Petticoat Junction
A Matter of Communication
TV Flash files “A Matter of Communication” as hour 55 of 222 in the TV Flash guide — Petticoat Junction (1963–1970) on CBS, season 2, episode 17, aired 1965-02-02, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E17: listed hour 55 of 222 in the Petticoat Junction guide, hour 17 of 36 in season 2. It aired 1965-02-02 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Billie Jo's First Job” (S02E16). Next is “Kate Bradley, Girl Volunteer” (S02E18).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
The girls are upset that they don't have a telephone at the hotel. They can't communicate with their friends and are social outcasts. Kate says it would cost $800 for the telephone company to install two miles of line just to get to the hotel. The girls have to get their calls at Drucker's Store and it's starting to disrupt his business. Then Floyd and Charley have to go back and forth between the store and the hotel with the messages. Sam refuses to take any more calls for them. Uncle Joe decides to start his own telephone company. He plans on using the barbed wire fencing surrounding all the local farms as the primary communication lines. A bunch of the local men come to the hotel to play poker. Instead, Joe gives them a sales pitch about his phone company. Joe plans to tap illegally into the Hooterville Telephone Company's line, but Sam doesn't let him. Joe comes up with a really complicated alternative. It's not long before the whole plan falls apart.
Viewer FAQ
Where does A Matter of Communication sit in the Petticoat Junction guide?
S02E17 is listed hour 55 of 222 — hour 17 of 36 in season 2, season 2 episode 17.
When did Petticoat Junction S02E17 air?
A Matter of Communication aired 1965-02-02 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…