Green Acres

This show was to be the obverse of "The Beverly Hillbillies" and instead turned out to be perhaps the most surreal TV show ever done in on American TV.

Oliver Wendell Douglas is the button-downed, successful New York lawyer who longs to be a farmer (he even grows corn on the balcony of his Park Avenue apartment). So off he goes to Hooterville with his glamorous Hungarian wife where they begin to farm Green Acres and live a house so ramshakle that even the Joad family in "The Grapes of Wrath" probably wouldn't live in.

Oliver tends the farm every day in suit and tie and Lisa wears elegant gowns while cooking the only meal that she knows how to make---"hots cakes" which possess extraordinary qualities---some are like granite, others bubble like sulfur mud baths, and others are stickier than any adhesive known to science. The house itself is hilarious---the bedroom closet sliding door which flys off its runners each and every time Oliver touches it, the phone which is at the top of the telephone pole, the "pore-key" hole for the house which makes it impossible to paint the place. And occasionally Arnold the Pig, perhaps the smartest inhabitant of Hooterville, regularly comes in to watch television which is always showing the same show--a wild Western gunfight between cowboys and Indians.

That's just the house. The townspeople are an assortment of extreme oddballs. Hank Kimball, the memory-gapped county agent, Ed and Doris Ziffel who are the parents of Arnold, and Mr. Haney who is the biggest flim-flam man since P.T. Barnum (he sold Oliver the house in the first place) and who has a seemingly unlimited assortment of things to peddle to Oliver. Meanwhile, the Monroe Brothers, Alf and Ralph, are perpetually trying to repair Oliver's house. Ralph is a woman and probably the first female tradesman in the history of American television, decades before women were welcomed into the construction industry. Oliver's hired hand, Eb, lives in the barn. Even Eb gets surreal---one great episode has him trying to win a radio "name that tune" call-in show. Every song snippet that is played is exactly the same as the previous one but Eb always comes up with some bizarre new title which turns out to be right.

The entire world around Oliver is insane but he gamely struggles along, erupting on occasion but absolutely determined not to give up farming and regularly trying to inspire his neighbors with stirring speeches about the nobility of the American farmer---the backbone of the economy, while his neighbors keep wondering where the patriotic music-- which always accompanies Oliver's speeches--comes from.

I always thought that if Salvador Dali wanted to do a TV sitcom, he'd come up with something like "Green Acres".

This show was a lot of fun, and thank God it never took itself seriously. It was also one of the first to really break the "fourth wall", making self-referential remarks, such as the characters pointing to the credits as they rolled, or having the characters refer to background music being played--I don't think any sitcom had ever done that before! Anyway, Eddie Albert did a great job as perennial straight man to the lunacy around him, with everyone else in on the strangeness. I watched this show as a kid and never really appreciated Oliver's predicament, but now, as a middle-aged man, I know exactly how he feels.

Forty years after its heyday, the show holds up very well. Give it a look.

"Green Acres" is a surrealist, subversive sitcom classic... one of TV's greatest comedies. Eddie Albert is Oliver Wendell Douglas, the big-city lawyer who escapes the rat-race with his wife Lisa to live the "simple-life" of a country farmer. The trouble is everyone in the small town of Hooterville is insane.

Tom Lester is Ebb, the twenty-something farmhand who seems almost intentionally obtuse. He insists on calling Oliver & Lisa "Mom & Dad" in spite of the fact that they are not his parents. This infuriates Oliver who frequently reminds the boy that they are not related. Ebb is a gangly innocent, so lanky that he can get a laugh just by standing up straight. His Adam's apple is constantly in the act of escaping his neck, and will one day surely succeed.

Alvy Moore is Hank Kimball. Well, he's not REALLY Hank Kimball- he just plays him on TV. Well, not ON the TV... more like IN the TV box. Well, not really IN the box...

Pat Buttram is Mr. Haney, the king of charlatan salesmen, always ready to sell Oliver a completely unnecessary item at a reasonably outrageous price. He takes a pride in gouging Mr. Douglas that borders on perverse.

Arnold Ziffel is the TV-loving pig with human parents who had a brief career as an actor in Hollywood. Long-story...

And don't forget Eva Gabor as Lisa Douglas, a Hungarian princess who never met a word she couldn't shlaughter...

This show is painfully funny... listen for the fife and drums every time Oliver gives his "American Farmer" speech. Enjoy the brilliant sight gags and the sweet pride that Fred & Doris have for their pig-son. Watch Eddie Albert go six seasons without ever finishing a sentence... the delirious insanity of "Green Acres" paved the way for future TV towns like The Simpsons' Springfield.

If you haven't seen "Green Acres" it is worth seeking out. I suggest watching at least 2-3 episodes at a time... it's funnier that way. But when it starts making sense it's time to take a break.

GRADE: A

This programme was traditionally thought of as just another of the cornpone country comedies that CBS used to be noted for, like "Petticoat Junction" or "The Beverly Hillbillies". But with its button-down straight man, Eddie Albert, surrounded by a wild assortment of extraordinary oddballs, "Green Acres" looks both backwards to the screwball comedies of the '30s and ahead to the Bob Newhart series of shows which followed a similar premise.

I am a fan of the British absurdist tradition, as exemplified both by university humour, like "Monty Python" and "Fawlty Towers", with its basis in the antics of the Goons (and Alfred Jarry), and by John Lennon's disassociated imagery, with its basis, probably, in Edward Lear (and Hilaire Belloc), but I personally happen to believe that this particular show belongs to a distinct comedy continuum, one that's entirely American. But I do agree completely that where these two styles are concerned, fans of one are bound to appreciate the other.

I once heard "Green Acres" described as being "Twin Peaks:the sitcom," which isn't too far off base if you take away the darker elements of "Peaks."

I'm not sure it's the best television series either, but it certainly my favorite, and the best thing about it is that it was funny when I was four years old, still funny when I was a teenager, and even funnier now that I'm in my late 30's and can sit and watch the show with my young sons.

Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor should have won multiple emmy's. The writers stand alone as some of the funniest sitcom writers of all time. Jay Somers and Paul Henning are geniuses. The amazing thing about this show is at a time when most shows were star driven, this show gives all of the actors great lines and showcases for their talent.

Of course, Oliver and Lisa are my favorite denizens of Hooterville, but I have a lot of fondness for Eb (who is endlessly funny), Mr. Haney (who my kids think is the funniest person ever!) and Mr. Kimble (who ALWAYS cracks me up!).

"Green Acres" really is the place to be. It's funny, it's family friendly and it is one of the best shows of all time!

The DVD is great too, but I would have loved some extra commentaries from some of the surviving cast members!



David Cox Independence Missouri