What Really Happened Behind The Scenes Of “Green Acres”
Green Acres was an American sitcom that began airing on CBS on September 15, 1965. The show followed a married couple played by Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor. Eddie played Oliver Douglas and Eva played Lisa Douglas. Oliver, who was enjoying his life as a fancy lawyer decides to leave the big city and resettle in a farmhouse in the country.
The show was a huge hit. People loved seeing these city mouse characters in a country environment. Even if you've seen every episode of Green Acres, you don't know what went on behind the scenes of this once iconic show. Keep reading to get the inside scoop on all of the drama.
Mr. Haney Was Based On A Real Person
The character of Mr. Haney on the show was based on Elvis Presley's actual manager. While on the set for the film Roustabout, actor Pat Buttram, who plays Mr. Haney, met Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's manager. When he landed the role of Mr. Haney on Green Acres, he decided to model his performance after Tom Parker's personality and mannerisms.
Mr. Haney is a pretty shady character, which doesn't cast a very nice light on the true nature of Colonel Tom Parker.
Eddie Albert Believed In The Show
Eddie Albert starred as Oliver Douglas on the show Green Acres. Before appearing on the show, Albert had some reservations about the series. Actually, he had some reservations about television as a whole. He said that the whole medium was "geared to mediocrity." His agent convinced him to take the part, and he never looked back.
On the show's premise, he stated, "Swell; that's me. Everyone gets tired of the rat race. Everyone would like to chuck it all and grow some carrots. It's basic. Sign me [...] I knew it would be successful. Had to be." Turns out he was right!
Renewed Love For Green Acres In The '90s
After the show ended its run, people slowly started forgetting about this strange series. Then, in the 1990s, Nick at Nite brought the show back onto the air. While advertising the show, they used the phrase, "It's not stupid ... it’s surrealism!"
there are rumors floating around that a Green Acres adaptation might make it to Broadway. There was even a Broadway script written in 2012.
What Really Happened With Arnold The Pig
There were many animals on Green Acres, which makes sense because the show took place on a farm, but Arnold, the pig was a fan-favorite. At times, Arnold was described as "the true star of Green Acres." So what happened to Arnold after the show ended?
When asked about Arnold's fate, Tom Lester, who played Eb Dawson replied that they cooked and ate him at the luau-themed wrap party. This, of course, was not true.
Oliver And Lisa's On-Screen Chemistry
When you watch Green Acres, it's very clear that Oliver and Lisa have great chemistry. Some people even believed that these two were dating in real life. That wasn't the case, however, Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor were very close platonic friends.
They were very comfortable with each other on set, and this translated very convincingly onto people's television screens. When Gabor passed away in 1995, Albert took her death extremely hard considering they were great friends and had worked together for so many years.
It Started As A Radio Show
Many of the shows that came out around the same time as Green Acres were based on radio dramas. Green Acres was based on a radio show called "Granby's Green Acres." That radio show had the same idea as Green Acres, but the main male character on the show was much better at his previous job than Oliver was.
The radio program aired for seven weeks during the summer of 1950. The show's creator, Jay Sommers, brought it back to television over a decade later.
Vic Mizzy Wrote The Theme Song
A very famous composer wrote the theme song for Green Acres. Vic Mizzy, who is best known for his work as a composer for television and films, pulled this theme song out of his very creative brain. Mizzy worked on a lot of sitcoms during the '60s and '70s.
Green Acres was one of his most popular along with The Addams Family, among many others. The actors on Green Acres performed their theme song, which was a first for American television.
It Was All Scripted
There was no improvising happening on the set of Green Acres. On most programs, whether on television or in film, actors are given some freedom to ad-lib. That wasn't the case for this program.
According to Albert, "There was no time to improvise on that program [...] it was so well written, it would be impossible to improve on it. We never changed a word. I've never been in anything before or since that I didn’t want to monkey with a sentence here or something. But not a word there."
Based On A True Story
We already know that Green Acres was based on a radio show, but what was that radio show based on?
