My, my, I have returned to my southern, rural childhood. Staying all night with grandparents and watching Green Acres. It's didn't get any better then that. Thanks.😷
O....M....G! Eddie Albert as Jethro. What a great clip, Fred. I am going to make a pretty strong declaration, after years of TV watching, Green Acres remains my very favorite sit com. I watch the reruns today and still laugh out loud. The perfect combination of casting and writing genius. Thanks for this gem!❤
I saw this comment second. yes, Jan, LOL again and again. i just don't do that except with Green Acres. I guess it's the unashamed nuttiness of it. The daring to be dumb. So maybe it's my favorite too! (We share the same sense of humor...but we already knew that.)
The characters in Green Acres would often break out of their fictional "reality" and draw attention to the fact that they just characters playing in a TV show--like when Mr. Douglas would start one of his speeches about the Founding Fathers and the Bill of Rights, drum and fife music would start up as background music, then Lisa would say, "Dahlink, where is that music coming from?" She also used to make comments about the opening credits. I think there were some crossover interactions between the cast of Green Acres and Beverly Hillbillies, maybe on Petticoat Junction, so that means they were all part of the same "reality", but here's Green Acres pointing out that Beverly Hillbillies is just a TV show. Pretty sophisticated for a prime-time comedy about life on a farm.
There’s another episode that mentions the Beverly Hillbillies as a TV show as well. When a man comes to arrest Oliver for running an illegal Television station, Mr. Haney shows up and tells them his “Man undressing show” has the #1 rating for the station, with “Man doing barnyard imitations” as #2, and at #3 is the Beverly Hillbillies, which is also tied with the WPIXL test pattern..
@@justinstearns9723 That's really funny, I'd like to see that episode some day. It's Paul Henning, the producer of Beverly Hillbillies, making fun of his show using the characters on his other show, Green Acres. The thing about the programming on WPIXL is that it's not much different than what's on reality TV these days, so Henning was really ahead of his time.
That was great. Eva Gabor did a great Hungarian Granny. Green Acres and Beverly Hillbillies sometimes bordered on Surrealistic. You use the proper term "absurd comedy." The shows are still funny, 50+ years later.
And I liked it when she kicked up her heels (twice) on the way to the sink! Did the Beverley Hillbillies granny do that on her way to her 'Elixir' jug for her rheumatism?
Green Acres was really an amazingly subtle show. Most people I knew at the time hated it because they found it utterly stupid. But, seeing it again years later, you realized that the marketers at Nick@Nite nailed it when they observed that "it isn’t dopey - it's surreal." While some viewers just thought it another Paul Henning attempt at lowbrow humor, the real absurdist humor was going over their heads the whole time.
Those people were the stupid ones not knowing what a gem this show was. It had actors of caliber you wouldn't see on tv today. The thing is shows like Green Acres, Hogan's Heroes, Amen, Sanford and Son, Married with Children, Night Court etc really went for comedy in hilariously big and absurd ways. Sitcoms now take themselves too seriously and don't go for the comedy like these shows did.
@@michaelcap9550 I don't think it has to be an either/or situation. I personally enjoy both broad and slapstick comedies as well as morality play comedies.
I do not remember this episode perhaps because it's been awhile when I've seen the episodes of Green Acres. But it was one of my all-time favorite shows. What a way to remember the 60's.
I loved every character too, but there was something about Fred Ziffel that really got me! He seemed to be the standard, skeptical, straight-talking farmer, but yet he claimed to understand his 'son' Arnold's grunts and snorts! And that biological son Arnold was also somehow a biological pig, who was as smart as anybody in town! And the whole town believed it because somehow Arnold was able to 'prove' it....
"Whooodoggies" and end my sentence with a preposition! That was one wacky episode from "Green Acres". The one I always love to watch from! Thank you very much FredFlix! (Lisa Douglas sneezing backwards) Haha.
I had the priviledge of personally meeting Alvy Moore (Hank Kimball) back in 1994, 3 years before he died. I personally told him that he played my favorite character on the Green acres TV show show, shook his hand, and he was was a very congenial, warm, and humble man! In the late 1970's I would go to Eddie Albert's home in Pacific Palisades to service the swimming pool. At one time, he had corn growing in his front yard, of his very upscale neighborhood. He had a big greenhouse in his backyard filled with many varieties of well-tended plants, so his character seemed to be an extension of his real personna. I never once saw him when I was there. My boss owned a pool service company that serviced many, many actors, and actresses homes in the very posh areas of Los Angeles, so I had many, many unusual encounters with seeing some of them.
