The Worst Episodes of Green Acres
Every episode of Green Acres ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Green Acres!
Green Acres is an American sitcom starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a rural country farm. Produced by Filmways as a sister show to Petticoat Junction, the series was first broadcast on CBS, from September 15, 1965 to April 27, 1971. Receiving solid ratings during its six-year run, Green Acres was cancelled in 1971 as part of the "rural purge" by CBS. The sitcom has been in syndication and is available in DVD and VHS releases. In 1997, the two-part episode "A Star Named Arnold is Born" was ranked #59 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.
Lowest Rated Episodes Summary
The worst episode of "Green Acres" is "The Ex-Secretary", rated 4.6/10 from 149 user votes. It was directed by Bruce Bilson, Richard L. Bare and written by Jay Sommers. "The Ex-Secretary" aired on 4/27/1971 and is rated 0.1 point(s) lower than the second lowest rated, "Hawaiian Honeymoon".
4.6/10 149 votes#1 - The Ex-Secretary
Season 6 Episode 26 - Aired 4/27/1971
Oliver is looking through his old Christmas Cards to find the return address of an ex-secretary of his who had moved to California. He wants to contract her because when his watch broke before, his secretary at the time found a repair shop that was able to fix it. The secretary, Carol now works for a Realtor who she ends up saving from being coned out of $10,000 from a con man that her former boss, Mr. Douglas had tried to indite back in New York. By episode end, Carol remembers the name of the watch repair shop on Madison Avenue.
Director: Bruce Bilson, Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
4.7/10 139 votes#2 - Hawaiian Honeymoon
Season 6 Episode 25 - Aired 3/16/1971
Lisa cons Oliver into taking a 'fifth' honeymoon together, this time in Hawaii. When they check into the honeymoon suite, they are unaware that the hotel manager's daughter, has given her friends the suite for their honeymoon also. Since the suite has two bedrooms it's just a case of both couples avoiding each other while on their honeymoon(s), for a while anyway.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
6.8/10 89 votes#3 - The Wealthy Landowner
Season 5 Episode 25 - Aired 4/11/1970
In a personals ad, Eb advertises himself as a wealthy landowner. He begins communicating with a woman with a Park Avenue address, prompting him to exaggerate his worth even more. By the time she arrives for a visit, Eb is passing the Douglases off as sharecroppers who work for him.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
6.8/10 81 votes#4 - A Royal Love Story
Season 6 Episode 4 - Aired 10/6/1970
Lisa tells Lori yet another version of how she and Oliver met. In this one, she was living in a Paris apartment with her father, the deposed King of Hungary. While he was plotting his return to power, Lisa was working as a waitress at a sidewalk cafe when Oliver stopped by for six bottles of champagne. The King wants her to marry a baron who will bankroll his army, but Lisa loves poor American Oliver Douglas.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
6.8/10 73 votes#5 - A Girl for Drobny
Season 6 Episode 21 - Aired 2/16/1971
Drobny the pet duck, which Lisa received from her uncle in Hungary, is lonesome. He annoys Oliver by playing his phonograph and dancing while Oliver is trying to do his taxes. Lisa sets out to perk up Drobny's loneliness by inviting Arnold the pig over to play. But alas the language barrier is to great to overcome. Drobny speaks only Hungarian, while Arnold speaks English, French, Spanish, and a little Japanese. Lisa decides Drobny needs a girlfriend and they set out to secure one for him. Mr. Haney tries to sell Gertrude the female duck, to the Douglases for $600. When that fails, he accepts the $20 that Oliver offers. Drobny & Gertrude hit it off so well, they are expectant parents soon. But of their 3 offspring, 2 are ducklings and 1 is a baby chick.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
6.9/10 85 votes#6 - Everybody Tries to Love a Countess
Season 5 Episode 2 - Aired 10/4/1969
Oliver loses all hopes of getting rid of his mother-in-law when Mr Haney and Uncle Joe Carson vie to become his father-in-law.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
6.9/10 84 votes#7 - The Wish-Book
Season 5 Episode 14 - Aired 1/3/1970