In an interview, show creator Jay Sommers commented that "I got the idea from my stepfather when I was a kid [...] He wanted a farm in the worst way and he finally got one. I remember having to hoe potatoes. I hated it. I won't even do the gardening at our home now, I was so resentful as a child."
Albert Didn't Like Eva's Feather Outfits
Eddie Albert was a known environmentalist and at one point politely asked Eva Gabor if she could refrain from wearing outfits adorned with countless feathers while onscreen. When Gabor protested, Albert stated that he didn't want any of the female fans to copy her style, resulting in the deaths of more birds.
She responded that "feathers don't come from birds," so Albert asked her where she thought they came from. She answered by saying, "Dahlin. Pillows! Feathers come from pee-lowz!"
All Those Easter Eggs
Although they weren't shoved in the viewer's faces, there were several small Easter eggs sprinkled throughout the show. In one episode, regarding Lisa's lack of skill in the kitchen, she reminds Oliver, "When you married me, you knew that I couldn't cook, I couldn't sew, and I couldn't keep house. All I could do was talk Hungarian and do imitations of Zsa Zsa Gabor." Ironically, Zsa Zsa is Eva Gabor's real-life sister.
There are also several references to The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction, both shows that were produced and written by Green Acres executive producer, Paul Henning. At one point, the couple even puts on a local production of the show.
A Green Acres Reunion
After the success of the original series, it only felt right to bring the show back one last time. So, in 1990, a TV movie was released titled Return to Green Acres. The film is set twenty years after the original series after Oliver and Lisa have moved back to New York but are no longer satisfied there.
Coincidentally, the people of Hooterville ask the Douglas' to return to the town in order to prevent it from being destroyed by a developer.
It Was Eventually Cancelled
Unfortunately, for the showrunners, actors, and audiences, Green Acres was canceled in 1971 after running a solid run of six years. However, it wasn't the only show to have its airtime revoked in 1971.
According to Pat Buttram, who played Mr. Haney, that was "the year CBS canceled everything with a tree." It became known as the "rural purge," which led to the demise of shows, including The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, The Andy Griffith Show, Lassie, Mayberry R.F.D and Hee Haw.
What They Had In Common With Their Characters
Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor were both very well suited to their roles on Green Acres. Both of these actors had green thumbs and enjoyed spending time in nature. Albert had turned his front yard into a cornfield in which he worked, and had a greenhouse where he grew organic vegetables.
Eva Gabor owned numerous animals including cats, dogs, chickens, rabbits, among others. It was like she had her very own Green Acres farm at home.
Where Is Hooterville?
Although we know that Oliver and Lisa originally lived in Manhattan, New York, before moving to the rural town of Hooterville, audiences never learn the actual location of the town. Since the show is semi-based on Sommers' life, some believe that it's located in Greendale, New York, where he once spent time on a farm.
However, at one point in the series, Mr. Haney states that the town is about 300 miles from Chicago. It also doesn't help that the characters' accents are all over the place.
Hank Patterson Was Basically Deaf
Hank Patterson, who played Fred Ziffek was almost completely deaf by the time he accepted the role on Green Acres. Even though this made things more complicated at times, he was so popular with the rest of the cast as well as audiences, CBS knew that they had to keep him on the show.
Of course, they used a series of tricks to help Patterson say his lines. One of these was having a dialogue coach lie on the ground out of sight, who would tap him on the leg with a yardstick when it was time to say his lines.
They Treated That Pig Like A Son
Arnold Ziffel was a hilarious addition to the series. Although he was clearly a pig, the couple treated Arnold like he was their son. He's a pampered pig who lives indoors and apparently, can understand English-- they even send him off to school!
While everyone else treats him like a boy, Oliver refuses to treat the pig like a human. However, he hilariously slips up on this and ends up treating him like a kid as everyone else.
