The small farming community of Hooterville provided the setting for this highly successful rural situation comedy. Kate Bradley was the widowed owner of the only transient housing in town, the Shady Rest Hotel. Helping her run the hotel were her three beautiful daughters, Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo, and Betty Jo. Also assisting was the girls' lazy Uncle Joe, who had assumed the title of manager.
In addition to her involvement with the hotel, the romantic lives of her daughters, and her association with the townspeople, Kate was constantly at odds with Homer Bedlow, vice-president of the C.F. & W. Railroad. Homer was determined to close down the steam-driven branch of the railroad that ran through Hooterville, scrap its lone engine (the Cannonball), and put its two engineers (Charlie Pratt and Floyd Smoot) out of jobs.
A couple of weeks ago we
brought you the news that CBS/Paramount is prepping
Petticoat Junction - The Official 1st Season on DVD. That info came courtesy of an Amazon pre-order listing giving away the
December 16th release date, along with similar listings at the same time for
Swingtown - Season 1 (12/9) and
The Best of Dr. Katz (12/2). Now Paramount Home Entertainment has officially announced all three releases this morning, and while there's no new info yet for the other two titles, there IS some new info, plus package art (see below), for the
Junction!
You'll get all 38 episodes of the first season from the series, compared to just 26 episodes on MPI's "
Ultimate Collection" release in 2005. Also, the video ought to look sharper, as MPI's were mastered from 16mm film stock, and the CBS/Paramount release will come from 35mm masters. We hear that there will be new bonus material on this release, too, but that it hasn't all been nailed down just yet...so there's nothing to formally announce on extras until that happens. Call that part "rumors" for now. Video will be as originally broadcast in full frame black-and-white, we're told. Audio will be English mono, and the running time is 974 minutes.
