Green Acres: Difference between revisions
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Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert), a successful New York lawyer, and his elegant socialite wife Lisa (Eva Gabor) move to the little country town of Hooterville and buy a little farm that is not in good condition. Oliver intends to set himself up in a simple country life as a farmer, but neither the reality of country life nor the insanity of the locals allows it. Lisa hates the country, but is better at dealing with the locals: her idea of haggling with Mr. Haney, the door-to-door salesman, is to lower her price when he lowers his--and it works for her... Hooterville also has a resident genius: Arnold the pig.
A spinoff of the very staid ''[[
=== Some of the causes of Oliver's perpetual headache are: ===
* Eb (Tom Lester), the gold-bricking farmhand, who calls Lisa and Oliver "Mom" and "Dad", either as flattery or out of genuine confusion. To worsen matters, Lisa often forgets that Eb is not actually their son.* Mr. Haney (Pat Buttram), who sold them the faulty farm, and never gives up on trying to sell Oliver more dilapidated junk. Oliver thinks he's on to Haney, but he's surprisingly vulnerable to Haney's sales pitches.
* Mr. Kimball (Alvy Moore), the county Agricultural Agent in charge of keeping all the local farms in good stead, and victim to short-term memory loss to the point that he forgets what he's talking about in mid-sentence as a matter of course.
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* Alf and Ralph Monroe (Sid Melton and Mary Grace Canfield), brother and sister carpenter team who are contracted to fix Oliver's derelict farmhouse. Although the Monroes show up at intervals to supposedly do work, the house remains in a state of half-construction for the duration of the series.
There's also Mr. Drucker (Frank Cady) down at the general store, who acknowledges the ridiculousness of Hooterville while at the same time whole-heartedly participating in it. He's the only character who even approaches being logical by Oliver's standards, often leading Oliver to start sentences with "Mr. Drucker, you're a reasonable man...". In keeping with the apparent rules of the series, Mr. Drucker's behavior on ''[[
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Absurdity Ascendant]]
* [[American Gothic Couple]]: In the opening credits.
* [[The Artifact]]: The theme song, which has Lisa wanting to go back to New York and hating farm living, even though that premise was mostly abandoned by the second season.
* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: Occasionally done by Lisa to Oliver's bewilderment.
** Shares a universe with ''[[
** Another episode casually mentioned that ''Beverly Hillbillies'' was one of the most popular shows in Hooterville.
** Lisa (and occasionally other townspeople) seeing and reacting to the opening "Written by" and "Directed by" credits.
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** Very commonly the townspeople would ask Oliver how he got that fife to play "Yankee Doodle" in the background when he made one of his [[Character Filibuster|soapbox speeches]].
* [[The City vs. the Country]]: Played with. Oliver is tired of city life and moves to Hooterville to live the idyllic (he thinks) life of a farmer. He finds, however, that Hooterville operates by its own peculiar set of rules, and is often frustrated by its colorful denizens. His socialite wife Lisa is always begging him to return to the city, but, ironically, she is the one who fits in, as she is as loopy as the Hootervillians.
* [[Cloudcuckooland]]: Although characters carried over from ''[[
* [[Con Artist]]: Mr. Haney is a prominent example.
* [[Cousin Oliver]]: Adorable little Lori lodges with the Douglases for a handful of episodes during the final season. Thankfully, she doesn't stick around long, and numerous episodes remain between her departure and the end of the series.
* [[Criminal Doppelganger]]: An episode featured a criminal who looked just like Oliver and the ensuing mix-up.
* [[Crossover]]: Characters from this show and ''[[
* [[Drive-In Theater]]: Oliver and Lisa attend one, only to be confronted by two [[Make-Out Kids]] in the car next to them.
* [[Easy Amnesia]]: Lisa gets hit on the head in one episode, believes Oliver is her butler, that she has a boyfriend named Mr. Fredericks, and demonstrates excellent cooking skills. Yet through the whole thing, she knows who Mr. Kimball is and treats him absolutely normally.
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* [[Medium Awareness]]: Lisa notices the drum-and-fife music that plays whenever Oliver makes an impromptu speech (as does pretty much everyone else), and even the ''opening credits'' at one point.
** Another example involved Lisa entering with the line, "Well, Oliver -- here it is a week later!":
{{quote|
'''Lisa:''' Well, when Mrs. Ziffel came over here to do her washing!
'''Oliver:''' I know it's a week later. You don't have to march in here and announce that.
'''Lisa:''' Well, that's how they always do it in the movies. It's either somebody comes in carrying a sign which says, "Here it is a week later," or a [[Exploding Calendar|calendar falls apart for a week]], or [[Mr. Exposition|somebody comes out and says]], 'That week sure went by fast.' ... They do another thing in the movies, where the screen kind of swims" -- ''(which it proceeds to do when Oliver looks at her)'' "And that shows that you're dreaming -- but in this kind of situation we only do the one week later thing." }}
* [[Narrator]]: ''[[What's My Line?]]'' host John Daily in the pilot.
* [[Only Sane Man]]: Oliver, though all the other characters think they're sane and that ''he's'' the crazy one. And by Hooterville logic, they may be right.
** Mr. Drucker, however, could arguably be the only other sane person in Hooterville, for the most part.
* [[Only Shop in Town]]: Drucker's Grocery Store is this to Petticoat Junction, not just in this show but in ''[[Petticoat Junction]]'' too.
* [[Party Line Telephone]]: Everyone in Hooterville infamously shared a single line; a frequent [[Running Gag]] was their lack of compunctions about commenting on any conversations they might be listening to.
* [[Poorly-Disguised Pilot]]: The final episode began with Oliver contacting his former secretary (who was just as ditzy and absent-minded as Lisa) in New York for contact information for his old jeweler to get his watch repaired... the rest of the episode focused on the secretary as well as her family and friends.
* [[Running Gag]]: The telephone pole telephone, the closet door falling, characters seeing the "Written by" and "Directed by" credits, Arnold doing un-piglike things, Haney turning up almost instantly upon Oliver expressing a need for something, Lisa's 'hotscakes' and general non existent housekeeping skills.
* [[Roofless Renovation]]
* [[Screwed
* [[Spin-Off]]
* [[Status Quo Is God]]: once status quo is established, that is
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* [[Through a Face Full of Fur]]: In one episode Arnold the pig blushes, with the help of special lighting.
* [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?]]
* [[Write Who You Know]]: Pat Buttram based his performance of Mr. Haney on Colonel Tom Parker, [[
{{reflist}}
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