Edward Albert Heimberger (April 22, 1906 – May 26, 2005) was an American actor and humanitarian. He was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; the first nomination came in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and the second in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid.[1] Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing Edwards in the Brother Rat films, traveling salesman Ali Hakim in the musical Oklahoma!, and the sadistic prison warden in 1974's The Longest Yard. He starred as Oliver Wendell Douglas in the 1960s television sitcom Green Acres and as Frank MacBride in the 1970s crime drama Switch. He also had a recurring role as Carlton Travis on Falcon Crest, with Jane Wyman.[1]
Early life
Edward Albert Heimberger was born in Rock Island, Illinois, on April 22, 1906, the eldest of the five children of Frank Daniel Heimberger, a real estate agent, and his wife, Julia Jones.[citation needed] His year of birth is often given as 1908, but this is incorrect. His parents were not married when Albert was born, and his mother altered his birth certificate after her marriage.[2]
When he was one year old, his family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Young Edward secured his first job as a newspaper boy when he was only six. During World War I, his German surname led to taunts as "the enemy" by his classmates. He studied at Central High School in Minneapolis and joined the drama club. His schoolmate Harriet Lake (later known as actress Ann Sothern) graduated in the same class. Finishing high school in 1926,[3] he entered the University of Minnesota, where he majored in business.[citation needed]
Career
When he graduated, Albert embarked on a business career. However, the stock market crash in 1929 left him essentially unemployed. He then took odd jobs, working as a trapeze performer, an insurance salesman, and a nightclub singer. Albert stopped using his last name professionally because it invariably was mispronounced as "Hamburger". He moved to New York City in 1933, where he co-hosted a radio show, The Honeymooners – Grace and Eddie Show, which ran for three years. At the show's end, he was offered a film contract by Warner Bros.[4]
In the 1930s, Albert performed in Broadway stage productions, including Brother Rat, which opened in 1936. He had lead roles in Room Service (1937–1938) and The Boys from Syracuse (1938–1939). In 1936, Albert had also become one of the earliest television actors, performing live in one of RCA's first television broadcasts in association with NBC, a promotion for their New York City radio stations.[4]
Performing regularly on early television, Albert wrote and performed in the first teleplay, titled The Love Nest, written for television. Done live (not recorded on film), this production took place November 6, 1936 and originated in Studio 3H (now 3K) in the GE Building at Rockefeller Center (then called the RCA Building) in New York City and was broadcast over NBC's experimental television station W2XBS (now WNBC-TV). Hosted by Betty Goodwin, The Love Nest starred Albert, Hildegarde, The Ink Spots, Ed Wynn, and actress Grace Bradt. Before this time, television productions were adaptations of stage plays.[5]
Albert landed the starring role in the 1938 Broadway musical The Boys from Syracuse, and met Burl Ives, who had a small role in the play. The two later briefly shared an apartment in the Beachwood Canyon community of Hollywood after Ives moved west the following year. Also in 1938, Albert made his feature-film debut in the Hollywood version of Brother Rat with Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman, reprising his Broadway role as cadet "Bing" Edwards. The next year, he starred in On Your Toes, adapted for the screen from the Broadway smash by Rodgers and Hart.[6]
Military
On September 9, 1942, Albert enlisted in the United States Coast Guard and was discharged in 1943 to accept an appointment as a lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat "V" for his actions during the invasion of Tarawa in November 1943, when, as the coxswain of a US Navy landing craft, he rescued 47 Marines who were stranded offshore (and supervised the rescue of 30 others), while under heavy enemy machine-gun fire.[7]
As leading man
During the war years, Albert returned to films, starring in ones such as The Great Mr. Nobody, Lady Bodyguard, and Ladies' Day, as well as reuniting with Reagan and Wyman for An Angel from Texas and co-starring with Humphrey Bogart in The Wagons Roll at Night. After the war, he resumed appearing in leading roles, including 1947's Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman, with Susan Hayward.
As character actor
From 1948 on, Albert guest-starred in nearly 90 television series. He made his guest-starring debut on an episode of The Ford Theatre Hour. This part led to other roles such as Chevrolet Tele-Theatre, Suspense, Lights Out, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Studio One, Philco Television Playhouse, Your Show of Shows, Front Row Center, The Alcoa Hour, and in dramatic series The Eleventh Hour, The Reporter, and General Electric Theater.
In 1959, Albert was cast as businessman Dan Simpson in the episode "The Unwilling" of the series Riverboat. In the story, Dan Simpson attempts to open a general store in the American West despite a raid from pirates on the Mississippi River, who stole from him $20,000 in merchandise. Debra Paget is cast in this episode as Lela Russell; Russell Johnson is Darius, and John M. Picard is uncredited as a river pirate.