Other Choices For Oliver And Lisa
Surprisingly, neither Albert or Eva were the first choices to star in Green Acres. Eddie Albert was only offered the part after actor Don Ameche turned it down. In turn, Marsha Hunt and Janet Blair both did screen tests for the role of Lisa Douglas, but in the end, Paul Henning decided to cast Eva Gabor for the role.
However, this was against the advice of CBS who warned him that audiences would have a hard time understanding her thick Hungarian accent.
Ralph Monroe Was A Woman
Alf and Ralph Monroe are two constantly bickering "brothers" who worked as carpenters. However, it is revealed that Ralph is actually Alf's sister who is played by the female actress Mary Grace Canfield.
Alf claims that they dress Ralph up as a boy because they wouldn't be able to get jobs if people knew that she was a woman. This ended up becoming a problem between the CBS executives who argued that viewers, particularly men, would have a hard time believing a woman could work a blue-collar job.
Drucker Always Believed In Oliver
Actor Frank Cady played the character of Sam Drucker, who is the only character to appear in both Petticoat Junction and Green Acres. Drucker acts as the storekeeper, as well as a newspaper editor, fire department volunteer, and the postmaster, among other roles.
Drucker is a hard-working, straight-shooting man, and is the only character who encourages and agrees with Oliver's decision to move to rural America. The other characters often made fun of his bald head, but Drucker was okay with it.
More About Eva Gabor
The Gabor sisters came from a Hungarian-Jewish background. Their father was Vilmos Gabor and he served as a major in the Hungarian Army and their mother, Jolie Gabor, was the heiress to a jewelry empire.
Magda was born in 1915, Zsa Zsa in 1917 and Eva in 1919. If they had remained in Hungary they might never have caught anyone's attention but that wasn't what fate had in store for them – they left Hungary shortly after World War II as a family. Their route to America was not a simple one.
When They Came To America
Jolie Gabor and the majority of the family left Hungary in 1944 but they didn't arrive in America until December 1945 as they made their way across war-torn Europe. Magda Gabor didn’t make it until the middle of 1946. She was already engaged in a minor scandal in Hungary where her "friendship" with Carlos Sampaio Garrido, the Portuguese ambassador, was under increasing scrutiny.
Rumors of an affair, followed by speculation of an official engagement, set tongues wagging but there’s never been any official proof that she was more than an aide to Carlos in his duties.
Very Attractive Ladies
While the girls grew up in Budapest Hungary, they were raised by their mother Jolie. Jolie was determined to give her daughters a good life. She was said to have recognized the beauty her daughters possessed, ironically her own name meaning pretty in French, and taught them how to attract wealthy men.
Apparently, Jolie also owned and operated a successful brothel. It was through her business that allowed her and her daughters to move to the United States in 1946, which was at the height of WWII. At this time, eldest daughter Magda had already begun her career as an actress and she and her two sisters planned to continue the career in Hollywood.
Their Mother, Jolie Gabor
In the same way that Kris Jenner is said to be domineering her famous daughters' careers, so did Jolie Gabor. In fact, some might go so far as to say as she paved the road for momagers as we know them.
Jolie believed that if she trained her daughters in things that rich people were accustomed to doing, her daughters would also become rich. However, she certainly did not want her daughters to be completely submissive to a man, but rather hold their own as an equal. Jolie once said, "When you can support yourself, you can choose your husbands. You have not to be the slave of a rich man."
What Jolie Taught Them
Although Jolie guided her daughters and was certainly a product of her time, she was also a bit ahead of her time. She did not believe that women existed solely for the benefit of men but rather women could engineer their own lives. According to Jolie, she believed that women could pick their own husbands if they were successful on their own.
She also said in order to "catch" a husband and to have a successful marriage you must have, ”Beauty to capture, brains to hold. Brains are important because if a man is just looking for beauty, he can buy a beautiful painting. Then a good disposition. A nagging wife can kill a husband. A marriage is something between two, and I always feel much sorry for a man to make a bad marriage than a woman because he has to pay for it. In money, I mean. And two made the mistake.” So make from that what you will.