I've never seen the Green acres' version of the Beverly Hillbillies, but I certainly was a big fan of the sitcom starring Buddy Ebsen as Jed Clampett. I had the opportunity of meeting Buddy Ebsen back in 1973 during the filming of the movie Tom Sawyer. It was shot on location at Upper Canada Villiage in Morrisburge Ontario. My father was in the school bus business and was hired to transport the actors to and from their motel to the filming location during the taping of the movie. Besides Buddy Ebsen, there were many big names in that movie - including but not limited to Josh Albee, Jane Wyatt and Vic Morrow. It was like a dream come true for a nine year old boy living in Eastern Ontario Canada to have a chance to meet some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Things like that just didn't happen for a small town boy living in Great White North. Thanks again Fred for another chance to relive some of the greatest memories of my childhood.
As a lifelong fan of GA,I remember this one well Fred.Thanks to MeTV for giving me something to watch every night.As Mr.Haney would say,This was a "genuine(jenuWINE) imitation " of a great show!
I remember reading about this episode in Steve Cox's book about the series before seeing it. It certainly created a strange world where the Clampetts, w/ whom the Douglases interacted in person, starred in a sitcom also. I've also recently seen on Me-TV an early episode where the Hooterville locals were saying that they were missing GOMER PYLE on tv to attend a meeting that Oliver organized. Me-TV would be smart to make a promo using clips of it to promote both shows, since this summer they air back-to-back weeknights.
Alvy Moore was the funniest! Brought the character of 'The Rube' to it's illogical conclusion! If you look REAL close... you can see him as one of the town folks in the opening segment of 'War of the Worlds'! & Eddie Albert! A Comic actor who ALSO had operated an amphibious landing craft at Tarawa!
I remember this episode. Eddie Albert was priceless funny portraying Jethro. The wig added even more depth and then with his hillbilly Jethro accent had me in stomach aching laughter especially when he went through the simulated door. Yes, it was a strange episode but I thought it was very funny. Green Acres was unique for the times as they had bizarre and just plain different approaches to comedy then any other. Some episodes had them doing “the fourth wall” such as where the credits would be shown and certain cast members would comment on them. The odd episode would have cartoon words appear similar to Batman such as when the generator would blow up and cartoon words would appear on the screen exaggerating the explosion. I am currently enjoying re-runs on ME TV, still as funny as when I watched in the mid1960’s and early 70’s.
@@FredFlix My Aunt has been passed for 30+ years or so? I remember that it was a private school. Zsa Zsa was a grade ahead Eva was a grade behind her I think? Remember this was Pre-Adolf! My Aunt's Father was an Ambassador from Hungary to the U.S. The Gabor family was Hungarian and Jewish. My Aunt was Hungarian. The Gabors went to to U.S. knowing Adolf was bad news! My Aunt's Father, as many, were very Anti Adolf! However, when Adolf was starting to invade Hungary he had his workers take all the crops into town and put everything in the streets for the people! He was very wealthy and into agriculture and gave everything to the people. This was not unnoticed by the Gestapo. He managed to get my Aunt to their winter chalet in Switzerland. I didn't find out until her eulorgy at her funeral that she left Switzerland and went back to Hungary and fought with the Risistance Solders throughout WWII to help defeat Adolf! It was nice being her and my Uncle lived in Bozrah, CT. Jews and Gentiles grew up there and all enlisted to go fight in WWII. Best to ya',,,,!
@@walterminer4990 Must have been in 1944. About the Uncle I mean. When I was a teen I was friends (my parents friends) with a German woman from Pomerania that was there when the Soviets invaded. She had been raped by them as a teen.
Thanks for sharing Walter, truly interesting indeed. My wife read a book a few years ago by one of the Gabor girls, mostly covering her experiences in Hollywood ,it was a real eye opener.