On stage
The 1950s also had a return to Broadway for Albert, including roles in Miss Liberty (1949–1950) and The Seven Year Itch (1952–1955). In 1960, Albert replaced Robert Preston in the lead role of Professor Harold Hill, in the Broadway production of The Music Man. Albert also performed in regional theater. He created the title role of Marc Blitzstein's Reuben, Reuben in 1955 in Boston. He performed at The Muny Theater in St. Louis, Missouri, reprising the Harold Hill role in The Music Man in 1966 and playing Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady in 1968.
1950s and 1960s film career
In the 1950s, Albert appeared in film roles such as that of Lucille Ball's fiancé in The Fuller Brush Girl (1950), Bill Gorton in The Sun Also Rises (1957), and a traveling salesman in Carrie (1952). He was nominated for his first Oscar as Best Supporting Actor with Roman Holiday (1953). In Oklahoma! (1955), he played a womanizing Persian peddler, and in Who's Got the Action? (1962), he portrayed a lawyer helping his partner (Dean Martin) cope with a gambling addiction. In Teahouse of the August Moon (1956), he played a psychiatrist with an enthusiasm for farming. He appeared in several military roles, including The Longest Day (1962), about the Normandy invasion. The film Attack (1956) provided Albert with a dark role as a cowardly, psychotic Army captain whose behavior threatens the safety of his company. In a similar vein, he played a psychotic United States Army Air Force colonel in Captain Newman, M.D. (1963), with Gregory Peck.
Television series
He guest-starred on various series, including ABC's The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, and the Westinghouse Studio One series (CBS, 1953–54), playing Winston Smith in the first TV adaptation of 1984, by William Templeton.
Leave It to Larry
In his first TV series,[8] Albert portrayed Larry Tucker on the situation comedy Leave It to Larry, which ran from October 14, 1952, until December 23, 1952, on CBS. Tucker was a married man who encountered his father-in-law at work and at home.[9]
The Eddie Albert Show
Albert had his own daytime variety program, The Eddie Albert Show, on CBS television in 1953. Singer Ellen Hanley was a regular on the show. A review in Broadcasting magazine panned the program, writing "Mr. Albert, with the help of Miss Hanley, conducts an interview, talks a little, sings a little, and looks all-thumbs a lot."[10]
Saturday Night Revue
Beginning June 12, 1954, Albert was host of Saturday Night Revue, which replaced Your Show of Shows on NBC. The 9:00–10:30 pm (Eastern Time) program also featured Ben Blue and Alan Young and the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra.[11]
Guest appearances
In 1962, Albert appeared as Cal Kroeger on the TV Western The Virginian in the episode titled "Impasse". In 1964, Albert guest-starred in "Cry of Silence", an episode of the science-fiction television series The Outer Limits. Albert played Andy Thorne, who along with his wife Karen (played by June Havoc), had decided to leave the city and buy a farm (a recurring theme in Albert's career). They find themselves lost and in the middle of a deserted valley, where they come under attack by a series of tumbleweeds, frogs, and rocks. Also in 1964, he guest-starred as a government agent in the pilot episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea titled "Eleven Days to Zero". Albert appeared as Taylor Dickson, a western photographer in season seven, episode 11 as “The Photographer” in Rawhide, alongside Clint Eastwood (Rowdy Yates) aired December 11, 1964.
Albert was cast as Charlie O'Rourke in the 1964 episode "Visions of Sugar Plums" of the NBC education drama series, Mr. Novak, starring James Franciscus. Bobby Diamond, formerly of the Fury series, also appeared in this episode.
Green Acres
In 1965, Albert was approached by producer Paul Henning to star in a sitcom for CBS titled Green Acres. His character, Oliver Wendell Douglas, was a lawyer who left the city to enjoy a simple life as a gentleman farmer. Co-starring on the show was Eva Gabor as his wife Lisa. The show was an immediate hit, achieving fifth place in the ratings in its first season. The series lasted six seasons with 170 episodes.
In 1968, Albert was a guest on The Carol Burnett Show episode six. He played Harvey Korman's boss in an episode of "Carol and Sis", and sang.
Switch
After a four-year absence from the small screen, and upon reaching age 69 in 1975, Albert signed a new contract with Universal Television, and starred in the popular 1970s series Switch for CBS as a retired police officer, Frank McBride, who goes to work as a private detective with a former criminal he had once jailed. In its first season, Switch was a hit. By late 1976, the show had become a more serious and traditional crime drama. At the end of its third season in 1978, ratings began to drop, and the show was cancelled after 70 episodes.
Television specials
Eddie Albert appeared in a number of television specials. His first was the 1956 television documentary Our Mr. Sun, a Bell Telephone-produced color special.[12] Directed by Frank Capra, it blends live action and animation. Albert appears with Dr. Frank Baxter, who appears in several other Bell Telephone science specials.
