There are 32 episodes in the first season of Green Acres, that's more than a lot of current shows have in total. I got the whole box set and the six seasons have a total of 170 episodes. I hadn't been watching much scripted comedy, I had been watching a huge glut of British panel shows, larger size files of them have been showing up on YouTube, causing me to upgrade my current folders. Sometimes that sort of mindless comedy is preferable. I'm more excited to watch the current run of Taskmaster than most anything else I've been seeing. I even listen to the podcast. I wonder if Green Acres would have a podcast if it was made today. Would it even be made today?
The first episode is a documentary like intro to the series with an announcer at a desk telling the audience all about Oliver Douglas and his life long desire to own a farm. Sadly his wife Lisa isn't that keen on giving up her Manhattan Park Avenue penthouse life style for this.
That's the old Haney farm house. Now it's the Douglas farm house. Oliver bought it on a business trip and he's really excited about his new 160 acre farm. Not so Lisa.I can't blame her, I liked going to the farm for a visit when I was a kid but I wouldn't like it much as an adult.
Rather than fix the place up before hand Oliver throw Lisa into the car and drives to their new home near Hooterville. They have no furniture, electricity, running water, telephone, working doors. They do have holes in the wall and that tractor. The one that falls apart every few episodes.
Mr Haney, the local shady entrepreneur will sell them just about anything they need, as long as they don't mind it's a POS item or well past it's life expectancy. As a swindler, he's kind of cheap, especially to a man from New York City.
There's plenty of gags and I'm having a laugh. I can already see that I'll get tired of some jokes before others, luckily I like most of the characters so much. I can't get enough of Frank Cady as Sam Drucker, local merchant. He's one of few fairly competent characters in the show.
Arnold's fine, same with the Monroe brothers, and Ed is always entertaining. Arnold was played by a pig from Union Star Missouri, Ed by Tom Lester and the Monroe brothers were Sid Melton and Mary Grace Canfield. Alvy Moore's Hank Kimball was one of my favorite characters from way back when the show was new.
Characters from Petticoat Junction appear on the series, more appearances in the first season than most of the others. I always like Bea Benaderet as Kate Bradley, owner of the Shady Rest Hotel and mother of three pretty daughters. None of the girls appear in the show but Uncle Joe puts in 17 appearances in Green Acres, that's more than most anyone from PJ.
All in all, enjoyable so far, looking forward to the next season.
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