Comments on Season 1

[ontheroof]

I've been trying to find Petticoat Junction on DVD in Canada for ages, and yesterday I finally found a package with 7 season one episodes aloing with 6 Dick Van Dyke episodes -- all for only $7.

The DVDs are through Platinum Entertainment (or something like that) and are missing the original theme music. I did notice though that some of the theme music made it though right when the first scene of each episode was starting -- and then instumental bits of the theme were played as background music at times during the episodes.

It was really great to see the B&W episodes which I have not seen since I saw them rerun when I was a kid in the 1970s. In fact, I was not even sure I had ever seen the B&W episodes, but once I started watching "Kate's Recipie...", the memories started coming back.

Since the colour episodes have been airing on Prime in Canada over the past few years, I've recently seen most colour episodes a couple of times or more -- which made some of the differences between the earlier and later episodes even more obvious.

I was really struck by how much older the first Billie Jo seemed; it was quite noticable that she acted much older than the other girls, and the character was much more mature than it was as played by Gunilla Hutton and even as played by Meredith MacRae (who should have been playing the character as seven years older than Jeannine Riley). Also, first season Billie was written as a bit of an unconscionable man-stealer. She didn't care of her sister was interested in a guy; if there was a man nearby, Billie went after him. Everyone just seemed to smile and say, "That's Billie Jo." The lesson seemed to be that all's fair in love -- even when you are stealing your sister's man. Of course in the colour episodes, Betty Jo stole Steve right out from under Billie, so I guess she finally got her comeuppance.

Bobbie Jo also seemed to regress through the years. She was really played as a bookworm in the first season episodes -- and she actually seemed fairly smart, if naive. In the later years, even though Bobbie was often seen with a book, her actions were anything but intelligent. I do like Lori Saunders better than the Pat Woodell (who was good, too, and also played the role as more mature than Lori), but the actual character of Bobbie Jo seems better to me in these first season episodes.

Kate seemed more old-fashioned in the first season. It appears that they made a move to modernize her a bit in the colour episodes -- both in her appearance and in her behavior. Her clothes and hair are quite farm-ish in the first season, and became a bit more sophisticated later on. In the seven first season episodes I watched, she was continually obsessed with finding husbands for the girls. This storyline was used in the colour episodes, too, but in a less desperate-seeming way.

When I first watched the syndicated run of PJ as a kid, I was so confused by all the changing actresses. By the time June Lockhart arrived, I had no idea what was going on. I remember thinking, "Kate Bradley is a doctor now?" Because things changed so frequently, I also wondered if a different actress was playing Betty Jo when Linda Kaye's billing changed to Linda Kaye Henning. It was all too much for my 7-year-old brain.

Those are my thoughts on some of the differences through the years. Anyone else agree or disagree, or have anything to add?

[Mr. Television]

No, I think that was a pretty good revue. I really haven't seen many episodes of Petticoat Junction since the 70's and I wish it would be rerunned again including all the black and white shows. I was more of a Beverly Hillbillies fan but I did like quite a lot of all the rural sitcoms of that time.