In 1965, the year that Green Acres premiered, Albert served as host/narrator for the telecast of a German-American made-for-television film version of The Nutcracker, which was rerun several times. The host sequences and the narration were especially filmed for English-language telecasts of this short film (it was only an hour in length, and cut much from the Tchaikovsky ballet).[citation needed]
In 1968, he voiced Myles Standish in the Rankin/Bass animated TV special The Mouse on the Mayflower.[citation needed]
Later work
In 1971, Albert guest-starred in a season-one Columbo episode titled "Dead Weight" as a highly decorated retired US Marine Corps major general, and combat war hero from the Korean War, who murders his adjutant to cover up an illegal contracting conspiracy scheme.
In 1972, Albert resumed his film career and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as an overprotective father in The Heartbreak Kid (1972), and delivered a memorable performance as an evil prison warden in 1974's The Longest Yard. In a lighter vein, Albert portrayed the gruff though soft-hearted Jason O'Day in the successful Disney film Escape to Witch Mountain in 1975.
Albert appeared in such 1980s films as How to Beat the High Cost of Living (1980), Yesterday (1981), Take This Job and Shove It (1981), Rooster (1982 television film), and Yes, Giorgio (1982), and as the US President in Dreamscape (1984). His final film role was a cameo in The Big Picture (1989). He also appeared in many all-star television miniseries, including Evening in Byzantium (1978), The Word (1978), Peter and Paul (1981), Goliath Awaits (1981), and War and Remembrance (1988).
In 1982, Albert sang the character role of the elderly Altoum in the San Francisco Opera staging of Puccini's Turandot.[13]
In the mid-1980s, Albert was reunited with longtime friend and co-star of the Brother Rat and An Angel from Texas films, Jane Wyman, in a recurring role as the villainous Carlton Travis in the popular 1980s series Falcon Crest. He also guest-starred on an episode of the 1980s television series Highway to Heaven, as well as Murder, She Wrote, and in 1990, he reunited with Eva Gabor for a Return to Green Acres. In 1993, he guest-starred for several episodes on the daytime soap opera General Hospital as Jack Boland, and he made a guest appearance on the Golden Girls spin-off The Golden Palace the same year.
Hollywood blacklist
Eddie Albert's wife, Mexican actress Margo, was well known in Hollywood for her left-wing political leanings,[14] but she was not a member of the Communist Party.[15] In 1950, Margo and Albert's names were both published in "Red Channels", an anti-Communist pamphlet that sought to expose purported Communist influence within the entertainment industry.[16][17] This was part of a larger trend of blacklisting motion-picture professionals whose known or suspected Communist leanings, unless they testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee to disavow any Communist affiliations.[17]
Albert's son spoke of his parents' blacklisting in an interview published in December 1972, crediting Albert's military service during World War II with ultimately saving his career:
My mom was blacklisted for appearing at an anti-Franco rally; she was branded a Communist, was spat upon in the streets, and had to have a bodyguard. And my dad found himself unemployable at several major studios, just when his career was gathering momentum. During the Second World War, dad joined the Navy and saw action at Tarawa, and because he came back something of a hero, he was able to get work again, but he never got as far as he should have gotten.[18]
Albert later spoke of this period: "Everyone was so full of fear. Many people couldn't support their families, or worse, their lives were ruined and they had to go out and do menial jobs. Some even killed themselves."[19] While Albert's career survived the blacklist, his wife, Margo, had extreme difficulty finding work.[19]
Activism and interests
Albert was active in social and environmental causes, especially from the 1970s onward. In 1970, Albert participated in the creation of Earth Day and spoke at one of its events in that year.[20]
Albert founded the Eddie Albert World Trees Foundation and was national chairman for the Boy Scouts of America's conservation program. He was a trustee of the National Recreation and Park Association and a member of the U.S. Department of Energy's advisory board. TV Guide called him "an ecological Paul Revere".[21]
He was special envoy for Meals for Millions and consultant for the World Hunger Conference.[20] He joined Albert Schweitzer in a documentary about African malnutrition.[22][23] and fought agricultural and industrial pollution, particularly DDT.[20] Albert promoted organic gardening, and founded City Children's Farms for inner-city children,[24] while supporting eco-farming and tree planting.[25] Albert was also a director of the U.S. Council on Refugees.[26][27]
Beginning in the 1940s, Eddie Albert Productions produced films for various US corporations, as well as documentaries such as Human Beginnings (a for-its-time controversial sex-education film) and Human Growth.[28]
In 1971 he starred in an industrial film sponsored and promoted by a major logging and forest products concern called Weyerhaeuser Company.[29][30] which emphasized the Pacific Northwest. Shot partly amid old growth timber and narrated soley by Albert, the film documented industrial methods of handling such trees for market. It also shows re-planted clear cuts and emphasized "the need for advanced lumber production in response to rapidly increasing population," according to the Texas Archive of the Moving Image.[31]
Personal life
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Albert married Mexican actress Margo (née María Margarita Guadalupe Teresa Estela Bolado Castilla y O'Donnell) in 1945. Albert and Margo had a son, Edward Jr., also an actor, and adopted a daughter, Maria, who became her father's business manager. Margo Albert died from brain cancer on July 17, 1985.
