Green Acres Complete Series 10/17/17 (1 Viewer)

[LeoA]

Too bad, I think I'll just break down and buy the complete series at my local Wal-Mart.

How much is Amazon giving for trade-in these days for seasons 1-3, I wonder?

 

[BobO'Link]

Too bad, I think I'll just break down and buy the complete series at my local Wal-Mart.

How much is Amazon giving for trade-in these days for seasons 1-3, I wonder?

S1 - new - $.69
S2 - new - Not currently buying
S3 - new - $1.45

If you managed to get in early enough (pretty much right after the complete series set started shipping) they were purchasing the S1-S3 "set" for ~$30. Currently: not buying.

Walmart is currently selling it for $69.96 (Amazon's price matching), which is ~$15 more than just picking up S4-S6 separately. As a bonus, you get the nice box and all seasons in matching keep-cases.

After discovering my grandson thinks it's the funniest series since I Love Lucy I just gifted him my old S1-S3 sets.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Just completed GREEN ACRES: THE COMPLETE SERIES.

Holy cow, I don't know what the hell happened with the final two episodes of the series. They completely went off-the-track and became something unrecognizable. Lisa and Oliver became mere cameos and the rest of the cast were obsolete.

It's as if the show's producers knew the end had come and they just said, "F-IT!"

Well, at least I am done.

 

[bmasters9]

After discovering my grandson thinks it's the funniest series since I Love Lucy I just gifted him my old S1-S3 sets.

Good for you! I did similar with my nephew Eli regarding I Love Lucy, except that I gave him my older copies of the first- and second-season releases because I didn't really think it was funny anymore. He, however, has very much enjoyed it ever since then, and that's why I got him the remainder of it over time (like I said before-- 3 and 4 as a Christmas present [a couple of years ago, IINM], 5 for a surprise on a visit he made to me, and 6 and the LDCH for his birthday last year, IIRC).

 

[LeoA]

Those were both examples of a pilot within an already established series. Never liked either episode as well, but never knew they were the last two episodes until I checked just now.

I think the only one of these experiments I've enjoyed for any series was the Mister Ed one with William Bendix. Too bad it wasn't picked up, since the episode was pretty good I thought.

 

[tlc38tlc38]

GA is in my top 10 shows of all-time. I preordered this set from Shout! Factory. I've been slowly enjoying it.

I actually think seasons 4-6 are the stronger seasons because the cast just clicked and had fun.

 

[MartinP.]

Just completed GREEN ACRES: THE COMPLETE SERIES.

Holy cow, I don't know what the hell happened with the final two episodes of the series. They completely went off-the-track and became something unrecognizable. Lisa and Oliver became mere cameos and the rest of the cast were obsolete.

It's as if the show's producers knew the end had come and they just said, "F-IT!"

Well, at least I am done.

As LeoA also mentions, the last two episodes aired were pilots. I'm sure at some point the producers knew Green Acres wasn't coming back, so Jay Sommers was trying to get something else going. The HOOTERVILLE HANDBOOK book doesn't say much about this, but in the episode synopsis section for the "Hawaiian Honeymoon" program it says, "This episode, which hardly has anything to do with 'Green Acres', was a pilot for another series that Jay Sommers was pitching to CBS." It aired 3-16-71.

The last program under the Green Acres title was "The Ex-Secretary". The book says also that "This was a pilot for a possible series." It aired a full six weeks after the next to last episode, on 4-27-71.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Thanks for that explanation.

I don't know what the hell they were pitching, but both episodes sucked.

However, it was a lot of fun watching this set. Certainly one of the best-written comedy shows ever! It's kind of like watching a Marx Brothers movie with its constant play on words.

 

[Rob W]

The editing rhythms of the show were quite unique as well, with Eddie Albert's lines frequently cut off in mid-sentence as another character injects some absurdity to further complicate the situations.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

The editing rhythms of the show were quite unique as well, with Eddie Albert's lines frequently cut off in mid-sentance as another character injects some absurdity to further complicate the situations.

