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Part of series: Petticoat Junction [TV Series]: The astonishing success of The Beverly Hillbillies enabled producer Paul Henning to pitch another rural sitcom to a most receptive CBS. Debuting September 24, 1963, Petticoat Junction (original title: Whistle Stop) was, in its first few seasons, a vehicle for Bea Benaderet, an old friend and colleague of Hennings since The Burns and Allen Show, and most recently seen as Cousin Pearl on Beverly Hillbillies. Benaderet was cast as Kate Douglas, the widowed owner of the Shady Rest, the only travelers hotel in the Illinois farming community of Hooterville. Edgar Buchanan co-starred as Kates uncle Joe Bradley, self-appointed manager of the hotel, who, when not hatching his latest get-rich-quick scheme, was figuring out new methods to expend as little energy as possible. Kate was the mother of three beautiful, curvaceous daughters: Betty Jo (played through the series run by Paul Hennings daughter Linda Kaye Henning), Billie Jo (played during the first two seasons by Jeannine Riley, during season three by Gunilla Hutton, and from season four onward by Meredith Mac Rae), and Bobbie Jo (played by Patricia Woodell in seasons one and two, and by Lori Saunders thereafter). The town and hotel were connected (more or less) to the outside world by the Hooterville Cannonball, the last and oldest steam engine in the C.F.W. railroad line, run by engineers Charlie Pratt (Smiley Burnette) and Floyd Smoot (Rufe Davis). Other Hooterville residents over the years included storekeeper Sam Drucker (Frank Cady), town gossip Selma Plout (Virginia Sale, then Elvia Allman) and her gangly daughter Henrietta (Susan Walther, then Lynette Winter), barber Bert Smedley (Paul Hartman), and train conductor Wendell Gibbs (Byron Foulger). The most omnipresent of the recurring characters was Charles Lane as Homer Bedloe, the delightfully flint-hearted vice president of the C.F.W., who never tired of hatching sinister schemes to put the antiquated Hooterville Cannonball out of business. After two black-and-white seasons, the series switched to color for season three in 1965, the same year that Petticoat Junctions spinoff series Green Acres made its CBS debut. Thereafter, the casts of the two series made innumerable crossover appearances, with Petticoat Junctions Frank Cady and Green Acres co-stars Tom Lester (as handyman Eb Lawson) and Kay E. Kuter (as farmer Newt Kiley) virtually becoming regulars on both shows. At the beginning of season four, Mike Minor joined the cast as Steve Elliott, a pilot whose plane had crashed just outside the Shady Rest. After a lengthy courtship, Steve married Kates oldest daughter Betty Jo -- just as actors Mike Minor and Linda Kaye became husband and wife in real life. In addition to the aforementioned turnover in the actresses playing Billie Jo and Bobbie Jo, there were several other cast changes and dropouts during Petticoat Junctions eight seasons. Sadly, two of these were dictated by mortality: supporting player Smiley Burnette died in 1967, and series star Bea Benaderet passed away at the beginning of the 1968-1969 season (upon Kate Bradleys departure, Uncle Joe assumed ownership of the Shady Rest). In the course of the same season, June Lockhart joined the cast as lady doctor Janet Craig, who had arrived in Hooterville to replace retiring town physician Dr. Barton Stuart (Regis Toomey). The producers had hoped that same rapport which existed between Bea Benaderet and Edgar Buchanan would be replicated by Buchanan and Lockhart, but this was not to be. After 221 episodes, Petticoat Junction was canceled on September 12, 1970, the first casualty in CBSs drive to de-ruralize its network demographic and appeal to a more urban, sophisticated audience. