Green Acres

Radio origins

Adaptation to television

Premise

Theme song

Characters

Main characters

• Oliver Wendell Douglas - Named for Oliver Wendell Holmes, he is an attorney who makes the rash decision to leave his successful law practice and pursue his lifelong dream of being a farmer, despite having no real-world knowledge or experience, as evidenced by him doing farm chores while wearing a three-piece suit. Much of the humor throughout the series derives from Oliver's striving toward success and happiness in an absurd situation, despite the rural citizenry, his high-maintenance wife, and his affluent mother, who ridicules him for his agricultural pipedreams in the episode "The Wedding Anniversary." Oliver is also subjected to ribbing by the Hootervillians when he launches into starry-eyed monologues about "the American farmer"—replete with a fife playing "Yankee Doodle" in the background. Oliver drives a Lincoln Continental convertible, a stark contrast to the often decrepit vintage vehicles generally shown. In later seasons, the Lincoln is replaced by a Mercury Marquis convertible.
• Lisa Douglas - Lisa and Oliver are both veterans of World War II. In "Wings Over Hooterville," she recalls how they met. According to Lisa, she was a sergeant in the Hungarian underground, and he was a United States Army Air Forces flier, forced to bail out of his plane. However, she gives several other fanciful versions of how they met in subsequent episodes. In the episode, "A Royal Love Story," he is a tourist in Paris, and she is a waitress/tour guide, living with her father, the deposed King of Hungary. Pampered by her wealthy family, her skewed world view and domestic ignorance provide fertile ground for recurring gags. Instead of washing dishes, Lisa sometimes tosses them out the kitchen window. In the episode, "Alf and Ralph Break Up," Lisa admits she has no cooking abilities and that her only talent is Zsa Zsa Gabor impersonations.

Supporting characters

• Mr. Eustace Haney - The oily, dishonest local salesman and grifter who originally sold Oliver the Green Acres Farm. In the early episodes, Haney repeatedly profits from Oliver by removing all the farm's basic fittings and equipment, and selling or renting them back to Oliver at wildly inflated prices. In succeeding episodes, Haney invariably arrives on cue every time Oliver needs an item or service, typically accompanied by a custom-made sign for each occasion, painted on a green pull-down window shade. Pat Buttram later revealed that Haney's character was inspired by Elvis Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker.
• Eb Dawson - The amiable, somewhat naïve, sarcastic young farmhand to the Douglases. He habitually addresses the Douglases as "Dad" and "Mom", much to Oliver's annoyance.
• Fred Ziffel and Doris Ziffel - Fred and Doris are the Douglases' childless elderly neighbors. They have a pig named Arnold, whom they treat as their son. Fred is a cantankerous old-fashioned farmer who was born during the Grover Cleveland administration. Everything about him is "no-nonsense", except for the fact that his "son" Arnold is a pig.
• Arnold Ziffel - Arnold is a pig whom the Ziffels treat as a son, understands English, lives indoors, and is pampered. Everyone understands Arnold when he grunts, as if he were speaking English, except Oliver. He is an avid TV watcher and a Western fan, attends the local grade school, and signs his own name on paper. Only Oliver believes Arnold is just livestock, although he frequently slips and begins treating him as a boy. Arnold makes regular appearances throughout the series, often visiting the Douglas home to watch their TV.
• Alf and Ralph Monroe - Alf and his "brother" Ralph are two quarrelsome carpenters. In the episode that introduces them, Alf confesses that Ralph is actually his sister and explains they would not get jobs if people knew that she is a woman. The Monroes rarely finish projects and those that they do complete are disasters such as the Douglases' bedroom closet's sliding door that is always falling down, their unsuccessful attempts to secure the doorknob to the front door, etc. In one episode after accidentally sawing Sam Drucker's telephone line at the general store, they splice it back together, although backwards, causing Drucker to listen at the mouthpiece and talk into the receiver. Melton left in 1970 to do Make Room For Granddaddy, so the writers developed an occasional subplot that involved sister Ralph's attempts to win the affections of "Hanky" Kimball or some other hapless Hooterville bachelor. Alf later returns for Ralph's failed wedding to Kimball.
• Sam Drucker - A shopkeeper who is a regular character in both Petticoat Junction and Green Acres. Drucker also serves as a newspaper editor and printer, volunteer firefighter with the Hooterville Volunteer Fire Department, notary, constable, justice of the peace, and postmaster. Sam is the editor of the Hooterville World Guardian, the valley's only newspaper. Drucker is often the only character who is inspired by Oliver's rural patriotism. He is arguably the most "normal" of the Hooterville citizenry and he often filters Oliver's idealism to the townsfolk and, conversely, filters the plebeian backwoods notions of the community back to Oliver.
• Hank Kimball - A broad parody of regional government bureaucrats and civil service employees, Hank is an often confused county agricultural agent who draws folks into inane conversations, loses his train of thought, then exits the scene. Kimball often begins a conversation, then questions the veracity of his own statements and ends up making a statement totally opposite from his original comment. The series was reportedly one of the first pre-recorded sitcoms to use teleprompters extensively during filming and Moore later recounted that he found them invaluable when performing Kimball's convoluted, rambling, rapid-fire dialogue.
• Eunice Douglas - Eunice is Oliver's mother, who seems to side with her daughter-in-law far more than her son. She is aghast at the prospect of Oliver and Lisa moving to Hooterville and often tries to convince Lisa to come back to New York City with her and escape the primitive life of the farm. Eunice is a recurring character on the first four seasons of the show. Audley was cast as Oliver's mother despite only being five months older than Eddie Albert. Her role has been compared to the recurring character she also played on The Beverly Hillbillies, Millicent Schuyler-Potts, headmistress of the Potts School where Jethro attends the fifth and sixth grades.
• Lori Baker - A young girl who lives with her aunt and visited Hooterville with four other kids. After the other kids went home, she stayed with Oliver and Lisa for a while.