Magda's Scandal
Magda had been married to Jan Bychowsky in Hungary in 1937 and her "affairs" with Carlos Sampaio Garrido took place until his death in 1944. However, when she fled Hungary – she is reputed to have shacked up with a Spanish nobleman along the way Jose Luis de Vilallonga.
It didn't take long to shake off the Spanish influence in New York and within a few months of her arrival in America, she took her second husband – William M. Rankin – who was a playwright and screenwriter.
Magda Remarried— Again
Magda wasn't content to stop with one American husband and by July, 1949, she was walking up the aisle once again. This time she was back in New York and marrying Sidney Robert Warren who was a practicing attorney. Magda must have been practicing at marriage because by 1950 they were divorced.
She then went on to marry Arthur "Tony" Gallucci. He was the president of Samuel Gallucci and son, one of America’ oldest contracting companies in the building trade. They proved to be a good match and only parted company after he passed away from cancer in 1967.
Another Man For Magda
Magda went into mourning following the loss of Arthur Gallucci and it would be 3 years before she married again. It's important to remember that a single divorce was a scandal in that time but what came next was a huge shock to the world.
Magda married George Sanders, a British actor, who had previously been married to her sister Zsa Zsa! We can only assume it was family pressure that led to the annulment of their union a single month later.
Eva's Turn In The Spotlight
Magda had only briefly graced the silver screen and only in her native Hungary but her sister Eva was to become a minor star and help to propel the family name and all its dirty laundry into the public eye.
Her debut performance came in the Paramount Pictures motion picture, Forced Landing. The film is not particularly memorable except as a vehicle for Eva Gabor. It was a firm "B movie" grade action flick, based on an imaginary tale of air force heroism, and Gabor's acting is particularly poor in her screen breakthrough. However, it still spawned two sequel movies.
Eva In The 1950s
Eva, despite her acting career's rocky start, was too attractive to be kept off screen and in 1953, she was given an opportunity to bring celebrity news and gossip to the nation in the form of The Eva Gabor Show.
It was a chat show but rather more limited in scope and format than the vehicle which would send Oprah Winfrey into every living room in the land. Instead, Eva had a mere 15 minutes a week on screen and had to interview a series of celebrity guests. The show didn’t last and was quickly canned in 1954.
How She Got Green Acres
Eva finally broke through into the mainstream and the memory of the American public in 1965. She starred in Green Acres a sitcom that had been produced as a "sister" to the successful Petticoat Junction. Both shows aired on CBS.
Green Acres was a hit. It ran for six years and was never poorly rated. Unfortunately, for all of the cast and not just Eva, it was to fall victim to the “rural purge” of CBS in 1971. CBS felt that it was time to shift the focus of American television to urban settings and shows like Green Acres, set in rural landscapes, were simply axed to make room for new shows whether they were performing or not.
She Was The Voice Of Miss Bianca
In addition to being well known for being on shows like Green Acres, Eva also voiced the characters of some of your favorite cartoons. She voiced the part of The Duchess in the famous 1970 Disney film, The Aristocrats as well as the voice of Miss Bianca in both The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under.
Eva was certainly the part of many people's childhoods without them even knowing it! Eva continued to appear in various sitcoms throughout the 1980s including The Love Boat, Fantasy Island and Hart to Hart. The Rescuers Down Under was actually one of her very last film roles before her death in 1997.
Her Pink Poddle, Rocky
Eva wasn't married quite as many times as her sister Magda but it was a close-run thing. Eva’s first marriage came in 1937 in London to Eric Valdemar Drimmer, a Swedish masseur and osteopath.
The couple divorced in 1942 in Los Angeles. It wasn’t a happy ending to the marriage and Eva claimed in an interview that the divorce was because, "I wanted to have babies and lead a simple family life but my husband objected to me having children." In 1943 Eva claimed her second husband, Charles Isaacs, an investment broker. They divorced in 1949.