The discovery of a Wish Book from 1898 leads Haney to tell the story of Calvin and Tessie Whittaker, who once owned the Douglases' house. When a magic lantern is mistakenly delivered by the catalog company, Calvin opens a Wall Picture Theater in Pixley, thrilling audiences with a slide of Abraham Lincoln standing on his head. Eventually he goes to Hollywood to pitch his ideas, but they call him a nut. They even scoff at his idea to put a mouse named Dickey into films. They love Tessie, however, and she becomes a silent film star.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
6.9/10 87 votes#8 - Charlie, Homer and Natasha
Season 6 Episode 13 - Aired 12/22/1970
Oliver won't take Lisa to New York for a big party, but the issue isn't over. She conspires with Eb to invent new invisible friends, hoping the scheme will end with a trip to the city to visit a psychiatrist.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
7.0/10 90 votes#9 - The Blue Feather
Season 4 Episode 11 - Aired 12/18/1968
Lisa's convinced that Hungarian gypsies have placed a curse on her when she receives a dreaded blue feather in the mail. To "de-hexify" her, Haney sells Lisa a ridiculous recipe that she mixes up, places in a green purse, and hangs outside the front door. Eb gets a look at it and panics because the "green purse hex" will bring a drought. He counteracts it with his own concoction in a yellow purse. Oliver takes action to put a stop to all this foolishness.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
7.1/10 84 votes#10 - The Coming-Out Party
Season 6 Episode 2 - Aired 9/22/1970
Lori, the little girl who missed the train back to the city, is staying with the Douglases. Lisa's plan to introduce her to the local children by having a party and gets out of hand; the festivities grow to include an elephant and Haney giving biplane rides. While Oliver fights to downsize her event, he searches for a replacement part for his ancient Hoyt-Clagwell tractor so he can begin planting.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
7.2/10 99 votes#11 - The Vulgar Ring Story
Season 2 Episode 28 - Aired 4/12/1967
Lisa says that woman in her family must marry an American every fourth generation to keep the huge ring she now wears. She regales Hooterville with the story of her great, great grandmother, the Queen of the Gypsies, and her courtship of an American artist, Cornelius. Much stealing and dancing is involved.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
7.2/10 92 votes#12 - Law Partners
Season 4 Episode 17 - Aired 1/29/1969
Recent law school graduate Brian Williams pitches Oliver on joining him in a new practice. After another of his patriotic speeches, this time about law, Oliver is ready to hang out his shingle. Meanwhile, Lisa is excited about becoming their secretary and Eb is ready to run the farm.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
7.2/10 85 votes#13 - A Hunting We Won't Go
Season 4 Episode 21 - Aired 2/26/1969
After a friendly doe wanders onto the farm, Lisa starts a drive to ban deer hunting. When the governor arrives in Hooterville for the start of hunting season, Lisa presents him with her petition. He threatens Oliver and Lisa with jail time because her petition promises everyone who signed it a one-hundred dollar payment.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
7.2/10 93 votes#14 - Lisa's Mudder Comes for a Visit
Season 5 Episode 1 - Aired 9/27/1969
Lisa's 'mudder' (mother) pays a surprise visit to the Hooterville farm and promptly takes over as a three-week house guest.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
7.2/10 79 votes#15 - Happy Birthday
Season 5 Episode 26 - Aired 4/11/1970
It's Oliver's birthday, and everyone but him wants to celebrate. It also (coincidentally) happens to be Arnold's birthday too. Everyone tries to persuade Oliver to get Arnold a birthday present, while he thinks he deserves one because he's human, while Arnold isn't. It turns out Arnold, and Lisa are the only one's who get Oliver a gift, and when he and Lisa go over to the Ziffel's house for his party, only to find that there wasn't one, they return to find all of their furniture stolen.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
7.2/10 99 votes#16 - The City Kids
Season 6 Episode 1 - Aired 9/15/1970
Four children from the city spend a week on the farm with the Douglases. While Oliver teaches them to plant seeds and milk a cow, Lisa falls in love with the little girl of the group, Lori. The two bond over a batch of banana jelly.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
