Petticoat Junction
The Ladybugs
TV Flash files “The Ladybugs” as hour 27 of 222 in the TV Flash guide — Petticoat Junction (1963–1970) on CBS, season 1, episode 27, aired 1964-03-24, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E27: listed hour 27 of 222 in the Petticoat Junction guide, hour 27 of 38 in season 1. It aired 1964-03-24 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Kate and the Manpower Problem” (S01E26). Next is “The Hooterville Flivverball” (S01E28).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Beatlemania has hit Hooterville by storm. Uncle Joe recruits Billy, Bobbie, and Betty Joe along with their friend Sally Ragsdale to form their own band called the Ladybugs. Colonel Partridge, a booking agent, comes to the Shady Rest to see the girls in action. Partridge likes what he hears and wants to book the girls. Sally's father, Sheriff Ragsdale, comes by and says he wants his daughter to finish school and not tour the country. Uncle Joe thinks he has a way to save the group and dresses up as a Ladybug.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Ladybugs sit in the Petticoat Junction guide?
S01E27 is listed hour 27 of 222 — hour 27 of 38 in season 1, season 1 episode 27.
When did Petticoat Junction S01E27 air?
The Ladybugs aired 1964-03-24 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
Kate, the Shady Rest, and the Cannonball in a Benaderet-era hour is the porch contract. Uncle Joe is the layabout comic engine.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Petticoat Junction is the porch at the center of Paul Henning's rural map: Bea Benaderet's Kate running the Shady Rest, three daughters, Uncle Joe, and the Hooterville Cannonball. Less fish-out-of-water than hometown sitcom — a hotel as social club. Benaderet's warmth is the connective tissue that made Hillbillies and Green Acres feel like one county.
The porch is the network night. Paul Henning's *Petticoat Junction* (CBS, 1963–1970) sits at the center of the rural map: Bea Benaderet's Kate running the Shady Rest, three daughters, Uncle Joe, and the Hooterville Cannonball. Seven seasons of hometown sitcom rather than fish-out-of-water — a hotel as social club. Edgar Buchanan's Uncle Joe and Linda Kaye Henning's Betty Jo kept the Cannonball on schedule. Gunilla Hutton's Billie Jo among the daughters. Soft rural farce with crossover DNA. On the palate: porch,…
Filed against
- Bea Benaderet as Kate Bradley
Bea Benaderet’s Blanche Morton needled The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show as next-door vaudeville, then The Flintstones’ Wilma and Petticoat Junction’s Kate Bradley made her 1950s–60s catalog warmth a three-stop map. TV Flash files…
- Edgar Buchanan as Uncle Joe Carson
Edgar Buchanan’s Red Connors kept Hopalong Cassidy in tobacco-and-advice weather — 1950s catalog kids’-western merch machine, then Petticoat Junction stretching the drawl into Uncle Joe on a hotel porch. TV Flash files him as the sidekick…
- Linda Kaye Henning as Betty Jo Bradley
Linda Kaye Henning kept the Shady Rest humming as Betty Jo Bradley on Petticoat Junction — one of three daughters on Paul Henning’s rural porch map, Hooterville Cannonball included. Hometown sitcom, not fish-out-of-water panic. TV Flash…
- Gunilla Hutton as Billie Jo Bradley
Gunilla Hutton played Billie Jo Bradley on Petticoat Junction — Paul Henning's rural porch, Bea Benaderet's Kate at the Shady Rest, three daughters, Uncle Joe, the Hooterville Cannonball. Hometown sitcom, hotel as social club. TV Flash…