The Alberts lived in Pacific Palisades, California in a Spanish-style house on an acre of land with a cornfield in front. Albert grew organic vegetables in a greenhouse and recalled how his parents had a "liberty garden" at home during World War I.
Final years and death
Albert was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1995.[21][4][32] His son put aside his acting career to care for his father. Despite his illness, Albert exercised regularly until shortly before his death. Eddie Albert died of pneumonia on May 26, 2005 at the age of 99 in his home in Pacific Palisades, California.[1] He was interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, next to his late wife and near his Green Acres co-star Eva Gabor.[citation needed]
Albert's son, Edward, Jr. (1951–2006), was an actor, musician, singer, and linguist/dialectician.[33] Edward Jr. died at age 55, one year after his father. He had been suffering from lung cancer for 18 months.[citation needed]
For contributions to the television industry, Eddie Albert was honored on February 8, 1960 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6441 Hollywood Boulevard.[34]
Eva Gabor (/ˌeɪvə ɡəˈbɔːr, - ˈɡɑːbɔːr/ AY-və gə-BOR, - GAH-bor; February 11, 1919 – July 4, 1995) was a Hungarian-American actress and socialite. She voiced Duchess and Miss Bianca in the animated Disney Classics, The Aristocats (1970), The Rescuers (1977), and The Rescuers Down Under (1990). She was popular in her role on the 1965–71 television sitcom Green Acres as Lisa Douglas, the wife of Eddie Albert's character Oliver Wendell Douglas. Gabor was an actress in film, on Broadway, and on television. She was also a businesswoman, marketing wigs, clothing, and beauty products. Her elder sisters, Zsa Zsa and Magda Gabor, were also actresses and socialites.
Early life
Gabor was born in Budapest, Hungary, the youngest of three daughters of Vilmos Gábor, a soldier, and his wife, trained jeweler Jolie (born Janka Tilleman). Her parents were both from Hungarian Jewish families.[1][2][3] She was the first of the sisters to immigrate to the U.S., shortly after her first marriage to a Swedish osteopath, Dr. Eric Drimmer, whom she married in 1937 when she was 18 years old.[4]
Early career
Her first movie role was in the U.S. in 1941's Forced Landing at Paramount Pictures. During the 1950s, she appeared in several feature films, including The Last Time I Saw Paris, starring Elizabeth Taylor; and Artists and Models, which featured Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. These roles were bit parts. In 1953, she was given her own television talk show, The Eva Gabor Show, which ran for one season (1953–54). Through the rest of the 1950s and early 1960s she appeared on television and in movies. She appeared in one episode of the mystery series Justice and was on the game show What's My Line? as the "mystery challenger." Her film appearances during this era included a remake of My Man Godfrey, Gigi, and It Started with a Kiss.
Green Acres
In 1965, Gabor got the role of Lisa Douglas, whose attorney husband Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert) decides to leave the "rat race" of city life. He buys a farm in a rural community, forcing Lisa to leave her beloved big-city urban life. The Paul Henning sitcom Green Acres aired on CBS. Green Acres was set in Hooterville, the same backdrop for Petticoat Junction (1963–70), and would occasionally cross over with its sister sitcom. Despite proving to be a ratings hit, staying in the top 20 for its first four seasons, Green Acres, along with another sister show, The Beverly Hillbillies, was cancelled in 1971 in the CBS network's "rural purge" — a policy to get rid of the network's rural-based television shows.
In 1966, Eva Gabor and Johnny Carson played Twister on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.[5][6][7]
Later career
In 1972, Gabor launched her eponymous fashion collection with Luis Estévez, a Cuban-born American fashion designer.[8][9][10]
Gabor later did voice-over work for Disney movies, providing the European-accented voices of Duchess in The Aristocats, and Miss Bianca in The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under, as well as the Queen of Time in the Sanrio film Nutcracker Fantasy. She was a panelist on the Gene Rayburn-hosted Match Game. From 1983 to 1984, she was on the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour starring Gene Rayburn and Jon Bauman.[11]
Eva appeared as Aunt Renee in the fourth season of “Hart to Hart”, and in 1983, she reunited with Eddie Albert on Broadway as the Grand Duchess Olga Katrina in You Can't Take It with You. In 1990, she attempted a TV series comeback in the CBS sitcom pilot Close Encounters; the pilot aired as a special that summer, but did not make it to series status. She toured post-communist Hungary after a 40-year absence on an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.
Personal life
Eva Gabor was married five times. She had no children:
- Eric Valdemar Drimmer, a Swedish-born masseur turned osteopath and psychologist. They wed in London on June 3, 1937, and divorced in Los Angeles, California, on February 25, 1942 (the divorce was finalized on March 6); Gabor claimed cruelty, saying, "I wanted to have babies and lead a simple family life but my husband objected to my having children".[12]
- Charles Isaacs, an American investment broker.[13] They married on September 27, 1943, and were divorced on April 2, 1949.
- John Elbert Williams, MD, a plastic surgeon. They married on April 8, 1956, and were divorced on March 20, 1957.[14]
- Richard Brown, a textile manufacturer, who later became a writer and director.[15][16] They married at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 4, 1959, and divorced in Santa Monica, California, in June 1973.[15][17][18]
- Frank Gard Jameson Sr., an aerospace executive and former vice president of Rockwell International.[19] They married in the Vivian Webb Chapel of The Webb Schools, Claremont, California on September 21, 1973. The couple divorced in 1983.[20] Gabor became a stepmother to Jameson's four children.[19]
Gabor also had a long term on-and off affair with actor Glenn Ford which began during the filming of Don't Go Near the Water in 1957. They dated between their marriages and almost married in the early 1970s.[21]
After her final marriage, Gabor was involved in a relationship with TV producer Merv Griffin until her death.[22][23][24] Reuters reported that this was a platonic relationship to hide Griffin's suspected homosexuality.[25]
Death
Gabor died in Los Angeles on Independence Day 1995, from respiratory failure and pneumonia, following a fall in a bathtub in Mexico,[26] where she had been on vacation.[27] Her funeral was held on July 11, 1995, at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills.[28]
The youngest sister, Eva predeceased her elder sisters and her mother. Eldest sister Magda and mother Jolie Gabor both died two years later, in 1997. Elder sister Zsa Zsa died from cardiac arrest on December 18, 2016.[29][30]
Green Acres is an American television sitcom starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a 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 on DVD and VHS releases. A reunion movie aired in 1990.
In 1997, the two-part episode "A Star Named Arnold Is Born" was ranked No. 59 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time.[1]
Radio origins
Green Acres derives from Granby's Green Acres, a comedy show aired on the CBS radio network from July 3 to August 21, 1950. The eight-episode summer series was created by Jay Sommers, who also wrote, produced, and directed.[2]
The principal characters, a married couple played by Bea Benaderet and Gale Gordon, originated (although under a different surname) on Lucille Ball's My Favorite Husband. The Granby's premise was that a big-city banker fulfills a lifelong dream by moving his family to a rundown farm, despite knowing nothing about farming. The nearby feed store is operated by the absent-minded Mr. Kimball, and the Granbys hire an older hand named Eb (voiced by Parley Baer, who guest-starred in several episodes of the television series), who often comments on incompetent management.[3] Benaderet later played Kate Bradley, a main character in Petticoat Junction, which was in the same fictional universe as Green Acres.
Adaptation to television
Following the success of The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction, CBS offered producer Paul Henning another half-hour slot on the schedule, without requiring a pilot episode. Faced with running three shows, Henning encouraged Sommers to create a series for the time slot.[4] Sommers later wrote and produced about one-third of the episodes.[2]
In pre-production, proposed titles were Country Cousins and The Eddie Albert Show.[5]
Premise
Green Acres is about Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert), a prominent and wealthy New York City attorney, fulfilling his dream to be a farmer, and Lisa Douglas (Eva Gabor), his glamorous Hungarian wife, uprooted unwillingly from an upscale Manhattan penthouse apartment to a dilapidated farm in Hooterville that Oliver purchases from the ever-hustling Mr. Haney, to the disbelief of the residents.
The debut episode is a mockumentary about their decision to move to a rural area, anchored by former ABC newscaster John Charles Daly. Daly was the host of the CBS game show What's My Line, and 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.[6]
Although many Green Acres episodes were still standard 1960s sitcom fare, the show developed a regular undercurrent of surrealism and satire. The writers soon developed a suite of running jokes and visual gags, and characters often broke the fourth wall, such as looking around to try and figure out where the fife music is coming from when Oliver launches into one of his frequent "American dream" monologues.[7]
The show is set in the same television universe as Henning's Petticoat Junction, featuring such towns as Hooterville, Pixley, Crabwell Corners, and Stankwell Falls, as well as sharing characters such as Joe Carson, Fred and Doris Ziffel, Sam Drucker, Newt Kiley, and Floyd Smoot.[citation needed]
Theme song
The main theme, composed by Vic Mizzy, is notable as an unusual example of a TV theme song in which the lyrics are sung by the stars of the show (Albert and Gabor), rather than by anonymous session vocalists.
