Green Acres

It's a very official third season premiere for Green Acres when the retirement of a state senator leaves Hooterville considering its best candidate for the job. Of course, they turn to their beloved lawyer-come-farmer Oliver Douglas.

Oliver finds himself in a jam after asking Lisa to make him homemade fruit preserves. An episode deliciously devoted to Lisa's culinary escapades, Lisa musters all of her Hungarian might to make Oliver the best peach jam he's ever tasted.

After years of substandard service, Oliver is hellbent on throwing the book at the Hooterville Phone Company. When it becomes clear that the local utility oversight board can't do much about it, he decides to handle matters directly.

Mr. Trendell, the president of the Hooterville Phone Company, hands the company over to a delighted Oliver. But after a day of crossed wires and a switchboard repairman with some lose connections of his own, Oliver is ready to call it quits.

Being president of the Hooterville Phone Company has been a rude awakening for Oliver. The switchboard operator is now calling him at five in the morning! After a bevy of new complaints from unhappy customers, Oliver has just about had enough.

For the first time, Oliver has a successful crop that needs picking. His tomatoes have grown beautifully. But matters at the phone company continue divide his precious time, so Oliver looks for an interested buyer to take the company off his hands.

One might think that when Eb takes a vacation things around the farm might go more smoothly. But when Eb elopes, leaving his cousin Walter to take his place, it turns out to be a horrible idea. Walter barely knows a weed from a hole in the ground!

Lisa is reminded that she stored a birthday present for Oliver years ago: a genuine Stavinsky. But what is it? It's a modern art sculpture that is two parts plumbing pipes, one part tire chains, and one part birdbath. Oliver calls it "The Thing."

The continually evolving story of how Lisa and Oliver fell in love gets yet another version in this delightful episode. But one thing is for sure: Lisa and Oliver are just as in love today as the day when he fell out of the sky.

Green Acres is greener than ever…with jealousy. When Oliver hires a handsome, young, intelligent Brit to take over his farm work while he is away, it doesn't take long for the newcomer to make a strong impression on Lisa.

Mr. Haney is up to his money-making schemes again. When a government representative tells Mr. Haney that the state is looking to purchase the Douglas farm for a new highway, Mr. Haney arranges to buy back the farm from the Douglases at a steal.

Ralph, the lady carpenter, runs away from home and stays with the Douglases after having a fight with her brother, Alf. While Oliver may never get his bedroom finished, he gains a maid as Ralph takes over as the Douglases' live-in housekeeper.

Picking apples while on a picnic, Oliver runs into the feisty Ira Hatch, the owner of the apple orchard. However, once back in town, Mr. Drucker tells Oliver that Hatch has been dead for years. An incredulous Oliver agrees to see a psychologist.

After his elopement and cross-country honeymoon, Eb returns to Hooterville. But his new wife is nowhere to be found! After sending postcards from all across the country, Eb has to confess that his fiancé stood him up at the alter on their big day.

Someone has stolen $300 from Mr. Drucker's general store, and it looks like Eb is the culprit. How else could he have bought himself a new car that cost, you guessed it, exactly $300? But that is just the first twist of the many turns of this story.

Lisa awakes, saying she's dreamt that she must invest in copper. When Oliver turns that idea down, she seizes on the opportunity to invest in a ten-year-old genius's electric company. Twenty-eight dollars buys her a third of the business.

Arnold, the Ziffels' television-loving pig, has taken on a paper route to save enough money for a new color set. But when bank robbers show up and threaten his dreams, and Lisa and Oliver are held captive in their own home, Arnold has to fight back.

The farmers of Hooterville are headed to France! Or at least they are if they can get organized. As part of an agricultural exchange program, the farmers are offered a chance to join a chartered government flight to Europe.

Lisa is delighted to learn that her Hungarian mother is planning a visit to their little farm. Much to Oliver's disbelief and dismay, a rumor spreads all around Hooterville that Lisa's mother is a European countess.

Love is in the air as the first day of spring arrives in Hooterville. And who better to lead the town in celebrating it than Lisa. She is resolved to show Oliver just what spring is all about and sets out to produce a Spring festival celebration.

It's a hair-raising episode as Eb enrolls in a correspondence course to become a barber. Lisa and Oliver give him the money to learn the trade but learning how to cut hair by mail has its glitches.

For a lawyer, Oliver should be more careful about what he signs. Lisa reminds him that two years ago Oliver made her a promise to take her back to New York for a two-week vacation. And she has it in writing… on the bottom of the kitchen drawer.

It's hard to know who has a curse over Oliver, but he sure has his hands full with Lisa and her fellow Hungarian Lazlo Broslav. Lazlo appears with a letter claiming he once saved the life of Lisa's uncle, and now her family must repay the debt.

There's a problem in Hooterville: no farmer seems able to grow a cash crop on account of the quality of the soil. But as it turns out from Oliver's soil and mineral research, the oft misunderstood rutabaga is an ideal choice.