Amazon.com video review:
For six seasons on Green Acres,
Eddie Albert played exasperated straight man not only to Eva Gabor,
but to a stable full of great character actors, including Pat Buttram
as huckster Mr. Haney, Alvy Moore (who went on to produce the cult
classic A Boy and His Dog) as attention-deficient county agent
Hank Kimball, Hank Patterson as Fred Ziffel, Frank Cady as Sam
Drucker, Tom Lester as simpleton Eb the handyman, and Sid Melton and
Mary Grace Canfield as carpenters Alf and Ralph Monroe, also known as
the Monroe brothers.
Each is seen to good advantage in this collection of four
episodes. Things get off to a flying start with "Exodus to
Bleedswell," in which Hootervillians are lured away with promises of
defense industry jobs. Even Eb is serving notice. "Eb," Oliver asks,
"What do you know about structural dynamics?" "Nothing," he replies,
"but when they find someone who does, they'll need someone to sweep up
after him."
Woo-doggie! Hooterville's theatrical troupe could perform Romeo and
Juliet, Death of a Salesman, or Ah,
Wilderness!. Instead they opt for The Beverly
Hillbillies. Anyone expecting a cameo from one of the genuine
Clampetts is in for a disappointment, but watching Lisa and Oliver
portray Granny and Jethro is a real hoot.
Perhaps Hank Kimball's finest hours are the two episodes, "Kimball
Gets Fired" and "Ralph's Nuptials," in which Hank and Ralph get
married (or do they?), but not before he asks Oliver to tell him the
facts of life. "You love Ralph, don't you?" Oliver reassures
him. "Who's Ralph Dontyou?" a more-distracted-than-usual Hank
asks. Trivia to impress your friends: it is revealed that Hank's
middle name is Wadsworth. --Donald Liebenson
Amazon.com video review:
Plant yourself in front of the television
for another minimarathon of Green Acres episodes starring the
George Burns and Gracie Allen of Hooterville, Oliver Douglas (Eddie
Albert) and his wife, Lisa (Eva Gabor).
"Lisa Bakes a Cake," in which Lisa lists Oliver in the phone book as
an attorney, is about as flat and heavy as one of Lisa's infamous
creations. Fast-forward to "Jealousy, English Style," in which Lisa
objects to Oliver's departure for a "farm symposium," or as she calls
it, "a stag party with farmers." She tries to make Oliver jealous of
visiting Englishman Tony Ashley, whom Oliver has hired as a temporary
farm hand (Eb, we are told, is on his honeymoon!).
"Old Mail Day" also delivers some chuckles as Sam Drucker gets around
to distributing all the misplaced mail in his general store. One
letter to Washington from an outraged Oliver, and Sam is forced to
pedal around Hooterville himself delivering the mail (to everyone
except Oliver, that is). More letters to Washington only worsen the
fiasco, and as the episode ends, Oliver's tar and feathering seems
imminent.
In "Oliver Goes Broke," Hooterville rallies around Oliver as Bedford
Falls did for George Bailey when a rumor spreads that he has gone
bust. V-chip alert: Lisa snuggles up to Oliver in bed and coos, "Why
don't you turn off the light, and we'll talk about crops and things
like that." Even more provocative is Hank Kimball's offhanded
reference to Sam Drucker's blonde wig and dress! --Donald
Liebenson
Amazon.com video review:
Why does farmer Oliver Douglas tend Green
Acres clad in a three-piece suit? Why does Arnold the pig sleep in a
cradle in the Ziffel's bedroom? And what's the deal with the show's
opening credits, which in one episode appear printed on freshly-laid
eggs? These and other logical questions will, of course, go unanswered
in this volume containing two episodes apiece from this retro-TV
classic's 1966 and 1967 seasons.
In "Never Look a Gift Tractor in the Mouth," Hooterville is beginning
to look like Peyton Place when Doris Ziffel becomes convinced that her
husband Fred and Lisa Douglas (Eva Gabor) are having an affair. And
all is not well in "Water, Water Everywhere" when Mr. Haney's new well
turns Hooterville's citizens into reservoir dogs forced to tap into
Pixley's water supply. This video also contains two down-to-earth
episodes, "Lisa's Vegetable Garden" and "Lisa's Jam Session."
While these episodes are not exactly a bumper crop, each does have its
share of ripe moments that transcend the corny humor. In addition to
the "eggs-quisite" credit sequence, "Lisa's Vegetable Garden" features
Arnold Ziffel's uncanny Lassie imitations. "Water, Water Everywhere"
benefits from the presence of venerable character actor Percy Helton
(he was the drunken Santa in the original Miracle on 34th
Street and Sweetface in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)
as Willie the Well-Witcher. Quite provocative is one buttoned-up
matron's admiring sidelong glance at the sight of general-store owner
Sam Drucker draped in a towel! And throughout, Eddie Albert, as the
perpetually confounded Oliver Douglas, confirms his standing as the
master of the slow burn. --Donald Liebenson
Amazon.com video review:
The Catalog of Cool describes
Green Acres this way:
To be truly cool, one must
genuinely understand the uselessness of logic and reason in a world
gone mad.... Eddie Albert (ostensibly sane) spent six seasons
appealing to the whacked out citizens of Hooterville to behave in a
rational and orderly manner. Naturally, he got just what he
deserved--the gradual erosion of his own mental stability. Aficionados
of this show like to call it surreal. I call it real
life.
All one can add to that, to paraphrase the classic title song, is that
home video is the place for
Green Acres to be. Hooterville may
have been condemned by critics as a vast wasteland, but as the four
episodes on this video demonstrate, it provides fertile ground for
bizarre behavior for a gallery of classic characters who rival the
residents of
Twin Peaks.
"Oliver Buys the Farm," the series pilot, is a comparatively tame
episode that gives little hint of the weirdness to come. Lawyer Oliver
Wendell Douglas (Albert), weary of life in New York ("It's a rat race,
and the rats are winning!" he declares) buys the Haney place to the
horror of his socialite wife Lisa (Eva Gabor), whose ditziness has yet
to be established. Look for appearances by Petticoat Junction
denizens Uncle Joe (Edgar Buchannan), Sam Drucker (Frank Cady),
Hooterville Cannonball engineer Floyd Smoot (Rufe Davis), and
everyone's favorite wonder pig, Arnold Ziffel.
In "The Day of Decision," all of Hooterville wonders whether "she
will" or "she won't" as Lisa chooses between life on the farm or
returning to New York. Of course she stays, and in "It's Human to Be
Humane," she becomes Hooterville's humane officer, which explains the
elephant in the farmhouse. This video also includes "Who's Lisa," in
which the amnesiac Lisa can remember everyone except Oliver. She is
even transformed into a gourmet cook! --Donald Liebenson