Characters
Main characters
- Oliver Wendell Douglas (portrayed by Eddie Albert) Named for Oliver Wendell Holmes, he makes the rash decision to leave his successful law practice and pursue his lifelong dream of being a farmer, despite having no real-world knowledge or experience, as evidenced by him doing farm chores while wearing a three-piece suit (in "The Hooterville Image,” the denizens decide Oliver is ruining the town's image by doing his chores in a suit and demand that he wear overalls). Much of the humor throughout the series derives from Oliver's striving toward success and happiness in an absurd situation, despite the rural citizenry, his high-maintenance wife, and his affluent mother (Eleanor Audley), who ridicules him for his agricultural pipedreams in the episode "The Wedding Anniversary.” Oliver is also subjected to ribbing by the Hootervillians when he launches into starry-eyed monologues about "the American farmer"—replete with a fife playing "Yankee Doodle" in the background (which every on-screen character except Oliver can hear).[citation needed] Oliver drives a Lincoln Continental convertible, a stark contrast to the often decrepit vintage vehicles generally shown. In later seasons, the Lincoln is replaced by a Mercury Marquis convertible.[citation needed]
- Lisa Douglas (portrayed by Eva Gabor) Lisa and Oliver are both veterans of World War II. In "Wings Over Hooterville,” she recalls how they met. According to Lisa, she was a sergeant in the Hungarian underground, and he was a United States Army Air Forces flier, forced to bail out of his plane. However, she gives several other fanciful versions of how they met in subsequent episodes. In the episode, “A Royal Love Story,” he is a tourist in Paris, and she is a waitress/tour guide, living with her father, the deposed King of Hungary. Pampered by her wealthy family, her skewed world view and domestic ignorance provide fertile ground for recurring gags. Instead of washing dishes, Lisa sometimes tosses them out the kitchen window.[citation needed] In the episode, “Alf and Ralph Break Up,” Lisa admits she has no cooking abilities and that her only talent is Zsa Zsa Gabor impersonations (the real-life sisters were often mistaken for each other).
Oliver and Lisa are both depicted as fish out of water. While Oliver instigated the move from Manhattan to Hooterville over Lisa's objections, he is typically uncomprehending of and impatient with his new situation. Lisa, on the other hand, somehow understands the sometimes surreal world of their neighbors, and they in turn are accepting of her own bizarre notions.[citation needed]
Supporting characters
- Mr. Eustace Haney (portrayed by Pat Buttram) - The oily, dishonest local salesman who originally sold Oliver the Green Acres Farm (previously the Old Haney Place). In the early episodes, Haney repeatedly profits from Oliver by removing all the farm's basic fittings and equipment (the kitchen sink, bath, stove, cow, tractor, plow, etc.), and selling or renting them back to Oliver at wildly inflated prices. In succeeding episodes, Haney invariably arrives on cue every time Oliver needs an item or service, typically accompanied by a custom-made sign for each occasion, painted on a green pull-down window blind. Pat Buttram later revealed that Haney's character was inspired by Elvis Presley's manager, Col. Tom Parker.[8]
- Eb Dawson (portrayed by Tom Lester) - The amiable, somewhat naïve, sarcastic young farmhand to the Douglases. He habitually addresses the Douglases as "Dad" and "Mom", much to Oliver's annoyance.[7][3]
- Fred Ziffel (portrayed by Hank Patterson) and Doris Ziffel (portrayed by Barbara Pepper 1965–1968, Fran Ryan 1969–1971) - Fred and Doris are the Douglases' childless elderly neighbors. They have a pig named Arnold, whom they treat as their son. Fred is a cantankerous old-fashioned farmer who was born during the Grover Cleveland administration. Everything about him is "no-nonsense", except for the fact that his "son" Arnold is a pig.[citation needed]
- Arnold Ziffel - Arnold is a pig whom the Ziffels treat as a son, understands English, lives indoors, and is pampered. Everyone understands Arnold when he grunts, as if he were speaking English, except Oliver. He is an avid TV watcher and a Western fan, attends the local grade school (carrying his book pack in his mouth), and signs his own name on paper. Only Oliver believes Arnold is just livestock, although he frequently slips and begins treating him as a boy. Arnold makes regular appearances throughout the series, often visiting the Douglas home to watch their TV.[3]
- Alf and Ralph Monroe (portrayed by Sid Melton and Mary Grace Canfield) - Alf and his "brother" Ralph are two quarrelsome carpenters. In the episode that introduces them, Alf confesses that Ralph is actually his sister, and explains they would not get jobs if people knew that she is a woman. The Monroes rarely finish projects, and those that they do complete are disasters, such as the Douglases' bedroom closet's sliding door that is always falling down, their unsuccessful attempts to secure the doorknob to the front door, etc. In one episode, after accidentally sawing Sam Drucker's telephone line at the general store, they splice it back together, although backwards, causing Drucker to listen at the mouthpiece and talk into the receiver. Melton left in 1970 (season four) to do Make Room For Granddaddy, so the writers developed an occasional subplot that involved sister Ralph's attempts to win the affections of "Hanky" Kimball or some other hapless Hooterville bachelor. Alf later returns for Ralph's failed wedding to Kimball.[3]
- Sam Drucker (portrayed by Frank Cady) - A storekeeper who is a regular character in both Petticoat Junction and Green Acres. The first bar of the Petticoat Junction theme song is usually played during the establishing shot of his store.[citation needed] Drucker also serves as a newspaper editor and printer, volunteer firefighter with the Hooterville Volunteer Fire Department, notary, constable, justice of the peace, and postmaster. As editor of the Hooterville World Guardian, his headlines are often decades old.[citation needed] Drucker is often the only character who is inspired by Oliver's rural patriotism. He is arguably the most "normal" of the Hooterville citizenry and he often filters Oliver's idealism to the townsfolk and, conversely, filters the plebeian backwoods notions of the community back to Oliver.
