Arnold Ziffel and the zany crew from the first season return in the further non-adventures of life down on the Hooterville farming community.
--Randy
Green Acres: The Complete Second Season
Directors: Richard L. Bare
Producers: Jay Sommers And Paul Henning
Writers: Jay Sommers, Dick Chevillat And Various Others
Features: Full Screen, Color, English: Mono.
Characters:
OLiver Wendell Douglas...Eddie Albert
Lisa Douglas...Eva Gabor
Arnold Ziffel...Arnold The Pig
Fred Ziffel...Hank Patterson
Doris Ziffel...Barbara Pepper
Eustace/Charlteton Haney...Pat Buttram
Eb Dawson...Tom Lester
Sam Drucker...Frank Cady
Hank Kimball...Alvy Moore
Alf Monroe...Sid Melton
Ralph Monroe...Mary Grace Canfield
Newt Kiley...Kay E. Kuter
Eunice Douglas...Eleanor Audley
Charlie Pratt...Smiley Burnett
Genre: Comedy
Review:
The zany crew from the first season of CBS television's "Green Acres" returns in a double DVD set that contains all thirty color episodes from the 1966-1967 season. All the episodes in "Green Acres: The Complete Second Season" are full screen. The DVD comes with an eight page booklet detailing all the shows and giving the original date it aired along with credits. There is a cardboard cover that also comes with the DVD to protect it.
Before you get too excited, I must warn you that I found some sound problems with the set. Five episodes out of the thirty have some sort of sound dropout beginning with the very first one titled, "Wings Over Hooterville." As Lisa(Eva Gabor) comments about a speech Oliver(Eddie Albert) has just made a word or two vanishes making her sentence incoherent. The second episode titled "Water, Water Everywhere" has sound dropout as Mr.Haney(Pat Buttram) reaches for a card during a card game. There are three more such occurrences in the next twenty episodes. The last eight have no problems.
It must be remembered that my DVD is an advance copy and is perhaps an anomaly. Then too maybe MGM has found the errors and corrected the problems. Just be careful. If you buy the DVD of "Green Acres," then be sure you watch the entire set as soon as possible. Don't set it aside meaning to get to it later. That way if there are any problems then you can return it to wherever you bought it before the sales slip expires.
I watched a friend's copy of the first season of "Green Acres" on DVD, but never got around to writing a review so I'll try to do a bit of comparison from memory. During the first season there were many crossover characters from the "Green Acres" companion show, "Petticoat Junction." For the second season this rarely happens, though there is an exception in the eigth episode where Eb(Tom Lester) falls in love with Betty Jo Bradley of Petticoat Junction.
Another difference is the addition of Newt Kiley as a regular on the second season. This character is in almost every episode and is played by a man named Kay E. Kuter. He is a rather bland character with hardly a noticeable personality. Newt hangs around the general store or on a rare occasion can be seen picking up eggs at his henhouse where he raises chickens. Of note is his mentioning in episode twenty-four that he bought what he thought was a barking pig. When the pig wouldn't bark, choosing only to grunt and eat, he gave the pig to Fred Ziffel(Hank Patterson). This has to be the origin of Arnold Ziffel.
Speaking of Arnold Ziffel, this pig was now starting to become popular with television audiences of this era and so he was featured in more episodes during the second season. This added exposure was not overdone. Arnold does have a major part in episode three called, "I Didn't Raise My Pig To Be A Soldier."
There is one more added character. Roy Trendell, played by Robert Foulk, is seen intermittently, but appears to have no consistancy. He just pops up here and there. This is a very negligible person.
While I was looking at a Green Acres website, I found out that there was a short lived radio show in 1950 called "Granby's Green Acres." This show was about an ex-banker who decided to live his dream of buying a farm. Coincidentally, an absent minded Mr. Kimball ran the general store, the ex-banker's daughter dated a local farm agent and there was a very old farm hand named Eb played by Parley Baer. In episode twenty seven titled "Kimball Gets Fired" of the second season of the "Green Acres" television show, Parley Baer plays Mr. Treffinger, Hank Kimball's new supervisor. Jay Sommers was the producer, director and writer for this radio show. For the "Green Acres" television series, Jay Sommers is the creator, producer and a sometimes writer.
I will now detail the second season's episodes. The booklet lists titles for all the shows though at the time I am sure there was no such thing done. No titles appear on any of the episodes, only in the booklet.
Episode One: "Wings Over Hooterville"- In this show Lisa makes cupcakes by putting her pancake batter into saucer cups and baking them. In almost all the episodes of this season and the first season, there was a short sequence dedicated to making fun of Lisa's hotcakes. This episode is of note for the sound dropout I mentioned earlier and for a telling of how Oliver and Lisa first met. The crops of Hooterville are threatened by a Bing bug that can only be erradicated by someone flying a cropdusting plane. Oliver is volunteered because he used to be an Air Force pilot in World War II. This is where he first met Lisa when he was shot down over Hungary. Lisa was a member of the Hungarian Underground and rescued him. As Oliver's plane is going down a radio dispatcher mentions that if he is captured and taken to Stalag 13 to be sure to "ask for a bloke named Hogan." This was cross advertising for "Hogan's Heroes."
