Green Acres
* Aired: 1965-1971 (on CBS)
* Episodes: 170
* Seasons: 6
* Available on DVD: Seasons 1-3 on flipper discs (two sided)
In some ways Green Acres was a reverse Beverly Hillbilies - fish out of water type thing. Green Acres was the story of a New York City lawyer who lived out his dream of moving to his own farm (to watch the plants shoost from the ground). His trophy wife (and English mangler), did not exactly share those dreams - but she tolerated it. Those were the good old days - now they would have been divorced. For some Green Acres was the place to stay, but others might have been allergic to smelling hay.
So, this lawyer (and awful farmer) moved to the rural town of Hooterville in the Kangaroo state. He was a pretty bad farmer (though he was sold questionable farmland with bad equipment) who would occasionally wear his suit around the farm. The tractor alone was the source of much consternation. The town was filled with numerous colorful characters (and some less colorful, but useful in weird situations). You have such characters as con-man Mr. Haney (with a strange voice), inept county agent Hank Kimball, neighbors the Ziffels (who have a TV watching pig they treat as a son) and more. Arnold Ziffel is one of the coolest TV pigs in history. Oliver Wendell Douglas' wife (played by Eva Gabor) was not exactly suited for the farm life and lacked domestic skill such as cooking. Her hotcakes were surprisingly useful (though not for human consumption).
In some ways this is ahead of its time. For one, the credits would sometimes creep into the world (like eggs with people's names on them). Some of the situations would be kind of crazy. However, it seemed to be mostly the story of this lawyer and his reactions to the odd people and circumstances around him (all while being a questionable farmer).
If you want to see some of the cultural impact that Green Acres had, check out the IMDB movie connections section). The source for information was IMDB and memory (i have the 3 DVD sets).
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