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide Includes seasons: Petticoat Junction: Season 01: Strictly speaking, there are but four basic plotlines during the first season of Petticoat Junction. The first concerns the efforts by widow Kate Bradley (Bea Benaderet) to make a financial go of the Shady Rest, the quaint travelers hotel she owns in the Illinois town of Hooterville. The second involves the romantic travails of Kates three extremely attractive daughters, Betty Jo (Linda Kaye) , Billie Jo (Jeannine Riley), and Bobbie Jo (Patricia Woodell). The third is devoted to the limitless get-rich-quick schemes hatched by Kates lazy uncle Joe Carson (Edgar Buchanan), in lieu of seeking out anything resembling gainful employment. And the fourth is manifested in the tireless and fruitless crusade by Homer Bedloe (Charles Lane), scheming troubleshooter for the C.F.W. Railroad line, to shut down and scrap the Hooterville Cannonball, the lines sole surviving steam locomotive -- thereby throwing venerable engineers Charley Pratt (Smiley Burnette) and Floyd Smoot (Rufe Davis) out of work. Worth noting this season are the various actors cast as the boyfriends of the Bradley girls, including Ken Osmond of Leave It to Beaver fame in one of his rare non-Eddie Haskell roles; and Jack Bannon, the son of series regular Bea Benaderet and later a regular on Lou Grant. In other casting notes, Elvia Allman, who in subsequent seasons played Kate Bradleys obnoxious social rival Sema Plout, appears in a different role in the episode A Night at the Hooterville Hilton; Dennis Hopper, five years removed from Easy Rider, plays a bearded itinerant poet in Bobbie Jo and the Beatnik; future Batman leading man Adam West is seen as doctor in Hooterville vs. Hollywood; Steve Franken, fresh from his stint as the insufferable Chatsworth Osborne Jr. on Dobie Gillis, is equally insufferable as the son of Homer Bedloe in Bedloe Son; and another Dobie Gillis alumnae, Sheila James (aka Zelda Gillis), joins the three Bradley sisters to form a female version of the Beatles in The Ladybugs. (No, her character name isnt Bingo!) The final episode of the season introduces Hank Patterson and Barbara Pepper as Mr. and Mrs. Ziffel, who would be firmly established as the parents of porcine superstar Arnold the Pig on the Petticoat Junction spinoff Green Acres. Ranking fourth in the 1963-1964 Nielsen ratings, the first season of Petticoat Junction was filmed in black-and-white -- and as such, has been removed from the series all-color syndicated package. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide Includes episodes: Petticoat Junction: Kates Recipe For Hot Rhubarb: During the first season of Petticoat Junction, Bobbie Jo Bradley was portrayed (by Pat Woodell) as a na�ve bookworm, with no interest in men--or virtually anything else. Worried that Bobbie Jo will never find a husband, her mom Kate (Bea Benadaret) takes it upon herself to force the girl out of her cocoon and transform her into a real fashion plate. Jack Bannon, the son of star Bea Benadaret, makes his first series appearance in this episode, as Roger Budd. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide Petticoat Junction: Bobbie Jo and the Beatnik: Heres one for the ages: Five years before donning hippie-stoner garb in Easy Rider, Dennis Hopper shows up in this Petticoat Junction episode as bearded beatnik poet Alan Landman. During his visit to the Shady Rest, Landman makes quite an impression upon starry-eyed Bobbie Jo Bradley (Pat Woodell). Everyone else, however, regards Landman as a posturing phony--after all, his poems dont even rhyme or nothin! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide Petticoat Junction: Please Buy My Violets: Kate (Bea Benadaret) is confused when Uncle Joe (Edgar Buchanan) begins buying up old bug-spray cans. It turns out that Joe is off on another of his get-rich-quick schemes, in this case the manufacture and sale of his own brand of cologne, Lord and Lady Violet. Joe boasts that this business enterprise will be something new in the field of smell--and unfortunately, hes right. Hank Patterson makes his first series appearance as hog farmer Fred Ziffel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide Petticoat Junction: Last Chance Farm: In yet another of his get-rich-quick schemes, Uncle Joe (Edgar Buchanan) misrepresents the Shady Rest Hotel as a reducing farm. His first customers are brace of portly matrons (Dorothy Konrad, Pearl Shear) whom Joe subjects to a rigorous weight-loss regimen--rigorous, that is, to everyone except himself. Don Beddoe, whod previously played Dr. Depew in the episode Hooterville vs. Hollywood, is here seen as Mr. Begley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide