Hooterville

Hooterville was a fictional town that was the setting of the American television sitcoms "Petticoat Junction" and "Green Acres".

Citizens

Hooterville county had a population of 3,000 citizens (as of 1963), such as Newt Kiley who farmed over 80 acres (320,000 m²); Ben Miller, the apple farmer; Mr. Haney (first name disputed, Eustace or Charlton), the county con man; Hank Kimball, the idiotic county agent; Sam Drucker, the only shopkeeper in Hooterville; Sarah Hotchkiss Trendell, the telephone operator; Fred Ziffel, a pig farm owner; Doris "Ruthie" Ziffel, Fred's loud and nosey wife (the couple also owned an intelligent pig named Arnold); Charley Pratt and Floyd Smoot, the engineer and conductor respectively on the local train, the Hooterville Cannonball; and Eb Dawson, the handyman for the Douglases. "Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight" was the only song that the Hooterville Volunteer Fire Department Marching Band could play--at half speed and somewhat off-key. In Green Acres it was noted the population of Hooterville (the city) is around 40 people and falling. However in Petticoat Junction, Hooterville appears to be a somewhat larger town able to support a high school and several other institutions.

Petticoat Junction

"Petticoat Junction" (1963–70) was set in the Shady Rest Hotel, which was located 25 milesdown the tracks (and apparently the sole business in the area aside from Drucker's). The Shady Rest Hotel was run by widowed Kate Bradley (played by Bea Benaderet) and her lazy, overweight uncle "Uncle Joe" Carson (Edgar Buchanan). Kate had three daughters, "boy crazy" Billie Jo, "book worm" Bobbie Jo, and "tomboy" Betty Jo. In addition to his storekeeping duties, Drucker was also the town's postmaster and publisher of the local weekly newspaper, the "Hooterville World Guardian". Drucker also operated a bank, which seemed to consist largely of a cash box located under the counter in his store.

Green Acres

"Green Acres" (1965–71) was about a wealthy New York City couple, lawyer Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert) and his diamond-clad wife, Lisa (Eva Gabor), who give up their Park Avenue penthouse for a run-down farm, "The Old Haney Place". Hooterville in "Green Acres" was a much more wacky, surreal place than the one in "Petticoat Junction", though the shows shared characters, as the humor in "Green Acres" was often far broader. In the shows' later years, the major overlap between the two was Sam Drucker and his combination general store, post office, and newspaper office. In this series, the town was said to be named after Horace Hooter. According to "Green Acres", Hooterville is in "the kangaroo state". When Oliver visits the governor, the governor gives him a stuffed kangaroo as state memorabilia.

Location

The location of Hooterville was never explicitly stated, but it was implied to be in or very near Illinois. In numerous episodes it was said that they were close to Chicago; in one "Green Acres" episode, Mr. Haney said Chicago was 300 miles (480 km) away. Another time it was said a nearby town was called Springfield, which is also the name of the capital city of Illinois as well as a city in southwest Missouri Springfield, Missouri. Hooterville may also have been in the Ozarks. One of the working titles for "Petticoat Junction" had been "Ozark Widow" (another had been "Whistle Stop"). The cast of another CBS show, "The Beverly Hillbillies", had some connection with the characters in "Petticoat Junction", when Cousin Pearl contacted Granny to assist with Betty Jo Bradley's baby; the Clampetts hail from Bugtussle, Tennessee. The name "Hooterville" is actually first used in episode No. 6 of "The Beverly Hillbillies" by supporting character Jasper "Jazzbo" Depew (Phil Gordon). Sam Drucker, the grocer and postmaster, gives the Zip Code for Hooterville as 40516 1/2. 40516 is the code for Lexington, KY, a city 375 miles from Chicago. Also, Lexington, KY is exactly 55 miles from Springfield, KY which further agrees with the theory of Hooterville being a rural suburb of Lexington (see above correlation regarding a town called Springfield). The name aproximates Hooverville - a term used for shantytowns and camptowns that emerged during the Great Depression - but it is also the name of a bucolic town on railroad tracks in western Pennsylvania. [http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Hooverville&state=PA#a/maps/l:::Hooverville:PA::US:40.4128:-79.027199:city:Westmoreland+County/m:hyb:7:40.4128:-79.027199:0:0:/io:0:::::f:EN:M:/e]

According to "Dave Stein's Official Petticoat Junction Site", http://petticoat.topcities.com/page1.htm , the inspiration for Hooterville came from Paul Henning's wife, Ruth. As a child, Ruth traveled by train to her grandparents' hotel in Eldon, Missouri. Eldon, Missouri is right at 300 miles, as the crow files, from Chicago. Other than distance and a hotel near the railroad tracks, though, there is little resemblance between Hooterville and Eldon, Missouri.

Exteriors for the twin Hooterville series were shot by Filmways near Jamestown/Sonora, California, a decidedly rural area.

Towns and Cities Within 500 Miles

A larger town nearby, although not the county seat, was called "Pixley", and there is an ongoing rivalry between the two communities. Pixley was about 50 miles from Hooterville. Other towns in the area were Crabwell Corners (about 5-8 miles away), Stankwell Falls (distance never stated), Bugtussle (about 20-25 miles away), Bleedswell (distance never stated), the unnamed county seat (about 75 miles away), Springfield (distance never stated), Appleville (300 miles away), Chicago (300 miles away), and the unnamed state capital (500 miles away). Most of the above towns are also apparently near "The Beverly Hillbillies" "back home" town of Bugtussle. One place mentioned on "Hillbillies" as being near the above places is Silver Dollar City —apparently an in-joke.

In one episode of Green Acres, "How to Get from Hooterville to Pixley Without Moving", the Douglas's farmhouse is thought to be in Pixley and the barn in Hooterville. By the episode's end, we learn there was an error and the farmhouse "is" in Hooterville after all. The barn is in Pixley and much to Oliver's surprise the rest of his farm is in Crabwell Corners, so the three towns must be of large physical areas.

In one episode of "Petticoat Junction", surveyors determined that the Shady Rest Hotel was built on top of the city boundary line between Hooterville and Pixley. This implied that the two towns were much closer together than originally thought.

Further reading

cite book
last = Tropiano
first = Stephen
year = 2000
title = TV Towns
publisher = TV Books L.L.C.
location = New York, NY
id = ISBN 1-57500-127-6