Another Marriage For Eva
In 1956, it was the turn of John Elbert Williams M.D., a practicing plastic surgeon, to tie the knot with Eva. He was even less successful than his predecessors and the marriage lasted less than a year before ending in divorce.
Eva found a longer-lasting form of love in the form of Richard Brown, a textile manufacturer, and their marriage ran from 1959 to 1973 before the courts let the couple go their separate ways. Her final marriage in 1973 was to Frank Gard Jameson Sr., a vice president of Rockwell International. They parted ways in 1983 but not before Gabor had become stepmother to his children.
Zsa Zsa Gabor's Rise To Fame
Of the three Gabor sisters, by far the most famous was Zsa Zsa Gabor. While her sisters' marriages were minor scandals, Zsa Zsa’s prominence in the public eye meant that her every move was scrutinized and nearly every move that she made was reported everywhere around the world.
Her fame began in Hungary where she was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. She had also appeared on the stage in an operetta, after being discovered by Richard Tauber, a famous tenor of the time. The operetta was called "The Singing Dream" (Der Singende Traum) at the Theater an der Wien and was widely praised at the time.
So Many Scandals
Zsa Zsa's marital exploits put her sisters in the shade. She was married an incredible 9 times! Once she was asked, "How many husbands have you had?" She responded, “You mean other than my own?” She began by marrying Burhan Asaf Belge, a leading Turkish intellectual and eventual member of the Turkish National Assembly in 1937 and they would divorce in 1941.
She went on to marry Conrad Hilton in 1942 and said of their marriage, “I soon discovered that my marriage to Conrad meant the end of my freedom. My own needs were completely ignored: I belonged to Conrad.” Not surprisingly – they parted in 1947.
Even More Husbands
George Henry Sanders, the English film and TV actor, who would also end up married to Zsa Zsa's sister for a single month came next in 1949. They appeared together in the movie Death of a Scoundrel in 1956 a year after their divorce.
Sanders would come to a tragic end and committed suicide in 1972 with an overdose of barbiturates. His death would once again draw scandal to the Gabor name. Her next husband 1962-1966 was Herbert Hutner, a banker, attorney, and philanthropist. Their marriage came to an end because Zsa Zsa claims that he was too good to her and she almost lost her drive because of it.
Another Man For Zsa Zsa
"I am a marvelous housekeeper: Every time I leave a man I keep his house," Zsa Zsa once quipped, and it wasn't far from the truth. She married Joshua S. Cosden in 1966 and it was barely a year before they divorced in 1967. Then came Jack Ryan, strangely famous in his own right as the inventor of Mattel’s Barbie doll (which might even have been inspired by Zsa Zsa Gabor,) in 1975. He was back on his own in 1976.
Then she took up with Michael O’Hara and they lasted a rather more substantial six years before divorcing in 1983.
A Very Short Marriage
Zsa Zsa Gabor's marriage to the Mexican attorney Felipe de Alba, may have been one of the briefest periods of wedlock in history. They were married on April, 13, 1983 and the marriage was dissolved by annulment on April 14, 1983. The reason? It turned out that the paperwork to end her previous marriage to Michael O’Hara hadn’t been processed properly and she wasn’t legally allowed to marry Felipe.
It was probably a good thing for Felipe’s wallet as the couple would break up soon later and he moved to New York City where he lived until he died in 2005.
Finally Finding Her Happy Ending
Zsa Zsa Gabor finally hit a permanent relationship with her ninth husband, the German-American entrepreneur Frederic Prinz von Anhalt. The "von Anhalt" of his name is a German title which he bought by paying the Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt to formally adopt him as her heir.
Amusingly, he would repay the favor by adopting 10 male heirs, each of whom would pay him $2 million for the privilege. Despite this being illegal in Germany. He wed Zsa Zsa in 1986 and the couple remained married until that she passed away in 2016. He appears to have loved her very much, although some questioned his intentions.