If you hated him in The Longest Yard, he proved his mettle. Eddie was phenomenal and did a great job as Warden Hazen. You might also like him in The Heartbreak Kid. Brilliant. Eddie lived to be 99. God Bless Him
Me-TV is airing a 1st Season episode called "The Ballad of Molly Turgiss". At 1 point, Fred Ziffel says Arnold (his son, the pig) wanted to stay home & watch THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES instead of going to dinner w/ the Douglases. After dinner & some singing, Fred says he hopes to be home soon enough to see Dick Van Dyke. This dinner must've been on a Wednesday night. :)
You picked probably one of the best examples of what made this show stand out as special among 60's sitcoms. Petticoat Junction and Beverly Hillbillies started out fairly straightforward, country comedies, but I think as the Beverly Hillbillies went on, a bit of surrealism crept in more and more at times. Green Acres, to me, was the show where the writers and producers really let their inverted sense of realism play out to the fullest. The writing and comedy on Green Acres had to have been the most difficult to maintain. That show was like a sitcom doing satire on being a sitcom. Green Acres was the type of show back then that you would have now if they had created it today- only it would have been on Netfix or Amazon; because the networks today would have been totally baffled by the surrealism and self-referencing of it all (having characters acknowledging their show's writers'/producers' credits showing up on the screen?) I remember this episode and its pure genius. It would take a blow torch to cut through all the irony going on.
You don't Even see the stuff like the credits on today's most "inventive" comedies. Nothing brilliantly absurd and genuinely funny since this show, Hogan's Heroes and Night Court imo.
Richard Bare. who directed most of the episodes, was the creative mind behind the very good Joe McDoakes/Behind the 8 Ball film series at Warner Brothers. He had great comedy chops, but in an interview I saw with him later in life (he lived to be over 100), he modestly disclaimed any credit for Green Acres, giving all the credit to the writers.
Thanks Fred...We'll never see the likes of innocent fun and corny TV programming ever again. They were shows that worked well if you have a sense of humor. With the passing of time...so has the ability to laugh at the absurd.
I remember seeing an episode where Eb dated Betty Jo one time but Eb gave her roses and she began sneezing and they broke up because she was allergic to flowers.
Interesting never saw this....eva was a very underrated actress...she was actually very funny....remember watching this show on reruns in the 70s when we had maybe 5 channels to choose from....amazing....
I saw all of those regularly, they still all connected in a way too, You would see some of the different characters on either one sometimes, ( Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres,Petticoat Junction) but this is good, first time I ever saw this!! Also Arnold Ziffel was My Favorite character, but I liked all of them!
I knew of this but I don't remember seeing it back in the day and haven't watched it online. This would have been well before the three way crossover that occurred in during the Holiday Season of 1968. Beverly Hillbillies was mentioned as a TV show in the first season of Petticoat Junction. Similar inconsistencies happened over on ABC on Batman and The Green Hornet. Each one appeared as a TV show multiple times in the other. Batman and Robin encountered GH and Kato on a building climb scene and referred to each other as fellow crime fighters. Yet in the crossover late in Batman Season 2/GH Season 1 (and unfortunately only), GH is as he is known on his show, a criminal by reputation but a crime fighter in "reality".
My father's family was in the autobody business for more than 80 years. The day after Eva's Lisa Douglas character 'took driving lessons', every car with an automatic transmission, had a "pernerndal" - PRNDL2, and I believe my cousins still use the term. My earliest understanding of the 'concept of amperage', comes from "You can't plug in a two, with a six".... Most of my knowledge of religion and history is courtesy of Mel Brooks, and real radio stations actually do have chemistry similar to WKRP.
Never saw this episode! CBS also had another rural crossover, The Andy Griffith Show/Andy of Mayberry and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., and a sequel, Mayberry, R.F.D. I might be remembering wrong, but I seem to remember a few episodes of Andy where Hooterville was mentioned.
That's a good one! When the networks did the" Rural purge" they took these wonderfully entertaining shows off and replaced them with social and political shows like all in the family and the jeffersons which seem to always push a narrative thereby ruining TV ( imho)
The Trifecta: Beverly Hillbillies go to Hootersville and stay at Petticoat Junction's Shady Rest Hotel . Fun Fact: the Dog at the Shady Rest is the same dog that played Benji, he was trained by the guy that also trained Arnold the Pig. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JzmwZ_YBlQ0.html
Wow, that was a unique one, Fred; thanks for sharing it. I thought I'd seen all the episodes of Green Acres, but don't recall ever seeing this one. Of equal interest , IMO, was seemingly Oliver Wendell Douglas of sorts crossing over into The Outer Limits - even before the inception of Green Acres. In the Season 2 TOL episode "Cry Of Silence", Eddie Albert's character Andy Thorne drags his reluctant wife Karen out to the sticks to live on an old farm in order to "get away from it all". Well... after their first unsettling encounter with an unseen alien presence there, Eddie Albert tells his hysterical wife "When we get back to town, I'll give up the idea of living on a farm, Honey". HAH!! Every time I see that scene, I shout "Liar!!". Funny, one year later, he's dragging a reluctant Eva Gabor to go live on a farm! Funny premonition there, huh? Then... 10 years after that, we have a sinister Mr. Kimball (Alvy Moore) putting the screws to a very young Don Johnson in what's left of post-apocalyptic rural Kansas in "A Boy and His Dog"... hmm... interesting. Not-so-green Acres there. Buy me some popcorn, Albert; you promised me popcorn! ;-) - with all due apologies to the late great Harlan Ellison.