Very well said. The timing was remarkable. The wordplay and absurdities were priceless -- especially with the help of Lisa's broken English --- and they managed to keep it going for six seasons.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Ugh, those backdoor pilots.

How many times did those work, anyway? Andy from Danny? The Lear shows, maybe?

Meanwhile, shows like The Facts of Life and Married With Children are littered with them. Even The Goldbergs just had one snuck in a couple weeks back, though it was a different scenario than the traditional backdoor pilot.

 

[LeoA]

I don't think the Andy Griffith appearance on Make Room for Daddy was actually an example of this, was it?

It's my perhaps mistaken impression that it was meant just as a one-off episode with a big guest star like the series had several of through the years, but that the tremendous reception it received planted the idea to take the idea and run with it as a series of its own.

If it is a backdoor pilot (I forgot about that term with my earlier post), I liked this one, too.

 

[BobO'Link]

^That's what I, too, thought Leo.

Even with the Lear shows, if memory serves correctly, the characters had been introduced in one of the series, got a good response, and, usually after a few more appearances, were then given that back-door-pilot episode. Nothing as egregious as those last 2 episodes of Green Acres.

 

[Rob W]

I really think Eddie Albert was an underappreciated ingredient of the series. One of the things that made Oliver Douglas so great was that he appeared to have no sense of humor whatsoever, and after a while one suspected the characters got a lot of pleasure just provoking the old grouch. And God bless an old pro like Albert, who never, ever broke character and 'tried' to be funny the way Leslie Nielsen did after he was so successful playing straight in Airplane! and The Naked Gun films.

 

[Malcolm R]

One of the things that made Oliver Douglas so great was that he appeared to have no sense of humor whatsoever

I've often wondered if he was like this in real life? I can't imagine trying to keep it together on the set when trying to perform next to Mr. Haney or the Monroe Brothers. They'd probably have to fire me, as they'd never get any usable footage.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Ugh, those backdoor pilots.

How many times did those work, anyway? Andy from Danny? The Lear shows, maybe?

Meanwhile, shows like The Facts of Life and Married With Children are littered with them. Even The Goldbergs just had one snuck in a couple weeks back, though it was a different scenario than the traditional backdoor pilot.

In my opinion, that was the absolute worst episode of THE GOLDBERGS! UGH!!!! And, it ended the first half of the season, to top it off!

CHEERS!

 

[Malcolm R]

Backdoor pilots are never very good. I've never quite understood why they try it, especially if it involves all new characters.

I remember The Golden Girls tried this with the final episode of Season 2 with "Empty Nests" which established the characters as neighbors in Miami, but didn't seem to indicate any GG characters would be regulars. A couple years later, they did develop the successful series Empty Nest, but it didn't look anything like the backdoor pilot episode and the only actor to appear in both was David Leisure (as different characters).

Supernatural has tried this twice. The first was Bloodlines, which featured no characters from the original series and went nowhere. The second was the recent Wayward Sisters, which included characters already established from a handful of prior episodes, and will (likely) debut this fall on CW as a new series.

 

[rmw650]

The last two episodes of the series were absolutely the worst I have ever seen on any show, let alone Green Acres as I was wondering myself what the hell has this got to do with Green Acres anyways?!

 

[darkrock17]

The last two episodes of the series were absolutely the worst I have ever seen on any show, let alone Green Acres as I was wondering myself what the hell has this got to do with Green Acres anyways?!

Oliver and Lisa are the only two characters to appear in those final two episodes. In Hawaiian Honeymoon, Lisa manages to get Oliver to take her on a 5th honeymoon to the hotel in Hawaii that would of set up that series. Where as in the last episode The Ex-Secretary they only show up in the very beginning when Oliver wants the name of the jeweler who can fix his watch, so he calls an ex-secretary to ask if she remembered the man's name. After Oliver calls her, that's the end of The Douglas's and rest of Hooterville until they mostly all returned in 1990 for the reunion TV movie.

 

[rmw650]

I still think hey could have gone an extra season or two with these rural shows, but CBS purged them all in one year.