Petticoat Junction
The Black Box
TV Flash files “The Black Box” as hour 64 of 222 in the TV Flash guide — Petticoat Junction (1963–1970) on CBS, season 2, episode 26, aired 1965-04-06, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E26: listed hour 64 of 222 in the Petticoat Junction guide, hour 26 of 36 in season 2. It aired 1965-04-06 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “A Tale of Two Dogs” (S02E25). Next is “Bedloe's Most Fiendish Scheme (1)” (S02E27).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Kate's spring cleaning coincides with the US Air Force doing maneuvers over the valley. Part of those maneuvers includes testing out a new high powered camera. It looks like an ordinary black box with wires coming out of it. For security, it is set to explode twelve hours after any unauthorized removal from the plane. Colonel Millbank, who is flying the aircraft, accidentally loses the camera. It winds up landing on Shady Rest property. Meanwhile, General Elmer Loomis and Millbank try to narrow down where the camera may have landed. Joe finds it and thinking it might be valuable, brings to the hotel. But as often as Kate and the girls try to get rid of it, Dog keeps bringing it back. Loomis and Millbank finally make it to Hooterville. They learn from Charley and Floyd it may be at the Shady Rest. With little time to spare, they get to the hotel and start searching for the box. They mess everything up that had just been cleaned. Dog brings them the box with no time left. However, the box winds up being a dud and doesn't explode.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Black Box sit in the Petticoat Junction guide?
S02E26 is listed hour 64 of 222 — hour 26 of 36 in season 2, season 2 episode 26.
When did Petticoat Junction S02E26 air?
The Black Box aired 1965-04-06 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…