Talk:Green Acres

I think Sam Drucker is a crossover
I moved Sam Drucker from a cast member to a crossover character. I suppose an argument coule be made for either case. But in fact, he was on Petticoat Junction before he was on Green Acres and he appeared just as regularly on both shows. Joe 23:30, 1 October 2005 (UTC)
 * He started out as a crossover "from Petticoat Junction" as the credits read and then became listed as a regular cast member.
 * 75.33.81.219 09:51, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Based on a Radio Show
I just heard an old radio show called Granby's Green Acres starring Gale Gordon. He had a farmhand named Eb and there was a man named Kimball (or Gimball - not highest quality recording) who was confused all the time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.181.38.239 (talk) 02:13, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Also..not sure if this belongs here or w/in its own heading but...sort of a inside background joke is Ed Albert's character in the movie Teahouse of the August Moon, where he arrives to check out Glenn Ford's leadership skills, only to get caught up and 'fulfilling his dream' of establishing an organic farm!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.218.248.127 (talk) 01:41, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Why was it necessary ...
... for the origin of Douglas' character name to be excised. I always thought that it was both humorous and exemplary of the "surreal" nature of the show. Rlquall 13:32, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
 * It was put in the link to his name. That seems a reasonable place for it?
 * Alpha Ralpha Boulevard (talk) 01:53, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Reunion Special
In the 1990 reunion special, the girl who raised Arnold was not the Ziffels' daughter, she was their niece. And I think it was established in the special that this Arnold the pig was not the "original" character from the series. At one point Arnold is missing, and Daisy goes to file a police report. The police officer (thinking that she's reporting a missing person) asks how old Arnold is. She replies "11" or something like that. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.251.84.28 (talk) 18:25, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

In the 1990 reunion special, the girl who raised Arnold was not the Ziffels' daughter, she was their niece. And I think it was established in the special that this Arnold the pig was not the "original" character from the series. At one point Arnold is missing, and Daisy goes to file a police report. The police officer (thinking that she's reporting a missing person) asks how old Arnold is. She replies "11" or something like that. We are left to assume that either the Ziffels "adopted" more than one pig named Arnold, or that Daisy decided to get a pig of her own and named him after the original. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.38.11.146 (talk) 18:33, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
 * On the other hand, time could have moved slower than in real life. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.33.81.219 (talk) 09:51, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Green Acres a CBS Paramount series?
I think Sony Pictures Television should hand the rights to Green Acres to CBS Paramount Television. Here are the reasons:
 * 1. It was a spinoff of Petticoat Junction.
 * 2. Sony Pictures Television is a bad distribution company.

Green Acres shouldn't be a victim of SPT anymore! Jim856796 22:48, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Satire
The article mentions that Green Acres was satirical but it never explains any of the satrical elements or even mentions satire again. It seems that it would be appropiate to remedy this by including some examples. MafiaCapo 03:00, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

There was one episode when Arnold (the pig) was drafted to fight in Vietnam. And IIRC where Dept of Agriculture officials were portrayed as being particularly inept (trying to collect a tax which had been abolished years ago etc) 80.229.222.48 15:08, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Last aired?
TV.com lists September 1, 1971 as the last air date, but gives April 27, 1971 as the air date of the last episode. We had April 27 as the last air date, but an anonymous editor has changed that to September 7. Anyone have a definitive source? --Rizzleboffin 23:21, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm thinking these are the dates of the last new episode aired and the last rerun on CBS which would be the last air date as part of the first run not in syndication.
 * 75.33.81.219 09:51, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Pulp Fiction reference?
I'm not quite sure about this, but isn't there a reference to Green Acres in Pulp Fiction, when the vegetarian hitman played by Sam Jackson explains that he would eat pigs if only they had better personality? I think they refer to Arnold later on... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.135.12.110 (talk) 22:53, 31 March 2007 (UTC)
 * That's right, he says: "Well we'd have to be talkin' about one charmin' motherfuckin' pig. I mean he'd have to be ten times more charmin' than that Arnold on Green Acres, you know what I'm sayin'?" in a conversation about "filthy animals". 80.171.72.196 (talk) 15:04, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
 * How is Jackson's character a vegetarian? He may not eat pork but he ate some of his victim's burger. 50.230.251.244 (talk) 08:29, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

That Telephone Pole
But there were times when it appeared that Oliver wasn't entirely sane either, such as renting a rooster and climbing up and down a telephone pole to make or receive phone calls.

