece of surreal humor. Unfortunately this meant that "Petticoat Junction" had to find its own tone in the late 60s, and they decided to make it super-wholesome, like at the Lawrence Welk Show level.

In the later years, there's an episode where Billie Jo (by this time Meredith Macrae) gets a job singing at a nightclub, and someone convinces she has to work against her wholesome image. Rather than acknowledge there were such things as hippies at the time, or flower children, this results in Billie Jo singing "Falling in Love Again" for her act dressed and made up as Marlene Dietrich. Kate comes to see it and she is absolutely horrified--why does Billie Jo need to be gussied up like some Teutonic Jezebel! So she goes backstage and scrubs all that makeup off Bille Jo's face (her reaction is so swift and extreme and certain you would have thought she had watched Billie Jo perform in a donkey show). And then Billie Jo comes back onstage dressed as freshly and wholesomely as possible and sings that anthem of out-of-it 50s femininity "I Enjoy Being a Girl." And of course singing THAT, she's a hit at the nightclub (her audience was freaked out and made unhappy by "Falling in Love Again").

It was so ridiculously wholesome it made "My Three Sons" and "Family Affair" look smutty by comparison.

In the first couple seasons, Kate wasn’t as conservative with the girls as she was in R161’s post. Early on she encouraged the girls to put themselves out there and show themselves off to the travelling salesmen who came through the hotel. She was particularly worried that Bobbie was more interested in books than boys (even though it was Betty who was the tomboy).

Petticoat Junction is where Arnold Ziffel got his start. He was in Petticoat Junction about 8 months before Green Acres debuted.

[quote]Then Doug Henning decided to shift all his surreal energies into "Green Acres," which was a kind of masterpiece of surreal humor.

DOUG Henning? Oh, dear.

[quote]Petticoat Junction is where Arnold Ziffel got his start. He was in Petticoat Junction about 8 months before Green Acres debuted.

And two months after it was cancelled, he was appearing in my bacon cheeseburger.

Well fuck my drag, then.

^^^Gunilla Hutton. The indignities keep on coming!

Apparently Gunilla was Nat King Cole’s long-term side piece.

[quote] Petticoat Junction is where Arnold Ziffel got his start. He was in Petticoat Junction about 8 months before Green Acres debuted.

[quote] And two months after it was cancelled, he was appearing in my bacon cheeseburger.

R165 Well, that's one way to not have to pay rerun royalties to Arnold.

Because Arnold was perennially a young pig, small and cute, there were, of course, many Arnolds over the course of the series. Pigs grow quickly. I used to wonder what became of all the Arnolds who outgrew the role.

[quote] I used to wonder what became of all the Arnolds who outgrew the role.

Cameo appearances on The Simpsons?

I think Netflix should do a really dark version of Petticoat Junction. Kate's a down on her luck hotel owner in the middle of nowhere trying to hold it all together with a deep dark secret about her dead husband. Uncle Joe is actually a mob boss running girls and drugs through the hotel and has a secret lair that can only be accessed through the elevator that doesn't work. Betty Jo is a lesbian cam girl. Bobbie Jo is a teacher in Hooterville fucking one of her students. Billie Jo is the secret side piece of Homer Bedloe and plotting with him to steal the hotel and the land from Kate.

Also: Dr. Janet Craig, "the lady MD" (played by 97-year-old June Lockhart), runs a pill mill that has 95% of Pixley hooked on OxyContin.

^ And the dog played by Benji in the original series is now a large, freakish-looking pit bull.

I thought R158 was kidding but indeed those are the lyrics

(I don't remember ever seeing any of the episodes without Kate)

r172 We need to add Floyd and Charlie hardcore leather queens into BDSM. And Sam Drucker as their insatiable bottom slave.

And Steve is an exhibitionist who loves to show off his 12 x 8.

Petticoat Junction was duller than dishwater, and Uncle Joe was a major pain in the ass.

[quote] Apparently Gunilla was Nat King Cole’s long-term side piece.

She was 21 when he died.

@r172, So, "It's a wonderful Life" in reverse. Got it

Show was running out of steam by the time June Lockhart arrived as Janet Craig. Think of her as a Cousin Oliver.

All three of Paul Hennings (NOT Doug Henning ) show should have been canceled at least a year earlier.

Even as a kid of 8, 9 and 10, I could tell the writers were running out of ideas. Both Petticoat Junction and Green Acres ran a season too long. Final season should have been a year earlier for both. Green Acres added the little girl Lori and Petticoat Junction added June Lockhart. Both should have been canceled before either arrived.

Beverly Hillbillies ran TWO season too long. Maybe even three. It was running on fumes by its last two seasons, even though it still got good ratings.

The same could have been said of Bewitched, which made so many episodes each season that by the end of Dick York's run they had plenty for syndication.

And THAT show literally repeated itself on a number of occasions in later years, down to dialogue and scripts.

[quote] Even as a kid of 8, 9 and 10, I could tell the writers were running out of ideas.

We're glad you took time away from perfecting your Lucy marionette pirouettes to make those critical observations!

: )

Lucy ran on fumes for 10 years. It's common in sitcoms

[quote]We're glad you took time away from perfecting your Lucy marionette pirouettes to make those critical observations!

That wasn't me. Different gayling who made those comments about learning the Lucy dance.

Also different gayling who loved doing the Doris Day triple closeup exposure arrival down the spiral staircase.

We are ALL that little queen

Listen, half the bitches in this thread could do the Lucy marionette dance with their eyes closed.

Those shows were cash cows, so they were run into the ground. I think it was Babe Paley who got them all cancelled.

[quote]Benaderet also appeared on The Beverly Hillbillys also created by Paul Henning.

She was a lock for Granny on Beverley Hillbillys until Irene Ryan tested, r149. Even Bernaderet wouldn't argue it, especially with the consolation prize of the role of Pearl, Jethro's mother.

Irene ended her career on Broadway. This audio is all I can find of that. The old vaudevillian clearly still knew how to work a crowd.

Didn;t Irene Ryan have a massive stroke onstage while performing in "Pippin"?

"Oh, it's time to start livin'

Time to take a little from this world we're... ***hrrk!!***"

R191 Kinda. She did the matinee, and knew something was off. The Producers allowed her to leave the show then and there, and she flew back to her home in LA, where she died a few weeks later. Am sure someone can correct if my account is off.

Granny in a fishtail skirt...

I used to catch some of the repeats on MeTV. It get strangely reactive the last few seasons where the girls lost a lot of their independence and personality. The tomboy that ended up marrying Steve lost all of her traits of being capable of fixing a car or hitting a softball and lost all her spirit and would cry in her cottage if something went wrong. The one who liked to read and I think wanted to be a writer became a ditz and was just focused on her goofy ranger boyfriend. I think even Merideth Macrae became more passive in wanting a singing career.

I read somewhere that Steve was supposed to be with Meridith long-term, but when he started dating the other girl in real life, they changed course. I think he discovered he like the tomboy's spirt and ability to fix an engine and Merideth and he realized they were not right for each other and had an amicable break-up. Of course, once they got married, his wife dropped all of the things he liked about her.

I liked Bea and Kate, but Pearl as Granny's foil was probably a more interesting character.

Speaking of My 3 Sons, even as a kid I thought it was odd how young they married off the boys. And what kind of Dad was Steve, the oldest son gets married and is never mentioned again, except maybe once or twice. One thing I liked about Father Knows Best and Betty, while she liked to date, and some episodes centered on that, it never seemed to be a focal point of her character. Being that the actress was pregnant one year, they could have done the married off with a baby, but she actually seemed interested in college and having some sort of career afterwards.

Beverly Hillbillies was funnier. PJ was more girl power.

Betty on FKB was so neurotic. She must have had a crying fit on every other show. She’d really have something to cry about if she lived in Hooterville with the hayseeds.

[quote] And what kind of Dad was Steve, the oldest son gets married and is never mentioned again, except maybe once or twice.

I always wanted there to be one episode where someone accidentally mentioned Mike's name and Steve would say coldly, "We don't say that name in this house anymore," and everyone else looked stricken.

I wanted even more for Mrs. Cunningham to say that coldly about her son Chuck after the first season of "Happy Days."

[quote]I wanted even more for Mrs. Cunningham to say that coldly about her son Chuck after the first season of "Happy Days."

I think the show did a meta moment near the end of the show, where the name Chuck is said or something like that, and Mrs. C had a look on her face like she felt she was forgetting something. I remember All My Children did an episode where Opal came down from the Martin attic spooked about something in reference to Bobby Martin going up to get his skis in an early episode and never being seen or mentioned again.

Betty could be overdramatic, but I feel the crying on the bed was limited more to the first couple of seasons when she was in high school. Although it has been a long time since I have caught the repeats. Kitten on the other hand...

I know it was a different era then, but it's so strange how pivotal characters are rarely (or never) mentioned after they leave a show . Oldest son Mike is a perfect example, as is Bub , also from MTS. Hoss and Adam from Bonanza , and Danny Thomas first wife from Make Room For Daddy are others.

This thread reminds me that for most of my life I had the wrong pronunciation for Bea Benaderet's last name. I thought it was "ben-a-de-RAY."

Hey, r196, Princess could do it *all*!

Kitten was just as neurotic as Betty, that’s true.

But she wasn’t such a desperate overachiever.

Betty was fine. Kitten was afflicted with bad child actress-itis.

