Saturday, August 29, 2009

How Has Petticoat Junction Not Been Remade?

Growing up in the 60s, I had a completely unabashed affection for The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres and Petticoat Junction. One of the things that always appealed me about those shows was that they all co-existed in the same universe (sort of). As with All in the Family and The Jeffersons or The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda or even the various components of the CSI and Law and Order franchises (all of which came later), characters would sometimes flow back and forth between the three programs.

Seeing any of the three sitcoms now, they're all terrible drek. The humour is mostly low-brow (although Green Acres still has some rather "out there" moments that make it occasionally interesting) and the acting's abysmal. And yet that didn't stop a Return to Green Acres TV movie from being made in 1990, nor a suitably dreadful re-cast, big budget theatrical version of The Beverly Hillbillies in 1993.

So my question is: how has Petticoat Junction escaped this zombification thus far, especially considering that it was a vehicle for a trio of buxom, revealingly-clad young women named Betty-Jo, Bobbi-Jo and Billie-Jo? I mean, c'mon Hollywood! Are you just asleep at the switch here, or what?

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