'Petticoat Junction - Family Favorite Episodes'
(Edgar Buchanan, Linda Henning, Bea Benaderet, Frank Cady, Lori Saunders, et al / DVD / NR / 2015 / CBS)
Overview: Featured in all eight of these beloved, top-rated episodes are the Shady Rest Hotel caretaker Kate Bradley and her three beautiful daughters, Betty Jo, Bobbie Jo, and Billie Jo. Between keeping lazy Uncle Joe in line, as well as maintaining a watchful eye on her daughters hectic love lives, Kate has more than enough to keep her hands full!
DVD Verdict: When this show first premiered its biggest attraction were the three Bradley daughters. However, you really got to see a great comedy and the real stars were the late great Bea Benederet as Kate and the late and equally great Edgar Buchanan as Uncle Joe, who was always looking to get rich quick. The girls themselves were pretty well fleshed out characters themselves. Billie Jo was the ambitious star-struck one, Bobbie Jo was the somewhat dim bulb and Betty Jo was the tomboy.
In truth, Betty Jo became the most evolved character as you saw her grow up from being a girl who was pretty much pre-occupied with sports into a beautiful young woman who eventually settled down and married the man of her dreams. Too bad Bea Benederet passed away. When that happened the wind seemed to go out of the show and within two years it was gone.
That said, let's now all enjoy these Black & White and Color eight episodes from the Family Favorite chosen few. I;m not too sure who chose them, who made these the stand out eight episodes of the entire series, but the ones they did chose are: Bobbie Jo And The Beatnik, The Ladybugs, The Genghis Keane Story, Betty Jo's Dog, The Umquaw Strip, The Curse of Chester W. Farnsworth, Dear Minerva, and Only Boy in the Class.
Airing for an incredible - given the time - seven (7) whole seasons, 'Petticoat Junction' gave us episodes that are still popular with those of us who grew up watching them today. Indeed, when I watched these shows I knew most problems could not be fixed in a half hour and yet thy were, of course. That was the beauty of this show: nothing was out of reach for our beloved TV family.
In closing, and personally, I enjoyed the story of Betty Jo falling in love and marrying the Air Force pilot Steve Elliott. I always wished all of the daughters could have married sometime in the course of the show. Bringing June Lockhart to the cast as the lovely Dr. Janet Craig was a delightful change and she added a different dimension to the show (it was the late 60's and many women were becoming career women), but it was not Kate. I just makes you wish so much that all of the black & white and color shows from the day of "Golden TV" could be seen again on television someday - in sequence. This is a Full Screen Presentation (4x3) Aspect Ratio enhanced for 16x9 TVs and Beautifully Restored!
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