7.2/10 78 votes#17 - Jealousy
Season 6 Episode 3 - Aired 9/29/1970
Eb won't stop badgering "Dad" to buy him a car, though an increasingly irritated Oliver keeps saying no. Meanwhile, Lisa is busy lavishing gifts on little Lori. Feeling he's been replaced in the Douglas family, a dejected Eb runs away to find a new job. He stops by Drucker's store just long enough to tell Sam how Oliver keeps him locked in leg irons and lost his $4000 on a drunken gambling spree in Las Vegas. Eb quickly returns home to discover Oliver isn't the monster he's been claiming.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
7.3/10 124 votes#18 - Uncle Ollie
Season 1 Episode 32 - Aired 6/1/1966
Oliver's groovy nephew arrives in Hooterville on his motorcycle with long hair, hip lingo and no interest in work. Chuck is excellent with motors, however, and proceeds to "soup up" all the vehicles in the valley. The easily influenced Eb is quick to decide he wants to be a beatnick.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: N/A
7.3/10 102 votes#19 - The Good Old Days
Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 11/2/1966
Lisa is homesick for the Park Avenue penthouse. So Oliver tells her the story of Gus and Etta, a farmer and his Hungarian wife who are broken and poor, but make the best of their new-found farm life. Unfortunately, the story ends with their farm being destroyed by a freak flood, and Lisa then longs for Park Avenue even more.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
7.3/10 89 votes#20 - A Husband For Eleanor
Season 4 Episode 7 - Aired 11/13/1968
Oliver plans to leave Eleanor with Mr. Cowan's bull Dudley so she'll birth a calf and start giving milk again. However, Lisa complicates matters when she wants to make sure Eleanor has a good "husband" with bright prospects. No bull Lisa meets seems good enough to marry her "daughter".
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
7.3/10 86 votes#21 - Uncle Fedor
Season 5 Episode 24 - Aired 3/28/1970
Lisa's skittish Uncle Fedor uses the Douglases home to hide out--mostly under the bed and sofa. He claims he's on the run from the Secet Police who want him for smuggling a secret formula. When a man with a scar and another without an ear are spotted in Hooterville, his wild tale starts to seem believable.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
7.4/10 167 votes#22 - The Best Laid Plans
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/6/1965
While Oliver makes plans to get the farm in working order, Lisa travels to New York to pack up their furniture. The Hooterville locals begin gossiping, assuming Lisa left him for good. While she's in the city, Oliver's mother connects her with an architect who designs an extravagant country club.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
7.4/10 156 votes#23 - Furniture, Furniture, Who's Got the Furniture?
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 10/20/1965
Oliver's mother sends the Douglases their furniture from New York, while she also rides down to visit them. While Oliver and Lisa wait for the furniture to arrive, Eunice is stuck with Uncle Joe on his handcar, getting to Hooterville. Things go bad to worse when Eunice finds herself the target of Newt Kiley's bull, and the Douglases' furniture is delivered to Mr. Haney's instead.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
7.4/10 114 votes#24 - Culture
Season 1 Episode 31 - Aired 5/25/1966
The "Every Other Wednesday Afternoon Discussion Club" decides to bring culture to the valley by starting the Hooterville Symphony Orchestra. Oliver calls the women "nuts" for considering such a ridiculous idea. Undeterred, Lisa calls her conductor friend Sir Geffory, aka "Poopsie", to come and conduct the orchestra. What he encounters is the Hooterville Volunteer Fire Department Marching Band playing the only song they know.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Jay Sommers
7.4/10 101 votes#25 - It's Human to Be Humane
Season 2 Episode 19 - Aired 2/1/1967
Bored and looking for a project, Lisa becomes the head of the "Hooterville Human Humane Committee". She takes her cause to the extreme, declaring everything from duck hunting to selling chicken eggs off limits. Soon, the Douglases house is a zoo and the locals are ready to run her out of town.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Sam Locke