TV Shows - Petticoat Junction

Starting in 1963, this show originally was a spin-off of sorts of Bea Benaderet who had originated the role of Jethro's mother, Pearl Bodine on "Beverly Hillbillies". Producer Paul Henning decided instead to give her an entirely new role as Kate Bradley, the widowed owner of the financially struggling Shady Rest Hotel set next to the railroad tracks linking it to Hooterville,USA (state name never revealed). Since Kate's three young, attractive daughters liked to go skinnydipping in the Cannonball train's water tower, they'd shed their petticoats on the water tower's side. Hence, the title's significance. Truth be told, they only were seen doing this during the opening credits and once when pilot Steve Elliot spotted them from the air then crashed his plane! This was a gentle 'smile com' about sanitized small town life among its contented citizens which was more like reading old letters with occasional pin-up shots of a Bradley girl than an actual LOL comedy. Though, the hotel always had far fewer guests than it needed to be solvent and there was lazy,scheming Uncle Joe to provide for (played by that wonderful character actor Edgar Buchanan), Kate took it all in stride and even would occasionally hint at letting storekeeper Sam Drucker's attraction to her not remain unrequitted. The only fly in the ointment (necessary for comedy) was the skinflinted railroad exec Homer Bedloe(played by the fantastic Charles Lane who'd live to 102 despite looking over 60 for 60 years) who'd appear several times a seasn and refused to rest until he'd shut down the income-hemoraging, code-violating Hooterville-Pixley spur line and put its earnest engineer/conductors Floyd and Charlie out of work! Bea Benaderet who'd played 2nd and 3rd bananas her entire career before Paul Henning gifted her this show, proved to an excellent anchor for the show and its characters. Thus, in addition to devastating her own family and the entire cast+ crew of this show, many believe that her death was the show's Boning. Though the script never once spelled out that Kate had died, everyone knew that she was gone and never coming back. Hence: many would question the wisdom in trying to continue the show with lazy Uncle Joe running the Shady Rest- and a woman doctor taking residence in the hotel to attempt to fill the show's maternal role. Unlike its sister shows "Beverly Hillbillies" and "Green Acres", it would be cancelled over a year before the infamous CBS Rural Show Purge in 1971.

Wikipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petticoat_Junction
eBay Link: View Petticoat Junction on eBay

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