The reason for this was because the engineers who installed his telephone ran out of cable and were unable to bring it all the way into the house however subsequent reruns of the series on many TV stations were often out of sequence (often with episodes missing) so the reason for this and other bizzare behaviour was never made clear to many viewers. 80.229.222.48 15:12, 12 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Agreed, the absurdity is no one lengthening the phone line by a few feet. It's not evidence of insanity, once it's given that the line can't be extended.
 * There are other good examples, like the episode where Oliver has conversations with a man who's many years dead, and who only he can see?
 * Alpha Ralpha Boulevard (talk) 01:27, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Agreed. I moved it from Oliver's quirks to the running gags section. NebraskaDontAsk (talk) 15:16, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Fourth wall...
...it was one of the first American TV series which transgressed the traditional diegetic or fourth wall 'borders' of TV presentation for deliberately humorous effect.

That'll certainly come as news to George Burns. He was breaking the fourth wall on American TV more than a full decade before Green Acres hit the airwaves. 172.164.40.5 (talk) 03:35, 17 December 2007 (UTC)
 * What was startling (and is still startling) is the surreal method used to break the fourth wall. In theater, often this simply means an actor breaking out of character and speaking directly to the audience. What Green Acres did was surreal: Having a credit inexplicably appear on Haney's pulldown sign, or on a TV set that a character was watching, so that only that one person was aware of it (while the others have no idea it's been there). It's not just playing with the credits was peculiar (this was common enough in movies and cartoons), it was the credits' unreal non-objective nature.
 * Alpha Ralpha Boulevard (talk) 01:49, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Cancellation reason
My recollection is that advertisers' shift toward a youth-oriented market was largely based on a study that was later found to have used invalid assumptions. I believe a book was written about this, but I'm sure it's mentioned in academic papers. The bad assumption -- I'm barely remembering this -- was something like "Teens have big allowances, but no financial commitments, therefore their disposable income is greater than that of adults." Apparently, as I remember, if the study had actually checked a cross-section of the population, it's senior citizens who have the largest disposable income. I hope somebody in advertising can fill this story out.

