Green Acres
Green Acres |
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Green Acres |
As a child, Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert) wanted nothing more than to become a farmer. His blueblood father, however, insisted that young Oliver study to become a lawyer. Oliver reluctantly followed his father�s advice, but even his life as a successful New York City attorney with a loving Hungarian wife, Lisa (Eva Gabor), leaves him unfulfilled. He starts a �farm� on the balcony of his Park Avenue penthouse and grows mushrooms in the drawer of his desk, yet still dreams of owning a real farm. Lisa, a cultured city girl through and through, tolerates the balcony farm (she even donates a designer dress and mannequin for use as a scarecrow), but refuses to entertain the thought of leaving her beloved New York. After returning from a business trip one day, Oliver makes a stunning announcement � he has impulsively purchased a farm, Green Acres, near the tiny town of Hooterville.Lisa reluctantly agrees to spend a six month trial period living on the farm which, as Oliver explains, is near Chicago (they must fly from New York to Chicago, then from there they only have to take two more planes, a bus AND a train). A horrified Lisa cringes upon seeing the dilapidated farm that Oliver purchased from the shady salesman Mr. Haney (Pat Buttram), but nevertheless attempts to make the best of a bad situation. Together they meet Hooterville�s eccentric residents, including General Store owner Sam Drucker (Frank Cady), county agricultural agent Hank Kimbal (Alvy Moore), fellow farmer Frank Ziffel (Hank Patterson), his wife Doris (Barbara Pepper), and their �son,� Arnold, an intelligent pig. Oliver and Lisa also hire goofball Eb Dawson (Tom Lester) to help work the farm.
Its characters are simultaneously simple and complex. Oliver thinks that he is smart, yet he is constantly duped by the conniving Mr. Haney. He is even dumb enough to rent a hen! He expounds on his idyllic views of the peaceful nature of rural life while simultaneously remaining an unrepentant hothead. For all of his �back to nature� talk, Oliver also stubbornly insists on wearing a three piece business suit when doing farm work. While Lisa would prefer to immediately return to New York, she is much more adaptable than her husband. Although she is a miserable failure at cooking (her hotcakes more closely resemble sponges and her method of brewing four cups of coffee involves using four cups of ground coffee and four cups of water), she really tries to master this new task. While her husband speaks of moving to the farm as an attempt to connect with neighbors and form personal bonds, only Lisa seems willing actually to become a part of the Hooterville community.
Mostly the show is just plain funny. The never ending series of undignified trials and tribulations that Oliver must go through in order to achieve his dream provide many of the laughs. The phone company finally installs a phone line, but they run out of wire shortly before reaching the house, so the Douglases must climb a phone pole to place or receive calls. A pole directly in front of their bedroom window, thus obliterating their view, but allowing them to climb out the window to go directly up the pole. Their furniture arrives from New York, but since their ramshackle new home is much smaller than their old apartment, the Douglases are forced to climb over the couches, leopard print sofas, and coffee tables that now take up every square inch of space in the farmhouse. When Oliver subsequently decides to expand their bedroom, he hires the Monroe brothers, Alf and Ralph (Sid Melton and Mary Grace Canfield). Only, as it turns out, Ralph is actually a Monroe sister. They just thought a brother contracting team would be an easier sell. Lisa's farm exploits are also quite hilarious, as when she leaves a note for the hen requesting a specific number of eggs...which Oliver chastises her for...but the hen consistently lays the desired amount for her.
Click "play" to hear the Green Acres theme song.
| The Cast of Green Acres |
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Green Acres Episode Guide |
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