Hooterville is a fictional agricultural community that is the setting for the American situation comedies Petticoat Junction (1963–70) and Green Acres (1965–1971), two rural-oriented television series created or produced by Paul Henning for Filmways and CBS.
Description Prior to the airing of Petticoat Junction, Hooterville is mentioned in an early episode in the first season of The Beverly Hillbillies, another Paul Henning sitcom. In this episode, Jethrine Bodine, Jethro Bodine's sister (also played by Max Baer, Jr.), has a budding romance with a slick traveling salesman, Jasper, who invites her to a dance in Hooterville. Hooterville is a town, a valley, and a county, and has been described as "a place simultaneously Southern and Midwestern, but in a vague sort of way".Moore, Barbara Prime-time Television: A Concise History p. 124 Little concrete or reliable information can be gleaned from the two shows about the place, as references in individual episodes are rife with inconsistencies, contradictions, geographic impossibilities and continuity errors. The writers of the two shows often changed the details about the Hooterville community at will for the purpose of cracking a joke, and they left certain details (such as its home state) intentionally vague and unexplained.
Citizens The known citizens of Hooterville include:
Oliver Wendell Douglas and Lisa Douglas - The new residents from New York City. Eb Dawson - The Douglas' farmhand. Newt Kiley - A farmer who farms over 80 acres (32 ha). Ben Miller - An apple farmer. Mr. Haney (first name disputed, Eustace or Charlton) - The county antiques dealer and grifter. Hank Kimball - The dimwitted repetitiously conversational county agent. Sam Drucker - The proprietor of Sam Drucker's General Store. Sarah Hotchkiss Trendell - The telephone operator. Alf and Ralph Monroe - Two siblings who work as carpenters. Despite Ralph's name and status as a brother, Ralph is a woman. Only Oliver Wendell Douglas questions the bizarre contradiction. Fred Ziffel - A pig farmer. Doris "Ruthie" Ziffel - Fred's shrewish wife. Arnold Ziffel - Fred and Doris's porcine "son". Charley Pratt and Floyd Smoot - The engineer and conductor, respectively, of the local train, the Hooterville Cannonball.
Kate Bradley, her Uncle Joe Carson, and her three daughters Betty Jo, Bobbie Jo, and Billie Jo reside at the Shady Rest Hotel which is 25 miles outside of Hooterville.
The citizens of Hooterville are out of touch with the times to the point of thinking that Calvin Coolidge is still President, although they later believe the current President to be Coolidge's successor Herbert Hoover. They are also quite provincial: they have never heard of the Federal income tax or tax refunds.Zelenak, Lawrence Learning to Love Form 1040: Two Cheers for the Return-Based Mass Income Tax p. 88
Known locations Drucker's Store Sam Drucker is the proprietor of Hooterville's general store. It is the kind of old-fashioned store where the grocer retrieves many of the items from shelves behind the counter.Jolley, Harmon "What Did That Building Used To Be: 326-28 Vine Street" August 3, 2005 The Chattanoogan retrieved October 22, 2015 Drucker sells typical food and household goods, and at times sells such oddities as nail polish that's also a bathtub sealant, as well as dehydrated chickens: "Just add water and bones, and let it sit for a couple hours." He also keeps a pickle barrel full of plastic pickles.Greene, Doyle Politics and the American Television Comedy: A Critical Survey from I Love Lucy Through South Park p. 107 (2007) McFarland Customers are allowed to shop on credit, although Drucker frequently (and exasperatedly) reminds them of their outstanding bills. Drucker's Store is the closest thing Hooterville has to a social club.Slotnik, Daniel E. "Frank Cady, Kept Store on ‘Green Acres,’ Dies at 96" June 11, 2012 The New York Times retrieved October 22, 2015 The locals often come in to chit-chat, or to play checkers, or to rant and rave about community issues. And, on election day, they cast their votes at Drucker's. Exterior shots of the store show a sign that says "Sam Drucker's General Store", but everyone (including Sam Drucker) mostly calls the store either "Drucker's Store" or just "Drucker's".
Post office The Hooterville post office is located in Drucker's Store. One of Sam Drucker's quirks is that he insists on putting on his official postal worker hat and standing behind a small regulation post office grille next to the register whenever his role switches from storekeeper to postmaster. Drucker takes great pride in his association with the Post Office Department, and he's also very pleased that his patrons must come to his store to get their mail. In the 1960s, rural post offices were often located in stores, and some still exist even today. The Green Acres fourth-season episode "Old Mail Day" is about the day when Sam Drucker cleans his store and Hootervillians gather to receive the lost old mail that he finds. A lost letter from 1917 informs Fred Ziffel that he has been drafted into the army to fight in World War I.Rodell, Chris Use All the Crayons!: The Colorful Guide to Simple Human Happiness p. 36 There is no Rural Free Delivery (RFD) in Hooterville; when new resident Oliver Douglas petitions his Congressman for it to be initiated, Drucker is shocked to learn that an obscure (and fictitious) postal regulation requires him to carry the entire route himself— by bicycle. (This situation is, obviously, soon corrected.) In the 1990 made-for-television film Return to Green Acres, actor Frank Cady in character as Sam Drucker states that the Hooterville ZIP Code is 40516½; the real-life ZIP codes 40516 and 40517 are used by the city of Lexington, Kentucky.