At any rate, it suggests the Green Acres cancellation was a financial (at least) misstep, due to advertisers' misperceptions. Alpha Ralpha Boulevard (talk) 01:38, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
 * The claim is made that 'Green Acres' was still popular when it was cancelled in 1971. Since no ratings information is cited, this claim is unsupported. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.131.142.97 (talk) 19:59, 11 December 2009 (UTC)
 * I've read that it was still successful various places. Many successful shows are canceled -- simply with the expectation that some other show will make more. It's one of the sad things about our culture, that artistic ventures that are popular, that make money, can be stopped by a few people with little connection to the artistic work. (Or indeed can be stopped by a single individual who doesn't "like" it.)
 * To be honest, I don't keep references for song, TV or book ratings. My opinion is that they are promotional bullsnot, being inserted into Wikipedia by marketing departments in a (mostly successful) attempt to convince people that if something earns more money than another thing, it has more artistic worth. Thank goodness Beethoven, Dickens and Monet weren't contracted to CBS.Alpha Ralpha Boulevard (talk) 15:28, 21 December 2009 (UTC)
 * "I've read that it was still successful various places." So have I. But in those "various places," no proof is cited. We know, based on A.C. Nielsen ratings information, it was not in the top 30 during the 1969-70 or 1970-71 seasons. It may have been number 31 when it was cancelled. Or it could have been number 71. Until someone somewhere finds some ratings information -- maybe in an old copy of 'Variety' -- this "still successful" idea should be dropped, here and elsewhere. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.143.202.206 (talk) 03:51, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Running gags/Plot hole
Was there not at least one episode in which Haney claims that Douglas's house is the birthplace of Robert E Lee, but that he, Haney, tries to conceal that "fact" to prevent tourists from visiting it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.212.80.149 (talk) 18:52, 2 August 2018 (UTC)
 * A running gag is that Hooterville is so remote that not only can it only be seen on a map if a fly is not standing on itbut also one time a Air Force Officer has to parachute into Hooterville. This is a plot hole-there is a railroad at Sam Drucker's store and there is also a airport/airplane service-who have never heard of the FAA!-and who while advertise a air route to Washington DC-but end up in PAris! Another plot hole was when Hank Kimball marries "Ralph" Monroe {a woman with a man's name}; although its implied that the marraige will be preformed again-when Sam Drucker gets his licenese renewed-the writers apprently choose not to focus on the crazy Kimball household-Hank is too scatterbrained and "Ralph" never gets anything done right. The only Hootervilles domestic scene-besides the Douglas-are the Zippels. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.53.145.130 (talk) 13:00, 19 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Another gag is how out of touch Hooterville is-one epsiode has a election sign that says "Vote for Coolidge"! In another episode there is the remark Herbert Hoover is still President! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.53.145.136 (talk) 17:28, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Plot holes are only plot holes if the scripts are supposed to be logical. This is not Citizen Kane. It's a cornball comedy. It's supposed to get laughs, not to necessarily make sense. Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots 16:16, 28 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Right, and I'd go further. Consider the audience and presentation. When Green Acres started airing, very, very few people had VCRs, and there was no expectation that the shows would be viewed more than occasionally, perhaps years afterward. I.e., the show wasn't designed for stop-action scrutiny and online fan critique. One might ask whether Green Acres would have been as good as it was, if the actors, writers and director were self-consciously explaining for DVD all their actions. As in the rule of science — any observation of a thing changes its behavior. Regards, Alpha Ralpha Boulevard (talk) 15:45, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

time to clean up or delete
This article has two lists which are not encyclopedic. If someone thinks any of the information is really relevant, put it in the article. The lists themselves should go. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.127.106.2 (talk) 16:26, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Jay Sommers as Writer-Producer
The article says Jay Sommers wrote and produced a third of the shows. Wrong. Watch the credits. He's the producer of the series all six years it was on the air. He produced every episode. And he, with Dick Chevillat, wrote just about every episode. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.29.176.57 (talk) 19:20, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

Move?

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

No consensus to move. Vegaswikian (talk) 05:15, 23 September 2011 (UTC)

Green Acres → Green Acres (television series) –
 * And Green Acres (disambiguation) to Green Acres. Is this television series, which according to its lede finished over 40 years ago, still a dominant meaning of "Green Acres"? Anthony Appleyard (talk) 05:58, 16 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Comment: Are you actually advocating a page move? Or are you merely asking some sort of rhetorical question to get a discussion going? If it is the former, please explain your reasons why the TV series should no longer by the primary topic. Just because this series ended 40 years ago, we cannot automatically assume without some evidence that, per WP:PRIMARYTOPIC, it no longer is "highly likely—much more likely than any other, and more likely than all the others combined—to be the subject being sought when a reader enters that term in the Search box". In other words, it should not be based on an arbitrary expiration date. Thanks. Zzyzx11 (talk) 06:35, 16 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Oppose. If you Google or bing it, the original TV series is pretty obviously primary topic. Kauffner (talk) 17:37, 16 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Unless somebody can prove that "Green Acres" on it's own has a more common meaning than a reference to the TV show. Andyross (talk) 17:51, 16 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Oppose almost everything on the dab page is in the US, the TV show is from the US, in the US it is the TV show that is dominant. 70.49.125.226 (talk) 05:05, 17 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Oppose I would add that the TV show was shown in Britain and may still be remembered by a few people, whereas the other meanings will be virtually unknown there. PatGallacher (talk) 18:41, 22 September 2011 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Couple of changes
This is a really good article, but I was able to add a little bit of information.

1. The article said Lisa's pancake recipe was used to repair the head gasket on Oliver's tractor. I changed it to state the pancake batter was used to make head gaskets to repair a truck and the tractor. I'm really not sure about the tractor but pancake batter was used to make a head gasket for a rented truck (a Ford AA?) in the episode "The Price of Apples".

