Classic Television - Prime Time

Green Acres

Original channel

CBS

Original run

September 15, 1965 – April 27, 1971

Starring

Eddie Albert

Eva Gabor

Pat Buttram

Tom Lester

Frank Cady

Hank Patterson

Barbara Pepper

Alvy Moore

Arnold the Pig

Green Acres is an American sitcom starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a rural country farm. Produced by Filmways as a sister show to Petticoat Junction, the series was first broadcast on CBS, from September 15, 1965 to April 27, 1971.

Receiving solid ratings during its six-year run, Green Acres was cancelled in 1971 as part of the "rural purge" by CBS. The sitcom has been in syndication and is available in DVD and VHS releases. In 1997, the two-part episode "A Star Named Arnold is Born" was ranked #59 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.

Following the success of The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction, CBS offered producer Paul Henning another half-hour on the schedule — with no pilot required (which was very unusual). Henning encouraged colleague Jay Sommers to create a series for the time-slot. Sommers created the show based on his 1950 radio series, Granby's Green Acres. The radio series, which lasted 13 episodes, had starred Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet as a big-city family who move to the country.

In pre-production, proposed titles were Country Cousins and The Eddie Albert Show.

Green Acres was about Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert), an erudite New York City attorney, acting on his dream to be a farmer, and Lisa Douglas (Eva Gabor), his glamorous Hungarian wife, dragged unwillingly from the city life she adored to a ramshackle farm. The theme tune, as with those of the show's rural cousins, explains the basic premise of the show. At the end of the opening sequence, Albert and Gabor strike a pose in parody of Grant Wood's painting American Gothic. The debut episode was a mockumentary about the decision to move to a rural area, anchored by former ABC newscaster (and then-current host of the CBS game show What's My Line) John Charles Daly. A few weeks after the show's debut, Albert and Gabor returned the favor by appearing on What's My Line as that episode's Mystery Guests, and publicly thanked Daly for helping to launch their series.

After the first episodes the series developed an absurdist world. Though there were still many episodes that were standard 1960s sitcom fare, the show became notable for its surrealism and satire. The show appealed to children through its slapstick, silliness, and shtick, but adults were able to appreciate it on a different level.