Episode Two: "Water, Water Everywhere"- Arnold Ziffel is shown doing his favorite thing, watching a television western. Arnold can turn the television on and off as he desires. Fred and Doris(Barbara Pepper) Ziffel treat him as their three year old child. The main plot in this show is that when one farmer digs a well for water it causes someone else's well to run dry. This process keeps repeating itself until Oliver decides to do something about it. Again, this show has a sound dropout that I mentioned earlier.
Episode Three: "I didn't Raise My Pig To Be A Soldier"- Oliver and Lisa start the show off by noticing the show's credits are visible to their eyes and remarking on this phenomenon. The Monroe brothers, Alf(Sid Melton) and Ralph(Mary Grace Canfield) still are at work on the Douglas' unfinished bedroom from the first season. In this episode the Ziffel's take a trip to Niagra Falls, leaving Arnold with Oliver and Lisa. Arnold recieves a draft notice from the County Selective Service Board and Oliver winds up getting thrown in jail trying to straighten the situation out.
Episode Four: "How To See South America By Bus"- In this episode, "The Beverly Hillbillies" television show is mentioned, I guess, as some free advertising. In episode three, Lisa had mentioned another CBS show called "The FBI." In episode four, Lisa gets jealous of a beautiful, neighboring female farmer played by Diane Foster who Oliver starts to spend a lot of time with discussing agriculture. Things get complicated when Lisa overhears some locals discussing a soap opera elopement, and thinks they are talking about Oliver and the woman.
Episode Five: "The Ugly Duckling"- Mr. Haney, representing the Haney Collection Service, stops by to try and collect an outrageous phone company fee from Oliver. In the meantime, Ralph has been stood up for the eigth time by Hank Kimball(Alvy Moore) prompting Lisa to make Ralph over to be more feminine. Though usually shown on the outside of the house, the shower is seen inside for this particular episode.
Episode Six: "One Of Our Assemblymen Is Missing"- Everyone notices that Oliver has calmed down and is not as irritable as he used to be. That is until he gets a bill for the State Farm Unattached Duty Tax which everyone pays, but no one knows what it is for. Once Oliver finds out that Hooterville has not had an assemblyman since 1922 to handle problems, he takes a trip to the state capitol to handle things himself. Expect a lot of speeches from Oliver about the farmer being the backbone of America. In this show we learn that the electric eel is the state fish and the ragweed is the state flower.
Episode Seven: "The Good Old Days"- I mention this show because it has some sound dropout in a corn husking scene. In this show Oliver tells Lisa a story of farm life in the 1800's in order for her to get an appreciation of her life in Hooterville. This story concerns itself with how Gus and Etta Thompson(Oliver and Lisa) met in the old west. Mr.Haney is seen as Prentiss the Peddler and Eb can be seen as Gus, Jr.
Episode Eight: "Eb Discovers The Birds And The Bees"- Aside from Eb falling in love with someone from Petticoat Junction, which I mentioned earlier, this show is of particular interest because of a second version being told of how Oliver first met Lisa. Here they meet on a modern day ocean liner. This show contradicts the first episode of this second season.
Episode Nine: "The Hooterville Image"- In this episode 'everyone' who is anyone is present. All the characters including Charlie Pratt(Smiley Burnett), the railroad engineer, appear. No other episode has this many of the cast in attendance though Oliver's mother is not present. The plot of this show concerns the people of Hooterville getting on Oliver to conform by wearing farm clothing. In all the shows so far, Oliver has always farmed in his fancy city clothes, thus destroying the 'Hooterville Image' that tourists expect.
Episode Ten: "You Ought To Be In Pictures"- In this adventure, the people of Hooterville think a big Hollywood movie company is coming to town to film a movie starring Jimmy Stewart. Everyone goes 'Hollywood' with Mr. Haney opening up an acting school. As it turns out it is only the Department of Agriculture thinking of doing a film on the problems of growing crops with Oliver's farm to be featured prominently. Jimmy Stewart turns out to be James D. Stewart with the Department of Agriculture as played by Bernie Kopell of future "Love Boat" fame. This show is worth watching to see how totally different looking Bernie Koppel is from what you know him as.
Episode Eleven: A Home Isn't Built In A day"- Lisa gets fed up with the house not being fixed and threatens to return to New York. This causes Oliver to fire the Monroe brothers and hire a contractor. However, no contractor will cross the picket line that the Monroe brothers establish and Oliver is more frustrated than ever. Forgotten for awhile, Eb brings back the son/father routine that was played up so much during the first season.
