The smartest, strangest of the rural comedies; meta-farm life before meta was branding.
Why it matters
Episode guide
170 episodes across 6 seasons — titles, air dates, and synopses.
At a glance
New York lawyer Oliver Wendell Douglas drags glamorous Lisa to a broken-down farm where the pigs are smarter than the local officials. Eva Gabor and Eddie Albert headlined CBS's Green Acres (1965–1971; 170 episodes), Jay Sommers's surreal cousin to the Paul Henning rural-verse. Hooterville logic bent reality weekly; Arnold the pig became a civic personage. It was fish-out-of-water comedy that swam into absurdist art. Cancelled in the rural purge, immortal in reruns.
Network & studio
- CBS — broadcast network
Why watch now
The smartest dumb show of the rural sitcom boom — Gabor's charm against Albert's despair is evergreen. Absurdist television hiding in overalls.
Cultural impact
Green Acres pushed rural comedy toward surrealism and made Hooterville a state of mind. It is a key exhibit in the early-1970s 'rural purge' cancellations. Cult appreciation only grew as TV comedy rediscovered the weird.
Creators
Jay Sommers
Key cast
- Eddie Albert as Oliver Wendell Douglas
- Eva Gabor as Lisa Douglas
- Pat Buttram as Mr. Haney
- Tom Lester as Eb Dawson
Flash facts
- CBS sitcom created by Jay Sommers; aired 1965–1971 (6 seasons, 170 episodes).
- Starred Eddie Albert as Oliver and Eva Gabor as Lisa Douglas.
- Set in Hooterville, overlapping the broader rural-sitcom universe of the era.
- Famous for surreal small-town logic and Arnold Ziffel, the pig treated as a child.
- Ended amid CBS's early-1970s shift away from rural-themed hit comedies.
FAQ
Who starred in Green Acres?
Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as Oliver and Lisa Douglas.
When did it air?
On CBS from 1965 to 1971.
Is it related to The Beverly Hillbillies?
It shares the era's rural-comedy continuum and Hooterville-adjacent world-building.
What is Arnold Ziffel?
A pig character treated by townsfolk as a quasi-human family member — peak Hooterville surrealism.
Official & further reading
External sites for further reading — TV Flash is not affiliated with these networks or studios.
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