Petticoat Junction
Kate Bradley, Girl Volunteer
TV Flash files “Kate Bradley, Girl Volunteer” as hour 56 of 222 in the TV Flash guide — Petticoat Junction (1963–1970) on CBS, season 2, episode 18, aired 1965-02-09, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E18: listed hour 56 of 222 in the Petticoat Junction guide, hour 18 of 36 in season 2. It aired 1965-02-09 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “A Matter of Communication” (S02E17). Next is “Hooterville Crime Wave” (S02E19).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Volunteer fire chief Uncle Joe has designed a new nighttime alarm system. When a valley resident sets off a skyrocket in the event of a fire, a volunteer will fire off a cannon. Joe has done this to compete with the Crabwell Corners Volunteer Fire Department. But there soon is opposition to Joe's plan because, even though the canon fires blanks, things still get damaged. A fire breaks out on the Cannonball. Because Joe has all the fire equipment at the Shady Rest, Sam has to call Crabwell Corners. Joe challenges Bink Sharfells, Crabwell Corners Fire Chief, to see which volunteer fire department is the best. When none of Hooterville's firefighters want to accept the challenge, it looks like Joe will lose by default. Joe goes to sell his wooden Indian to pay off Bink. Kate and the girls offer to stand in for the firefighters. Despite Hooterville not starting out too well, the contest winds up a tie. Joe suggests a game of checkers to break the tie. Bink loses the game to Dog.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Kate Bradley, Girl Volunteer sit in the Petticoat Junction guide?
S02E18 is listed hour 56 of 222 — hour 18 of 36 in season 2, season 2 episode 18.
When did Petticoat Junction S02E18 air?
Kate Bradley, Girl Volunteer aired 1965-02-09 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…