Episode Twelve: "A Square Is Not Round"- This is not that particularly funny as the show goes oveboard with surrealism. Lisa discovers that one of her chickens has been laying square eggs. This news is a catalyst for Mr. Haney to show up to try and reclaim the inferior chickens he sold Oliver. Also, Lisa's toaster works by saying a number. Having two weird plots going at once takes away from each other and diminishes the show.
Episode Thirteen: "An Old Fashioned Christmas"- This Christmas episode opens in new New York City as Oliver gives a long winded speech to a Christmas tree salesman that some day he will be cutting down his own tree. Back on the farm Oliver discovers his dream is not as easy as he thought when he finds out he needs a permit even if the tree is on his own land. Expect a yankee doodle speech about Christmas from Oliver at Drucker's store. As with most Christmas shows, they are never as good as the regular ones.
Episode Fourteen: "Never Trust A Little Old Lady"- Three in a row here as this show is too surrealistic to be that amusing either. Oliver, wanting to know the weather so as to plant his tomatoes at the right time, gets varying weather reports from everyone. The Pixley station telecasts a Barvarian clock with a male figure, Walter predicting a drought and the female figure, Mildred, showing rain with her umbrella. The camera focuses in on the two figures and suddenly Oliver is playing the man with Lisa playing Mildred. Not very funny.
Episode Fifteen: "School Days"- With Oliver's encouragement, Lisa enrolls at the Hooterville High Shcool to learn to cook in a Domestic Science class. While there she tells the students about how her wedding ring was smuggled past the Nazis in chicken fat, argues Hungarian history with a teacher, blows up the chemistry lab and crashes the Driver's Education car. Oliver begins to rethink his decision.
Episode Sixteen: "His Honor"- In this show, Oliver thinks he has been appointed a judge of the court by the people of Hooterville, but he was only chosen to judge an apple pie eating contest. He lets Lisa talk him into going to New York so she can shop for new clothes for her position of wife of a judge. Eunice Douglas(Eleanor Audley), Oliver's mother, still likes Lisa better than Oliver. This episode has sound dropout when the tickets are purchased for the trip to New York.
Episode Seventeen: "It's So Peaceful In The Country"- Oliver's mother is diagnosed as suffering from exhaustion in New York City by her doctor who recommends she relax in the country. Upon traveling to Hooterville to be with her son, Eunice Douglas finds out that sometimes things are not that serene on a farm, especially when a pack of Indians shows up.
Episode Eighteen: "Exodus To Bleedsville"- This episode begins with Lisa waking up thinking she sees the show's opening credits. Even Mr. Haney gets in on this routine. The plot of this show has the residents of Hooterville thinking of moving to nearby Bleedsville, the 'Home Of The Sympathetic Draft Board,' in order to get good paying jobs at a newly opened defense plant. To stem this exodus, Oliver gets the people of Hooterville to reopen an old airplane factory that still has a long forgotten contract with the U.S. Air Force to build World War I era planes.
Episode Nineteen: "It's Human To Be Humane"- Lisa is bored so Oliver suggests she join a committee to keep herself busy. Lisa becomes head of the Human Humane Committee and soon Newt Kiley isn't allowed to collect his chicken's eggs, Roy Trendell can't hunt ducks and Mr. Drucker isn't allowed to set a mousetrap. Oliver soon has to change Lisa's mind when Hank Kimball shows up with a petition to run her out of Hooterville. In this one particular episode, Mrs. Ziffel refers to Arnold as an animal where in all the other shows he is called her child with only Oliver seeing Arnold for what he really is...a pig.
Episode Twenty: "Never Take Your Wife To A Convention"- The Douglas' meet some shady characters from their past at a farmer's convention only to have them return to Hooterville with them. Once there, their 'friends' try to set the farmstead up right with stolen property. Jesse White guest stars as Charlie.
Episode Twenty-one: "The Computer Age"- The show's opening credits are noticed by some of the local residents at the beginning of this episode. This 1967 show is interesting as it shows people's opinions of early computers and the possible impact the computers would have on their future. After Ralph joins a computer dating service to find a mate, Oliver and Lisa do likewise just to show that they would still be matched up even though they are already married to each other. When the computer matches them with other people, problems arise.
Episode Twenty-two: "Never Start Talking Unless Your Voice comes Out"- This title is so very appropriate as this episode has a sound dropout too. In the General Store as Mr. Haney reads off the return address of a letter the sound drops for a second. Earlier in the show the sound was played with on purpose as Eb greets Oliver, but his voice takes a couple of seconds to come out after his lips stop moving. When Oliver tells Eb of the problem, Eb hits his head a couple of times only to find his voice now comes out before his lips move. Finally Eb hits his head enough to get synchronized and he now asks Oliver to pick him up some aspirin because he has a headache. The plot of this show concerns the citizens of Hooterville fearing that Oliver will take up an offer from a Washington, D. C. law firm and move away. To prevent this from happening the locals start to come to Oliver with absurd, fake lawsuits. This is to show Oliver that he can do a business of practicing law in town so there is be no reason to leave.
