Green Acres

Oliver Wendell Douglas, a pragmatic New York lawyer, decides to swap city life for farming and persuades his glamorous wife Lisa to move with him to the rural town of Hooterville. The sitcom plays on their mismatched expectations, as Oliver applies urban logic to country problems while Lisa retains high-society tastes and a stylish, accented manner. A revolving cast of eccentric neighbors and odd situations constantly complicates their plans, turning everyday chores into comic set pieces. Oliver's earnest ideals repeatedly collide with local oddities, producing sly, lighthearted satire that keeps the couple's warmth at the center of the laughs.

Created by Jay Sommers and Paul Henning, and produced by Filmways, Green Acres premiered on CBS on Sept 15, 1965 and ran to April 1971. It was a sister show to Petticoat Junction and starred Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor.

Green Acres didn't collect major industry awards during its original run, but it has been revisited in later retrospectives. The two-part "A Star Named Arnold is Born" was ranked #59 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes in 1997. It later found renewed appreciation in reruns.

The show became a recognizable symbol of 1960s TV, its oddball humor and Lisa's glamorous, accented persona searing into pop culture. Cancellation during CBS's 'rural purge' turned into shorthand for network programming shifts. Green Acres has enjoyed long syndication, DVD releases, and its characters endure today.

Contemporary viewers gave it solid ratings and audiences responded well to its absurdist, sitcom style; modern viewer score is about 7.346/10 based on 68 votes. The series turns on clashes between urban rationalism and rural commonsense, using satire and broad physical comedy to highlight community bonds and the absurdities of modern life.