Petticoat Junction
For the Birds
TV Flash files “For the Birds” as hour 58 of 222 in the TV Flash guide — Petticoat Junction (1963–1970) on CBS, season 2, episode 20, aired 1965-02-23, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E20: listed hour 58 of 222 in the Petticoat Junction guide, hour 20 of 36 in season 2. It aired 1965-02-23 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Hooterville Crime Wave” (S02E19). Next is “Modern Merchandising” (S02E21).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Kate wants to know why the Cannonball has temporarily ceased operations. Kate and Uncle Joe get the Drucker's store where the Cannonball is stopped. The reason is a bird has built a nest on top of the smokestack and has laid five eggs. Charley and Floyd refuse to move the train until the eggs have hatched. They figure it will be two weeks before they hatch. When Homer Bedloe hears of this news, he is all in support of what Charley and Floyd are doing. He even puts an article in the paper about it. But he has a reason he wants to help the birds. If the train doesn't run for two weeks, he can shut it down permanently. Kate and the girls see the article in the paper. Homer shows up at the hotel and Kate is suspicious of his motives. Billie Jo and Betty Jo over hear Homer's plan and tell Kate. Kate comes up with a plan to save both the Cannonball and the birds.
Viewer FAQ
Where does For the Birds sit in the Petticoat Junction guide?
S02E20 is listed hour 58 of 222 — hour 20 of 36 in season 2, season 2 episode 20.
When did Petticoat Junction S02E20 air?
For the Birds aired 1965-02-23 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…