- Hank Kimball (portrayed by Alvy Moore) - A broad parody of regional government bureaucrats and civil service employees, Hank is an often confused county agricultural agent who draws folks into inane conversations, loses his train of thought, then exits the scene. Kimball often begins a conversation, then questions the veracity of his own statements and ends up making a statement totally opposite from his original comment. The series was reportedly one of the first pre-recorded sitcoms to use cue cards extensively during filming, and Moore later recounted that he found them invaluable when performing Kimball's convoluted, rambling, rapid-fire dialogue.[citation needed]
- Eunice Douglas (portrayed by Eleanor Audley) - Eunice is Oliver's mother, who seems to side with her daughter-in-law far more than her son. She is aghast at the prospect of Oliver and Lisa moving to Hooterville and often tries to convince Lisa to come back to New York City with her (or as she puts it, "Come back to America") and escape the primitive life of the farm. Eunice is a recurring character on the first four seasons of the show. Audley's role has been compared to a recurring character she also played on The Beverly Hillbillies as Millicent Schuyler-Potts, headmistress of the Potts School where Jethro attends the fifth and sixth grades.[citation needed]
The folks from Petticoat Junction
Shady Rest Hotel owner Kate Bradley appears in a few early episodes. She tries to help Lisa adapt to country living, most notably giving her the recipe for her hotcakes, which Lisa ends up botching, resulting in Lisa's infamous "hotscakes". Uncle Joe Carson (who soon develops a romantic interest in Oliver's mother) is seen at times playing checkers, loafing, or mooching fruit at Drucker's Store with Petticoat Junction regulars Newt Kiley and train conductor Floyd Smoot. Betty Jo Bradley appears in one episode as Eb Dawson's date. Her sister Bobbie Jo appears in the same episode. Blonde-haired Billie Jo is the only Bradley sister never to appear in Green Acres. Western film actor Smiley Burnette guest-stars several times as railway engineer Charley Pratt in 1965 and 1966. Burnette and Pat Buttram (Mr. Haney) were both comic sidekicks of singing cowboy Gene Autry in his 1950s Westerns.[9]
Crossovers with The Beverly Hillbillies
In the March 1967, episode "The Beverly Hillbillies" (season 2, episode 23), the Hooterville theater puts on a play in homage to "famous television show" The Beverly Hillbillies. Oliver plays Jethro opposite Lisa as Granny Clampett.[citation needed]
Starting in 1968, The Beverly Hillbillies aired episodes with the Clampetts in Hooterville visiting distant cousins the Bradley family. This brought the world of all three shows into the same reality. "The Thanksgiving Story" includes a split-second insert of Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor at the dinner table with the casts of all three series. There is a subplot with Eb Dawson falling in love with Elly May Clampett that continues in the following episode, "The Courtship of Homer Noodleman". The Clampetts return to the Shady Rest Hotel in "Christmas in Hooterville" with Eb still fawning over a reluctant Elly May.[citation needed]
Cast
- Oliver Wendell Douglas: Eddie Albert (170 episodes)
- Lisa Douglas: Eva Gabor (170 episodes)
- Eb Dawson: Tom Lester (148 episodes)
- Sam Drucker: Frank Cady (142 episodes)
- Eustace Haney: Pat Buttram (143 episodes)
- Hank Kimball (Henry Wadsworth Kimball): Alvy Moore (79 episodes)
- Fred Ziffel: Hank Patterson (50 episodes)
- Doris Ziffel: Barbara Pepper (1965–1968) (30 episodes)/Fran Ryan (1969–71) (7 episodes, 5 as Doris Ziffel)
- Arnold Ziffel: (Original pig came from the town of Union Star, Missouri[citation needed])
- Ralph Monroe (Ralph Waldo Monroe): Mary Grace Canfield (41 episodes)
- Alf Monroe: Sid Melton (1965–1969) (26 episodes)
- Newt Kiley: Kay E. Kuter (1965–1970) (24 episodes)
- Mother Eunice Douglas: Eleanor Audley (1965–1969) (15 episodes)
- Roy Trendell: Robert Foulk (1966–1968) (15 episodes)
- Ben Miller: Tom Fadden (1965)
- Horace Colby: Hal Smith
In addition, the crossovers from Petticoat Junction cast members, most frequently, were:[citation needed]
- Uncle Joe Carson: Edgar Buchanan (1965–1969) (17 episodes)
- Floyd Smoot: Rufe Davis (1965–1967) (10 episodes)
- Charley Pratt: Smiley Burnette (1965–1967) (7 episodes)
- Kate Bradley: Bea Benaderet (1965–1966) (6 episodes)
With the death of Tom Lester on April 20, 2020, all of the above cast members are now deceased.
