The oddly beloved comedy series ‘Green Acres’, starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor, ran an impressive six seasons on CBS, from 1965-1971. There are many fans of the show who point to its occasional forays into surrealist humor as evidence that a deeper vein of television comedy was being explored here, one that might not be evident to the casual (i.e. stupid) viewer. Even Wikipedia refers to it as an ‘absurdist sitcom’, making it sound like it was developed and created by Samuel Beckett. In fact, it was the brainchild of the then-wildly successful Paul Henning and Jay Sommers, the latter of whom actually began the whole thing by writing a summer replacement show in 1950 called ‘Granby’s Green Acres’. Henning had two major hits on the network–‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ and “Petticoat Junction’–and allowed the story lines of each to cross, giving further evidence of a rich, intricate, layered story-telling methodology.

I consumed plenty of sit-coms in my youth, most in syndication, and I enjoyed all of the above Henning shows, though I was frequently puzzled by motivational issues. For instance, why did Eddie Albert buy such a crappy little cabin when they moved to the country, instead of a gentleman’s farm which would have far better suited them and which they clearly could have afforded? Why did they give up their deluxe, mid-century penthouse? Couldn’t they have kept them both? My biggest issue was Eva Gabor. Why did she stay with him??? It can’t simply have been the money–Gabor was a dish-and-a-half and would have been a hot commodity on the Park Avenue second-wives club circuit. The opening theme is by Vic Mizzy (God how I love that name) and sets up the action with admirable clarity and precision. It’s notable for being one of the only (maybe the only?) TV theme sung by the stars themselves. Below I’ve posted ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ credit sequence, another accomplished example of back-story telling intended to set-up the idiotic premise for the audience. There’s a thirty-second lead- in before the sequence starts–plenty of time for a quick nap before delving into the world of Paul Henning and the Jim Aubury era of crap-on-CBS.