This Running ‘Green Acres’ Gag Is More Bizarre Than Anything on TV Today

You can describe ’60s sitcoms in a lot of ways–and believe me, with this job, I have. Comedies from that decade are sophisticated (The Dick Van Dyke Show), silly (The Beverly Hillbillies), sweet (The Andy Griffith Show), swingin’ (That Girl), satirical (Get Smart), or just plain stupid (Gilligan’s Island–no shade). And then there’s Green Acres, a show that I would describe mostly as “all of the above,” but I would also add one word that’s unique to this show and this show alone: surreal. After rewatching a bunch of Green Acres now that it’s streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video, I’m more sure of that than ever.

Sure, sitcoms in the ’60s had witches, genies, families of monsters, and talking horses, but all of those oddball aspects were baked into the premise of the show–shows that all followed the traditional sitcom structure pioneered by I Love Lucy and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet in the ’50s. Like all the other shows on in the mid-to-late ’60s, Green Acres had a peculiar premise of its own (big city lawyer finally fulfills his farm life fantasy, dragging his Hungarian socialite wife along with him). But unlike all those other shows, this one relished in messing with the sitcom format, milking every single moment for maximum weirdness. That included, bizarrely enough, the opening creator credits.

Instead of sitting still for 10 seconds and letting the names of the executive producer, writer, and director scroll by, Green Acres decided to do something that’s absolutely cuckoo, even when compared to today’s TV. Starting halfway through Season 2, Green Acres began randomly incorporating those names into the episode, turning the brief section between the end of the (iconic) opening credits and the start of the episode into surreal primetime TV pop art.

What does it look like when a show takes creator credits–names that are not meant to be commented upon by the very characters those named individuals wrote or directed–and makes characters aware of them? It looks like Sam Drucker printing a local paper with the names of the writers, and then threatening to bludgeon the printing press if it doesn’t print the right front page.

It looks like Mr. Ziffel trying to knock on the Douglas’ front door, only to get distracted by these pesky names that keep popping up every time he turns his back.

It looks like some old timey crooks (including Happy Days‘ Al!) pausing by some graffiti credits while slinking away from a heist. “Must be a lot of show business kids in this neighborhood,” they remark.

The credits pop up on the side of Mr. Haney’s jalopy, during the end credits of a show Arnold the pig’s enjoying, and while the wishy washy Mr. Kimball’s trying to get a line out. The credits interrupt or even torment a lot of people in the cast–but no one gets it as much as Lisa Douglas (Eva Gabor).

Lisa practically has a full-blown character arc revolving around her relationship to these mysterious “names,” as she calls them. She’s the first person to see the names when they finally enter the mortal realm from whatever written reality they were once captive within. After the credits roll in the Season 2 episode “Exodus to Bleedswell,” Lisa wakes up her sleeping husband Oliver and asks if he knows who “Jay Summers and Dick Chevrolet” are. A few episodes later, the names pop up on the eggs Lisa’s collecting for one of her disastrous breakfasts.

Lisa remarks, “What’s the matter with you chickens? All your eggs are coming out with names on.” Lisa, herself one of Green Acres‘ most delightfully weird presences, is never shocked by this. She takes it all in stride, even when the names pop up on the hotcakes she’s making in the Season 3 premiere.

So she’s cooking namecakes instead of hotcakes. She’s fine with that.

In the Season 3 episode “Not Guilty,” eagle-eyed viewers (or writers intentionally watching the first 10 seconds of every episode for an article) will notice that the episode begins without the names. That’s because this is the only episode of the series where they appear at the end of the episode, which Lisa of course comments on.

Keep in mind that Oliver (Eddie Albert) never notices the names, not even once. He responds to all of Lisa’s talk of “names” with confusion–but then again, he’s confused by a lot of what Lisa says. He does interact with the names in Season 3’s “Flight to Nowhere,” when they appear on the towel and bathrobe he uses after getting out of his outdoor shower. Lisa notices: “You used to swipe towels from hotels, now you swipe them from executive producers.”

Lisa sees the names on playing cards while she’s reading Oliver’s fortune…

… and she even tries to wake Oliver up in time to see the names.

Oliver never budges. But she’s not alone in noticing these names. Her chicken Charlie knows they’re there, and she even lets him cluck them out in one Season 5 episode.

The last time Lisa sees The Names comes in the Season 6 episode “The Coming Out Party,” and it’s a weirdly touching moment–that is, if you’re paying attention specifically to how Lisa’s relationship with these credits changes over the course of the show, which is what I’m doing like a weirdo. When she first saw the names in Season 2, she thought they were a dream. Over the course of the show’s run, she’s spotted them in the field, on her TV, in her kitchen, and on crates and playing cards. Oliver’s never once seen the names, and Lisa’s never been in the presence of another Hooterville resident when they saw them, either. She’s only had Charlie the chicken to share this sight with. But now, in the final season, she finally has someone to share them with.

Isn’t it kinda sweet, in a very strange way? But turning the show’s most meta moment into a surprisingly tender one between Lisa and a visiting child, isn’t that actually the weirdest direction to take this running gag? That’s Green Acres for you–and that’s why this show still can’t be outdone when it comes to weird.

Stream Green Acres on Prime Video