TV: Paul Henning's PETTICOAT JUNCTION Official 1st Season on DVD (Dec 16)

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The misadventures of the family staff of The Shady Rest Hotel and their neighbours of Hooterville...

PETTICOAT JUNCTION:
The Official 1st Season on DVD »

New to DVD on December 16, CBS and Paramount are finally releasing the first season's "official" set of episodes in a five-disc set (SRP $42.99), which includes the original theme music unavailable on the previous 20-episode "Ultimate Collection" DVD set (released by MPI in 2005).

With the debut of the show's complete first season official episodes, fans should be excited in looking forward to all seven seasons of episodes to be released in the future. At this time, Paramount has not provided details of any bonus features to be included.

Brief Synopsis - The small farming community of Hooterville provided the setting for this highly successful rural situation comedy. Kate Bradley was the widowed owner of the only transient housing in town, the Shady Rest Hotel. Helping her run the hotel were her three beautiful daughters, Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo, and Betty Jo. Also assisting was the girls' lazy Uncle Joe, who had assumed the title of manager.

Production Notes (from Wikipedia) -
Petticoat Junction is an American situation comedy produced by Filmways, which originally aired on the CBS network from 1963 to 1970. The rights to the show are held by CBS Television Distribution. The setting for the series was the Shady Rest Hotel just outside of the farming town of Hooterville. The Shady rest hotel is situated on the train line of the CF&W Railroad Company. The show repeatedly mentions the Shady Rest Hotel as being 25 miles (40 km) from Pixley and 25 miles (40 km) from Hooterville, dead in the center. Although the cast seems to go to Hooterville for some things, Hooterville Hospital and Hooterville High, and Pixley for other, notably supermarket shopping, beauty parlors and movies.

A petticoat is a garment worn under a woman's skirt. The opening titles of the series featured a display of petticoats hanging on the side of a large water tank. The "junction" in the title indicates that the Shady Rest Hotel was situated at a crossing of two train lines (though only one is ever mentioned).

Set in the rural town of Hooterville, the show followed the goings-on at the Shady Rest Hotel, of which Kate Bradley (Bea Benaderet) was the proprietor. Her lazy Uncle Joe (Edgar Buchanan) helped her in the day-to-day running of the business, while she served as a mediator in the various minor crises that befell her three daughters: Betty Jo, Bobbie Jo, and Billie Jo. The actresses portraying Billie Jo and Bobbie Jo changed over the years. Billie Jo was played by Jeannine C. Riley the first two seasons, and then by Gunilla Hutton for one year before Meredith MacRae assumed the role for the show's remaining seasons. Pat Woodell was the original Bobbie Jo for two years, with Lori Saunders playing the part subsequently.

Betty Jo was portrayed by Linda Kaye (Henning), daughter of series creator Paul Henning, for the entire run. The character of handsome crop duster Steve Elliott (Mike Minor) was added to the show at the start of its fourth season as a love interest for eldest daughter Billie Jo. However, in a plot twist he suddenly married Kate Bradley's youngest daughter Betty Jo a season later. Henning and Minor were dating and later married in real life, divorcing after five years and no children. They set up housekeeping in a cottage near tracks between Hooterville and Pixley. A baby was added the following season. After Steve and Betty Jo marry they move out of the Shady Rest Hotel and into their own home.

Much of the original focus of the show was on the Hooterville Cannonball, a steam-driven train (serviced by the above-mentioned water tower) run more like a taxi service by its engineer, Charley Pratt (Smiley Burnette) and conductor, Floyd Smoot (Rufe Davis). It was not uncommon for the Cannonball to make an unscheduled stop in order to go fishing or pick fruit for Kate Bradley's menu at the Shady Rest Hotel. Occasionally, Betty Jo Bradley could be found with her hand on the Cannonball's throttle, as running the train home from trips into town was one of her favorite pastimes. Those trips usually consisted of a stop at "Drucker's Store," run by Sam Drucker (Frank Cady). Druker's Store is mentioned as a favourite of Hooterville farmers because he'll give credit, while the Pixley stores want cash

Another character was the unnamed canine companion of the sisters, referred to simply as "dog". It was portrayed by "Higgins", who later went on to even greater fame as "Benji", in the first of a series of popular films.

Homer Bedloe, played by actor Charles Lane, was vice president of the CF&W Railroad. Bedloe was a mean-spirited railroad executive who visited the Shady Rest Hotel periodically attempting to find justification for ending the train service of the Hooterville Cannonball, but never succeeding. In the series pilot, it was established that the branch line had become separated from the main part of the railroad several years earlier, but that nobody had ever bothered to do anything about it, so the crew just kept operating the Cannonball on the remaining section of track.

The show benefitted greatly in its first four seasons from the very strong lead-in of The Red Skelton Show, which immediately preceded it on Tuesday nights. In its first season it even exceeded Skelton's ratings, finishing at #4 overall for the season. The rest of its time on Tuesday nights, it remained in the Nielsen top 25. Jimmy Hawkins, while he was also portraying the character Scotty on ABC's The Donna Reed Show, appeared on Petticoat Junction from 1963-1967 as Orville Miggs.

The show was set in the same fictional universe as the rural television comedy Green Acres, also set in Hooterville. Both shows shared such characters as Sam Drucker, Newt Kiley, and Floyd Smoot. A number of core Green Acres characters, such as Fred and Doris Ziffel, Arnold the Pig, Newt Kiley and Ben Miller, actually got their "start" on Petticoat Junction in the 1964-1965 season, which saw a number of scripts written by Acres creator Jay Sommers.

Characters on all of Henning's creations sometimes "crossed over" into another's programs, especially so during Green Acres first two seasons. In a 1968 episode ("Granny, the Baby Expert"), Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies comes to Hooterville to tend to Betty Jo and Steve's baby. Granny looks at a picture of Kate and is astonished at her resemblance to Jed's cousin, Pearl Bodine (previously played by Benaderet), and prior to her visit to Hooterville, reminded Jed that he was related to Kate through Pearl.

Other crossover shows include one where the Clampetts, Milburn Drysdale, and Miss Jane spend both Thanksgiving and Christmas of 1968 in Hooterville on The Beverly Hillbillies; and a 1970 episode of The Beverly Hillbillies in which Mr. Drysdale thought that billionaire Howard Hughes lived in Hooterville (the man turned out to be Howard Hewes, who owned the Hooterville airport).

Series Synopsis:
Return to Hooterville and..."Come ride the little train that is rolling down the track to the junction!"

The long-running television classic "Petticoat Junction" (CBS-TV, 1963-1970) was one of the most successful and beloved situation comedies of the 1960s. Created by Paul Henning (the same mastermind behind The Beverly Hillbillies), PETTICOAT JUNCTION ranked as the fourth-highest rated series during its debut season.

Set in the folksy farming community of Hooterville, Petticoat Junction centers on Kate Bradley, a widow who runs the charming Shady Rest Hotel with the help of her three beautiful young daughters - Billie Joe, Bobbie Joe and Betty Joe - along with the girls' Uncle Joe. Sam Drucker runs the local general store. Railroad engineers Charlie Pratt and Floyd Smoot operate the Cannonball, a steam engine train that runs through the valley and brings a host of interesting visitors and humorous mishaps to the Shady Rest.

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