Episode Twenty-three: "The Beverly Hillbillies"- None of the rival show's cast is in this episode. The Hooterville Community Players decide to do a production of one of "The Beverly Hillbillies" scripts with Eb playing Jethro. In the end Eb injures himself on a mini-bike and Oliver has to take Eb's place opposite Lisa's version of Grandma. Hank Kimball is Jeb in the play.
Episode Twenty-four: "Lisa's Vegetable Garden"- This time the show's opening credits appear on some chicken eggs Lisa is collecting. When Oliver notices that Lisa is buying her vegetables at Drucker's he says it is a wife's job to grow her own vegetables. Lisa gets some advice from Hank Kimball, and then buys a four thousand dollar tractor along with nine hundred and eighty dollars worth of tools. She also hires Alf and Ralph to be servants at one hundred and fifty dollars a week since she will be too busy with gardening to do housework. Eb makes the remark of Oliver, "Imagine how he's treat me if I was a wetback." Eb also suggests using Indians to plow a field instead of a horse.
Episode Twenty-five: "The Saucer Season"- After Hank Kimball mentions that people have reported flying saucer sightings, Eb says he has seen and talked to flying saucer people. Once the Hooterville World Guardian reports this, Oliver's farm is overrun with tourists with Mr. Haney in the middle of all the pandemonium selling merchandise and leading tours. Soon the Air Force sends an investigator to interview Eb.
Episode Twenty-six: "Geting Even With Haney"- Mr. Ziffel notices the opening credits zipping by as he knocks on the Douglas' door. In this episode Mr. Ziffel uses Oliver as his lawyer to sue Mr. Haney after a washing machine that he bought from Mr. Haney destroys his house and Arnold's television set. Oliver soon discovers that it is one thing to win a judgement against Mr. Haney and another to get him to pay it.
Episode Twenty-seven: "Kimball Gets Fired"- Hank Kimball gets a new supervisor who immediately fires him and replaces him with another man. To complicate things, it turns out Kimball was secretly engaged to Ralph Monroe. Kimball calls off their engagement because he can't afford to have a wife though he actually looks relieved of the situation. Oliver has to step in to rectify the firing in order to get Ralph to stop bawling and driving him crazy.
Episode Twenty-eight: "The Vulgar Ring Story"- This show elucidates further on Lisa's ring that was handed down from generation to generation. Lisa's great, great, gypsy grandmother named Linda(Lisa) meets an American named Cornelius(Oliver) in Hungary. As the story is being told in the present, more Hooterville residents mysteriously appear for the listening party whenever the story takes a pause.
Episode Twenty-nine: "Who's Lisa?"- To begin this episode, the show's credits appear on the television set in Oliver's bedroom. Lisa is trying to convince Oliver to return to New York City for the opening of the opera season which she has never missed, but Oliver refuses. Lisa conveniently loses her memory when Oliver accidentally drops his hammer on her head, and he takes her to New York City to jog her faculties into returning.
Episode Thirty: "Music To Milk By"- Eb gets Oliver to buy him a radio for his birthday, but soon Eb starts to neglect his farm duties as he spends all his time trying to win a radio contest. Oliver thinks it is all over when Eleanor the cow inadvertantly eats the radio. Instead, the radio can be heard from inside Eleanor so Eb winds up spending all his time hanging around the cow.
Overall I liked the DVD set, but then I have always been a fan of the weird and surreal humor in "Green Acres." It seemed as the second season went along the creators started to play games with the structure of the comedy sitcom. The picture quality was okay in most episodes. It seemed as the season progressed, the quality of the picture improved. So an episode from twenty to thirty had a better picture than an episode from one to ten.
Beware the sound problems I mentioned if you purchase this set. Overall, not taking into account the sound dropout, I would give "Green Acres: the Second Complete Season" four stars out of five.
I ASKED FOR AND RECIEVED A SECOND COPY OF THIS DVD FROM MGM AND THE SECOND COPY HAS THE SAME SOUND PROBLEMS.
I READ SOME REVIEWS AT OTHER SITES AND NONE OF THEM MENTIONED THE SOUND PROBLEMS WHICH LEADS ME TO BELIEVE THAT I AM THE ONLY PERSON THAT ACTUALLY WATCHES THE WHOLE DVD. I AM NOT AS FAST AS THE OTHERS, BUT I WON'T FAKE A REVIEW JUST TO GET ON TO THE NEXT.
----Randy