Guest stars
During its six-season run, many familiar actors guest-starred on the show, along with other lesser-known performers who later achieved stardom, among them John Daly, Elaine Joyce, Gary Dubin, Herbert Anderson, June Foray, Bob Cummings, Sam Edwards, Jerry Van Dyke, J. Pat O'Malley, Johnny Whitaker, Jesse White, Al Lewis, Gordon Jump, Bernie Kopell, Len Lesser, Bob Hastings, Don Keefer, Don Porter, Alan Hale Jr., Melody Patterson, Rusty Hamer, Regis Toomey, Heather North, Allan Melvin, Parley Baer, Jack Bannon, Reginald Gardiner, Rick Lenz, Al Molinaro, Pat Morita, and Rich Little in a cameo as himself.[citation needed]
Cancellation
In 1970–1971, during the series' sixth season, Green Acres placed 34th out of 96 shows. Despite the respectable ratings and winning its timeslot, the network cancelled the show in the spring of 1971 after 170 episodes.[citation needed]
CBS at the time was under mounting pressure from sponsors to have more urban-themed programs on its schedule. To make room for the newer shows, nearly all of the rural-themed shows were cancelled, later known as the "rural purge," of which Pat Buttram said, "CBS cancelled everything with a tree – including Lassie."[10][11]
As a result of the sudden cancellation, there was no series finale. The final two episodes of Green Acres were backdoor pilots for two shows that were never picked up by a network. In the penultimate episode of season 6 ("Hawaiian Honeymoon"), Oliver and Lisa take a trip to Hawaii. Most of the episode focuses on hotel owner Bob Carter (Don Porter) and his daughter Pam (Pamela Franklin), thus the proposed title for the new series was simply Pam. The final episode of season six (and ultimately the Green Acres series) heavily featured Oliver's former secretary in Manhattan, Carol Rush (Elaine Joyce), with proposed spinoff titles said to be Carol or The Blonde.[12]
Episodes
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | |||
| 1 | 32 | September 15, 1965 | June 1, 1966 | |
| 2 | 30 | September 14, 1966 | April 26, 1967 | |
| 3 | 30 | September 6, 1967 | April 10, 1968 | |
| 4 | 26 | September 25, 1968 | April 2, 1969 | |
| 5 | 26 | September 27, 1969 | April 11, 1970 | |
| 6 | 26 | September 15, 1970 | April 27, 1971 | |
Revivals
The surviving members of the cast (except for Eleanor Audley, who had retired from acting 20 years earlier) were reunited for a TV movie titled Return to Green Acres. It aired on CBS on May 18, 1990. Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor also recreated their Green Acres characters for the 1993 CBS special The Legend of the Beverly Hillbillies.[1]
On November 19, 2007, original series director Richard L. Bare announced that he was working on a revival of Green Acres.[13]
Variety announced on July 22, 2012, that a Broadway-aimed musical was in development, with an initial draft of the book written by Bare. No composer, lyricist, or director was attached.[14] Bare died in 2015.
Home media
MGM Home Entertainment released the first three seasons of Green Acres on Region 1 DVD. The entire six-season run of the series is available for purchase via Amazon's video-on-demand service.[citation needed]
On July 7, 2017, Shout! Factory announced it had acquired the rights to release future seasons of the show. It subsequently released Green Acres – The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 on October 17, 2017.[15]
Shout! Factory released season 4 on November 28, 2017.[16] They released season 5 on February 27, 2018, followed by season 6 on July 10, 2018.[17][18] A DVD & Blu-ray released on Studio Distribution Services its 35th anniversary.