Hooterville Volunteer Fire Department The volunteer fire department is run by Fire Chief "Uncle Joe" Carson. The firefighters include Joe, Sam Drucker, Ralph and Alf Monroe, Mr. Haney and an assortment of other Hootervillians. Joe is also the conductor of the Hooterville Volunteer Fire Department Band, which is a brass ensemble marching band that includes Charley Pratt (trumpet), Floyd Smoot (tuba), Ben Miller (French horn), Grandpa Miller (cymbals), and Sam Drucker (bass drum).Brooks, Marla The American Family on Television: A Chronology of 122 Shows, 1948–2004 p. 69 Mcfarland & Co Inc Pub (March 2005) The only song the band ever plays is "Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight", and no matter how many times they rehearse it, they always play the song at half-speed and somewhat off-key. In the Green Acres episode "I Didn't Raise My Husband to be a Fireman", Oliver Douglas learns that a person has to be able to play an instrument in order to join the fire department. Joe Carson says this is because Hooterville has more parades than fires. Indeed, the Fire Department Band is seen more often on the shows than actual fire emergencies. The band actually pre-dates the fire department; it was used in fundraisers to help establish the department.
Tourist attractions and events The local tourist attractions and events seen and referred to on Petticoat Junction and Green Acres give a (sometimes humorous) picture of old-fashioned small-town life:
Newt Kiley's two-headed rooster (before it died) Mr. Haney's monkey racing track The Shady Rest Hotel's annual Horseshoe Tournament Kate Bradley's annual Shady Rest Jamboree The Hooterville Centennial Celebration (1968) Old Mail Day at Drucker's Store The Spring Festival The annual Hooterville Founders' Day Celebration The Hooterville County Fair
Appearances Petticoat Junction
Petticoat Junction (1963–1970) is based on the Burris Hotel, a real hotel that existed in Eldon, Missouri.Holston, Noel "Hooterville's Head Hillbilly Henning Put Rural Life On A Television Pedestal" August 3, 1986 Orlando Sentinel retrieved October 13, 2015 Paul Henning, the producer and creator of the show, was married to the granddaughter of the owner of the hotel and often visited. The Burris hotel became the "Shady Rest Hotel" on Petticoat Junction. The Shady Rest is located down the tracks from "downtown" Hooterville, just inside the Hooterville county line. In one episode, it is revealed that the Shady Rest was built right on the county line between Hooterville county and Pixley county. The situation is solved when the Hooterville Cannonball tows the hotel several feet until it is fully within the Hooterville boundary. The hotel is run by widow Kate Bradley (played by Bea Benaderet) and her lazy-but-lovable uncle, Uncle Joe Carson (Edgar Buchanan). Kate has three daughters, "boy crazy" Billie Jo (Jeannine Riley, 1963–1965; Gunilla Hutton, 1965–1966; Meredith MacRae, 1967–1970), sexy bookworm Bobbie Jo (Pat Woodell, 1963–1965; Lori Saunders, 1965–1970), and "tomboy" Betty Jo (Linda Kaye Henning, 1963–1970). From 1968 to 1970, actress June Lockhart played Dr. Janet Craig, whose office was behind the register desk of the Shady Rest.
Green Acres
Green Acres (1965–1971) is about a wealthy New York City couple, lawyer Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert) and his diamond-clad wife, Lisa (Eva Gabor), who give up their Park Avenue penthouse for a run-down farm, "The Old Haney Place". In Green Acres Hooterville is portrayed as a much more wacky, surreal place than it is in Petticoat Junction. Though the shows share some characters, the humor in Green Acres is often far broader. The major overlap between the two shows is shopkeeper–postman–newsman Sam Drucker. In this series, the town is said to be named after Horace Hooter, who founded the town in 1868. According to Green Acres, Hooterville is in "the kangaroo state". When Oliver visits the governor, the governor gives him a plushie kangaroo as state memorabilia. Lisa consistently mispronounces the name of the town as "Hootersville". A running gag is that Hooterville is so remote that the only way to get there is by parachute. However, a plot hole shows that Hooterville is connected on a railroad and has a nearby airport in Pixley.
Population and elevation inconsistencies On the series Petticoat Junction, Hooterville appears to be a fairly large town, able to support a high school and several other institutions. In 1963, the county has a population of around 3,000 citizens. And the sign at the Hooterville railroad station says that the town is situated at an elevation of . However, on Green Acres, the population of Hooterville is said to be much smaller and the elevation much lower. In the episode "The Youth Center", general store owner Sam Drucker says that a sign showing the population as 48 and the elevation as is incorrect since two young people recently moved away and the elevation is down to . When Oliver Douglas asks him how the elevation could change, Sam explains that "Hooterville is subject to sinking spells." Oliver refers to Hooterville as being "2 inches above sea level" in the Green Acres episode "Lisa's Jam Session".
Location of Hooterville