2. I added the Hulu link. JeffDeWitt (talk) 00:44, 20 November 2011 (UTC)

The First Truly Married Couple?
Green Acres may have the distinction of being the first program to show a married couple sharing the same bed on a regular basis. In a couple of episodes of I Love Lucy, Lucy and Ricky, who were handcuffed to each other, had to sleep with their clothes on while in another, they (as well as Fred and Ethel) shared a roll-away bed in a broken down motel. But Oliver and Lisa Douglas routinely shared a large double bed as early as 1965, well before Mike and Carol Brady four years later; indeed, in another episode, it was implied that The Douglases were about to sleep together on the same couch, the camera turned away just as Oliver took Lisa's hand to help her join him. In this way, the somewhat surrealistic Green Acres was more "realistic" than the Dick Van Dyke Show, where Rob and Laura still slept in twin beds!MARK VENTURE (talk) 12:41, 23 March 2013 (UTC)
 * I had thought The Munsters, but there were some even earlier shows. Snopes: Who Was the First TV Couple to Sleep in the Same Bed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by StrayBolt (talk • contribs) 04:44, 28 July 2017 (UTC)

Anal retentives and their stupid "citation required" This Green Acres page is a prime example of Wikipedia being infested with mentally ill people. There are countless "citation required" notations which are obviously left by some imbecile who never watched one episode, much less grew up watching it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.82.40.143 (talk) 08:56, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Hoyt-Clagwell
this is the fictitious name of oliver's tractor. there is a redirect for hoyt-clagwell which sends the user to this page, and yet there is no mention of hoyt-clagwell on this page.

unless people feel the redirect should be eliminated, i'd like to add a section to the page about the tractors used in the show. Ed WoodWiki (talk) 16:25, 28 March 2016 (UTC)

Sarah and other characters
I (somewhat incorrectly) undid the edit by User:The stuart about "Sarah, the never seen telephone operator, is (Hank's) mother." But that is correct from "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" (S1E10). However, "Oliver vs. the Phone Company" (S3E4) has the phone company owned by Roy Trendell (but notice Hank as operator in photo) and in other episodes, Merie Earle played Sarah Hotchkiss Trendell (Hooterville Operator). Not to be confused with another Sarah ;-) This opinion piece racks it up as a running gag. Should we have a catchall for "Other characters" or should this exist part of the "Hank" section? StrayBolt (talk) 07:02, 30 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Actually, Sarah being Hank's mother is mentioned a few times in the first season. --The_stuart (talk) 00:26, 1 September 2017 (UTC)

to be fixed
The problem with leaving pop-culture articles to fanboys is that they are really not very good at follow-through, or even at reading directions. So, I see a few significant holes here, and suspect there are subtler problems.

First, is there some reason the section on the radio precursor isn't placed right at the beginning? resolved

And why is the made-for-TV movie detailed in Reunion film and then again a bit further down in Revivals? (Maybe someone could also explain the difference between a "reunion" and a "revival.")

The pointless nattering needs to be reduced. For instance, there's extensive overshare about Sam Drucker that has NOTHING to say about the article topic, AND this is doubly silly seeing as anyone who gives a damn would be reading it at Sam Drucker. ''resolved (mostly) Weeb Dingle (talk) 18:08, 30 June 2019 (UTC)


 * I took an axe after the descriptions of the Douglases, not least because they each have their own (fancruft-stuffed) articles. Weeb Dingle (talk) 04:10, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

Suicide door ?
Please explain this phrase. 2001:44B8:3102:BB00:B136:FEF8:B9C4:7BBD (talk) 09:54, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

Acres and Pains
May I respectfully draw the attention of readers to S.J. Perelman’s ‘’Acres and Pains’’ (1947), as a worthy predecessor and perhaps an inspiration for this show ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:44B8:3102:BB00:B136:FEF8:B9C4:7BBD (talk) 10:04, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

Is the state ever mentioned?
If they did say California that would not be too surprising just as Beverly Hillbillies is supposed to be in CA and in fact in Beverly Hills. Pixley is a real CA town in a rural part of central California. 50.230.251.244 (talk) 08:31, 19 July 2023 (UTC)