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Eddie Albert was excited for the world to see the ''unique and bizarre'' premiere of Green Acres
Albert said there were "enough situations to carry the show for 40 years."
When a big movie star gives a starring television role a chance, you'd think, because of their status, it would be just another credit added to their impressive resume. Yet, Eddie Albert couldn't hold back his excitement for being a part of a new comedy series.
Green Acres premiered on September 15, 1965, as a direct tie-in with another Paul Henning show, Petticoat Junction. It revolves around a married couple, Oliver (Eddie Albert) and Lisa Douglas (Eva Gabor), who adjust to farm life in Hooterville after living luxuriously in New York.
"I expect to appear in at least one scene on 'Petticoat Junction' each week. Bea Benaderet, Edgar Buchanan, and others will work on my show, and I will work on theirs. Edgar and Eva make quite a combination," Albert said in an interview with New York Times News Service in 1965.
Eddie Albert couldn't wait for viewers to watch the show, praising it throughout the interview.
"It's not 'King Lear,' but I think it'll be entertaining," he said. "Eva Gabor plays my wife, and she is sensational. Wait 'till you see Eva in negligee and a $150,000 square-cut necklace feeding pigs with one hand and flipping pancakes with the other."
The actor added, "It will be in living, vibrating color — unique and bizarre. There will be enough situations to carry the show [for] 40 years, although it might pall on you by then."
Both characters shared similarities with each actor, which is why they portrayed the roles perfectly. Albert once said his agent pitched him the part by describing it as "city slicker comes to the country to escape the aggravations of city living," The actor believed that defined him in a nutshell. Eva Gabor was known for being glamorous and even wore most of her own luxury clothing while filming.
Green Acres could've seen more than six seasons if it weren't for the "rural purge" in the early '70s, which was the massive cancellation of popular rural comedies.
However, you can still catch Green Acres on MeTV, giving faithful viewers their dose of the hilarious rural comedy and reminding them why Albert was excited to be a part of the production.
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Albert's agent conveyed only half of it: that the degree of aggravation Oliver Douglas is surrounded by in Hooterville dwarfs everything he experienced in the big city, with the greatest irony being for all Lisa's stated desire to stay in New York, it's she who's perfectly acclimated to life in Hooterville because she's naturally and perfectly in synch with the utter illogic of the place. She accepts it all without hestation or question. They are made for each other.
THAT'S what made the show work.
[ with obviously too much time on my hands ]
Butch in The Little Rascals Movie ?
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No the child on the left was not Sam Saletta, (Butch: The Little Rascals/ 1994 ).
It was, Rossie Harris, (Joey: Airplane!/ 1980).