Bud was the only one worth watching 😉

[quote]Bud was the only one worth watching 😉

Watch away, r204...

[quote]I know it was a different era then, but it's so strange how pivotal characters are rarely (or never) mentioned after they leave a show . Oldest son Mike is a perfect example, as is Bub , also from MTS. Hoss and Adam from Bonanza , and Danny Thomas first wife from Make Room For Daddy are others.

That's certainly true of Mike, Bub and Adam, but not really true of Danny Thomas's first wife from "Make Room for Daddy." DL fave Jean Hagen (Lina Lamont in "Singin' in the Rain") was a fine actress who felt the wife role was too limiting. When she opted not to return after three seasons, Thomas killed off her character and spent part of the next season as a widower, until he was eventually introduced to Marjorie Lord's character.

^ Meh, I was into Don Grady and Tony Dow 😍

[quote]I always wanted there to be one episode where someone accidentally mentioned Mike's name and Steve would say coldly, "We don't say that name in this house anymore," and everyone else looked stricken.'

I remember a post-Tim Considine episode of "My Three Sons" in which someone says to Steve Douglas, "You have a fine son." To which Steve says, "I have three fine sons," referring to Robbie, Chip and Ernie.

^ Well, by that time Mike had been murdered in prison

I wish electronic music pioneer Eric Siday, who made the CBS Color sounder at the beginning of the clip, had done a deep house dance mix of the Petticoat Junction theme song. I'd be dancin'.

Maybe you'll like the Czech version of the theme song.

R198 The AMC moment was funny - I think Opal went to the attic and saw a pair of skis that said "Bobby."

(Can't remember if there was a skeleton up there or not, too.)

r212 Opal was hiding in the Martin attic one time and saw the skis with Bobby's name on it. She had a funny look on her face and said, "Who's Bobby?"

All three of the FKB kids are still alive. So are all three Donna Reed kids. The same can't be said of the other "family" sitcoms of the era: Ozzie and Harriet, Beaver, My Three Sons.

This ILL episode is on right now...

[quote]I'm actually a writer, but one very rooted

Pics please.

[quote] Betty on FKB was so neurotic. She must have had a crying fit on every other show.

It was refreshing, though, to have someone that nakedly emotional on a 50s television show.

Remember when she told her h.s. friend who was part of the ghost prank that if she didn't keep her mother's name out of her mouth, she'd slap her face silly? She was bad-ass.

Stupid ass show for old stupid asses.

Because of Datalounge, it's impossible for me to think of Bea Benederet without imagining her enjoying Schlitz and deviled eggs with Marjorie Main.

Don’t forget Doris Day abandoned her kids in the country for the big city of San Francisco

[quote] Don’t forget Doris Day abandoned her kids in the country for the big city of San Francisco

They're still back there waiting for her!

[quote]They're still back there waiting for her!

Que fucking sera...sera.

[quote]Don’t forget Doris Day abandoned her kids in the country for the big city of San Francisco

On "The Lucy Show," Lucy Carmichael abandoned her son and daughter when she moved to California.

[quote]On "The Lucy Show," Lucy Carmichael abandoned her son and daughter when she moved to California.

It was revealed in one of the episodes, r223, that they had died from constant exposure to second-hand smoke.

She accidentally locked them in the bank vault one Friday afternoon, and they were both dead by dehydration by Monday morning.

That was the biggest "spider" reaction she ever made when she reopened the vault door.

[quote]I know it was a different era then, but it's so strange how pivotal characters are rarely (or never) mentioned after they leave a show.

In the early '90s, child actress Jaimee Foxworth was fired from Family Matters after four seasons so Jaleel White's role as Urkel could be expanded. Her character, Judy Winslow, was written out by going upstairs, never to be seen or mentioned again.

Petticoat Junction is currently airing on the Decades channel. Two episodes each weekday, 10AM - 11AM ET; 7AM - 8AM PT

The first episode for tomorrow reads: "One of Kate's old lovers shows up at the Shady Rest and attempts to seduce her into his bed, but is thwarted by his dominatrix sister."

[quote]And the dog played by Benji in the original series

His name was Higgins. Benji was a character he portrayed.

Morons love old shit

I wonder if old PJ episodes can be found online. I think I'll try to find that episode where we hear Bea's voice for the last time.

Here you go, R230. Bea's part begins at about 23:39.

R230 Season 1 is on Tubi

Hood hair dryers, rat combs and Aqua Net

[quote]She was bad-ass.

She certainly would have been a better girlfriend than that drip Helen Crump.

[quote]In the early '90s, child actress Jaimee Foxworth was fired from Family Matters after four seasons so Jaleel White's role as Urkel could be expanded. Her character, Judy Winslow, was written out by going upstairs, never to be seen or mentioned again.

There was a lot of that going around on old sitcoms.