I have "Cry of Silence" and noticed that, too. I like that episode, even though, on the surface (terrorizing tumbleweeds and all) it seems not fit to be an Outer Limits. Yet it contained some profound concepts.
@@FredFlix Yep, I kinda figured you'd already picked-up on that, Fred. Just felt the irony applied well to your video. I'm with you; I've always liked that TOL episode too, albeit it seems sorta an odd fit. Always got a kick outta Arthur Hunnicutt's line "Frogs! Thousands of mad frogs!" Love it! Indeed, you're right, that episode had some profound concepts and I've long thought of it as an inspiration for "Starman", made 20 years later. Thanks for your insights.
I think Green Acres wanted to distance themselves from the other 2 shows and be their own thing. Eb once remarked he was watching Petticoat Junction on TV once 😂😆
They should have had Ralph Monroe play Ellie Mae. Two real life war heroes in this scene. Alvy Moore and Eddie Albert. They were in it deep in two of the worst battles of the Pacific-Alvy Moore at Iwo Jima and Eddie Albert at Tarawa.
Crossovers caused a state of Cognitive Dissonance in the minds of impressionable young T.V. viewers. But I don't really give a shit. I just wanted to use the phrase "Cognitive Dissonance" in a sentence. Crossovers were fun and always creative. Nice to hear you on audio Fred.
Being that I was born in 1960, when Green Acres was first on the air it was on past my bedtime, so I didn't get to see it until it was nearly at the end of its run. But I became a fan. I never saw this clip, so it may be that it was never in syndication. I was kinda disappointed to not see who they would've gotten to play Elly May...Ralph Munro, perhaps? (shudder)
Thanks for this! I've fallen in love with Green Acres and Hogan's Heroes. Along with The Andy Griffith Show and The Addams Family they were the very best of the sixties. Any chance you could upload the great ending of Lisa goes to school episode? Her cheer and flip was hysterical!
Know what would fry my okra? If some Hootersville folk went on a drive and found themselves visiting kin in Mayberry. Maybe one's related to Ernest T. Bass.
That's something you don't see everyday? Shoot. I didn't see this episode when Green Acres originally aired in the 60s and during the subsequent reruns over the decades.
Fred, I just found the radio show Grandby's Green Acres here on RU-vid. Starring Gale Gordon and Bea 'Betty Rubble' Benederet. Funny, but less surreal being the 50's.
Agreed it was so different from everything else that made it funny. I never saw this episode how hilarious! Just don’t make shows as creative as this anymore it’s a crying shame too
There were six episodes of "Granby's Green Acres" on the radio. It starred Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet. It had characters named Eb and Mr. Kimble, but they weren't much like the TV versions. ru-vid.com/group/PLfqJyqD2ss2eU5EM60RbhhIwjAfDsEk-a
Not necessarily better. But, for me....well, I just laughed at it more, especially when they broke the fourth wall. The Hillbillies (and every other show on the air), didn't have that self-awareness.
The Beverly Hillbillies was/is great, especially the B&W years. Still laugh out loud funny. Green Acres was an abomination. Literally painful to watch, IMO.
Green Acres was one of the funniest shows of the '60s. How many other shows, ever, have their characters actually seeing the writer and director credits on screen? How many characters actually drink and enjoy hot water soup? How many pigs get drafted? They lived in a surreal world. It was absurdest humor at its finest.
Greyman Reb I like The Beverly Hillbillies a lot, but Green Acres is awesome. It’s tied with The Wild Wild West, as my #1 all time favorite TV show. To each their own I guess. 😉
@@FredFlix Totally agree Fred, surreal is the word like if Dali had scripted a comedy that would be it. It literally broke down the ''fourth wall'' and was the precursor to shows like Newhart and Scrubs. IMO the best comedy from the '60s by a country mile and it still holds up today.
@@FredFlix I suppose I just don't find pigs all that funny Fred. Lol. It WAS indeed surreal, to the point of being moronic. It was based on about 5-6 'jokes' which got old after about the 3rd episode. Ugh.
