On the one hand you have the 60s precursor to Mary Tyler Moore featuring an ambitious, independent single girl whose primary motivation is her career. She is ultimately to be married, but we never see that happen and thus the series never wavers from its central premise of a career girl.

On the other hand we have the transformation of tomboy Betty Jo Bradley into housewife Betty Jo Elliot. The girl who was in love with the Hooterville Cannonball seemed heir apparent to Charley and Floyd, but she traded her railroading ambitions of the early years for marriage and motherhood.

Although the two shows runs were concurrent, their characters seemed to be from different (past vs. future!) decades.


But they did have Rosemary DeCamp in common.

Petticoat Junction is a really good show, I'd like Me-TV to lose the rights so Antenna TV can air it at a decent time. I've only seen one episode of That Girl but liked what I saw and would be interested in more.

Ann Marie was a city girl who was moving forward with the times while the Bradley sisters were country girls who embraced old fashioned values.

Both "That Girl" and "Petticoat Junction" are great shows- I have seen at least one episode of both. I particularly like the Christmas episode of "That Girl". ("Christmas and the Hard-Luck Kid". As some may know, in homage to that, the first Christmas episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was called "Christmas and the Hard-Luck Kid II". I love that episode too, by the way. TMTMS is obviously very similar to "That Girl" in premise, so it's nice to have that small connection.):) :cool:

"That Girl" by a mile. The problem was unlike the fish out of water plots of the Hillbillies and Green Acres, Petticoat Junction really didn't have a struggle or plot point to build strong scripts around. The girls were very pretty but also pretty bland; when Kate or Uncle Joe wasn't around there wasn't a lot going on. While on "That Girl" Ann Marie's struggle to be a star while still keeping Donald and her father happy gave you a lot of comedic material.

That Girl

but Petticoat Junction is not bad at times, it's just not as consistent

Bea Benedaret is what did it for me with Petticoat Junction. She was FANTASTIC as Kate Bradley. When she passed the show just withered, at least to me.

That Girl was utterly charming with cute-as-button Ann Marie, who had the most chivalrous boyfriend ever. A wonderful endearing show. Sadly, they seldom make shows of this quality anymore. (now that I remember how much I like this show it's high time to crack out those T.G. DVDs.)

I agree with another poster that yes, while the two shows ran concurrently, they represented two entirely different eras. I think TG is the one I more prefer, although I like both.

I liked both shows equally can't choose one over the other.