Petticoat Junction - Season 1, Episode 06 (1963) -
Petticoat Junction is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from September 1963 to April 1970.[2] The series takes place at the Shady Rest Hotel, which is run by Kate Bradley; her three daughters Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo, and Betty Jo; and her uncle Joe Carson. The series is one of three interrelated shows about rural characters produced by Paul Henning. Petticoat Junction was created upon the success of Henning's previous rural/urban-themed sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971). The success of Petticoat Junction led to a spin-off, Green Acres (1965–1971). Petticoat Junction was produced by Filmways, Inc.
Premise[edit]
The show centers on the goings-on at the rural Shady Rest Hotel. Widowed Kate Bradley (Bea Benaderet) is the proprietress. Her lazy but lovable Uncle Joe Carson (Edgar Buchanan) supposedly helps her in the day-to-day running of the hotel, while she serves as a mediator in the various minor crises that befall her three beautiful daughters: redhead Betty Jo (Linda Kaye Henning); brunette Bobbie Jo (first Pat Woodell, later Lori Saunders); and blonde Billie Jo (first Jeannine Riley, then Gunilla Hutton, and finally Meredith MacRae). Uncle Joe, when he is not idling in his favorite porch chair, frequently comes up with half-baked get-rich-quick schemes and ill-conceived hotel promotions which end up with him making a fool of himself.
Early on, much of the show also focuses on the Hooterville Cannonball, an 1890s vintage steam-driven train run more like a taxi service by engineer Charley Pratt (Smiley Burnette) and fireman/railway conductor Floyd Smoot (Rufe Davis). It was not uncommon for the Cannonball to make an unscheduled stop for the crew to go fishing, or to pick fruit for Kate's apple butter and pies. The single-tracked Hooterville to Pixley spur line was cut off from the rest of the railroad 20 years before the start of the show by the demolition of a trestle. Charlie and Floyd are alternately depicted as retired employees of the railroad receiving pensions and salaried railroad workers.
Many plots involve railroad executive Homer Bedloe's futile attempts to cease operation and scrap the Hooterville Cannonball. Occasionally, youngest daughter Betty Jo can be found with her hand on the Cannonball's throttle; running the train is one of her favorite pastimes, as she is something of a tomboy with an interest in mechanics.
Trips on the Cannonball usually include a stop in Hooterville at Drucker's Store run by Sam Drucker (Frank Cady). Drucker's is the local hub, where menfolk come to play checkers and chat. Sam Drucker is the postmaster and his telephone is a lifeline for the Bradleys, Uncle Joe, and others.
Setting[edit]
The Shady Rest Hotel is located at a water stop along the isolated branch line of the C. & F.W. Railroad. Due to a trestle demolition many years ago, the line now is entirely unconnected to any other railroad; it runs between the rural farm community of Hooterville and the small town of Pixley. Each of these towns is about 25 miles (40 km) away from the hotel, which is located roughly at the midpoint of the line. Kate Bradley says that her stubborn grandfather built the hotel there because that was where the lumber fell off the train. The town of Pixley, at one end of the Cannonball's route, was named for Pixley, California.[citation needed] A number of location shots were filmed in the real Pixley.[citation needed] The exact location of Hooterville is never mentioned on Petticoat Junction or Green Acres. Indeed, clues given to the location of Hooterville often conflict with each other, but nearby mentions of towns and counties place it in Southwest Missouri.[3]
The Shady Rest is an old-fashioned, Victorian-style hotel, accessible primarily by train (and a poorly-maintained fire road), where guests share bathing facilities and eat together with the family at a large dining-room table. Kate Bradley cooks sumptuous meals on a wood-burning stove, and her specialty is chicken 'n' dumplings. Meals were prepared for the show by property master Vince Vecchio. In a 1966 interview, Bea Benaderet said, "I suspect that Vince is better at cooking things like [my] mother used to than anybody's mother ever was."[4]
Regarding the show's title, Petticoat Junction, the hotel is located at a water stop, not a junction (where two or more railroad lines meet).[5] The train stop is nicknamed "petticoat junction" because the Bradley sisters often skinny dip in the railway's water tower and leave their petticoats draped over the side.[6] The opening titles of the series show their petticoats hanging on the tower[7] while they are swimming offscreen.[8][9]
