Petticoat Junction
Billie Jo's First Job
TV Flash files “Billie Jo's First Job” as hour 54 of 222 in the TV Flash guide — Petticoat Junction (1963–1970) on CBS, season 2, episode 16, aired 1965-01-26, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E16: listed hour 54 of 222 in the Petticoat Junction guide, hour 16 of 36 in season 2. It aired 1965-01-26 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “There's No Flame Like an Old Flame” (S02E15). Next is “A Matter of Communication” (S02E17).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Billie Jo wins a contest at secretarial school and is offered her first job. She will be private secretary to author Oliver Fenton. World traveling Fenton is coming to Hooterville because his next book is based in a small town. He has rented one of the houses in town. Selma tells Kate that Fenton writes "those kind of books". After reading one of Fenton's books, Kate tells Billie Jo that she can't work for him. Uncle Joe tells Kate she has to trust Billie Jo. When Billie Jo meets Fenton, she finds him to be a graying old man. She now knows that her mother's worries are ill-founded. Joe now tells Kate he's worried about Billie Jo. Kate sends some spies to check on her. Over the next several days Billie Jo decides to have a little fun and test just how much her mother does truly trust her. Kate goes to confront Fenton and realizes Billie Jo was playing games with her. Kate and Oliver have dinner together and he asks her about her life. Kate gets Oliver's latest book and it's a romantic story based on her.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Billie Jo's First Job sit in the Petticoat Junction guide?
S02E16 is listed hour 54 of 222 — hour 16 of 36 in season 2, season 2 episode 16.
When did Petticoat Junction S02E16 air?
Billie Jo's First Job aired 1965-01-26 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…