The humor that surrounds the character of Arnold comes from his human-like abilities and lifestyle, and from the way the people of Hooterville insist on thinking of him as a fellow human. They invite him to town meetings, they play checkers with him (and lose), and they speak English to him and can understand him when he speaks with pig squeals and grunts. New resident Oliver Douglas is the lone holdout. He tries to explain to people that Arnold is just a pig, but no one will listen to him.[1] On the contrary, they are suspicious of Oliver, because of his inability to communicate with Arnold.[2] This dynamic is part of a larger theme of Green Acres, that Oliver's sense of logic is meaningless in the Hooterville universe.[3] Arnold can do pretty much anything a human can. He can write his name and change channels on the television. He watches the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite to keep up with the issues.[4] He signs checks and can adjust the TV antenna, and he is the smartest student at the local grade school.[5] He carries his lunchbox in his mouth, and often plays practical jokes on the other students.[6] Arnold is also artistically talented: he is working on a novel, he plays the piano, and he is an accomplished abstract painter, dubbed "Porky Picasso", whose piece titled "Nude at a Filling Station" wins first prize out of two thousand entries in a student art contest.[7][4] He even works as a "paper pig" delivering newspapers, although he has a bad habit of throwing copies so hard and so badly aimed that he sometimes breaks windows.
“Nude at a Filling Station” was a work of art I tell you!
That was a great Bio on Arnold! :)
My favorite ‘Green Acres’ is when Arnold falls in love with Mr. Haney’s Basset Hound, Cynthia; Romeo and Juliet had nothin’ on those two. :)
(I don’t own any pigs, but I have been ‘owned’ by three Basset Hounds. Rufus, Belle and Pearl.)
I once explained to a college professor that Green acres was one of the best examples of the theater of the absurd and a great show. Needless to say, he ridiculed me and evidently thought I was stupid.
I still love Green Acres. The Agriculture agent, Hank was the best. His stop and start narrative, changing the subject several times was priceless.
I’ve only seen one or two episodes of Green Acres, a reverse Beverly Hillbillies.
BH was one of the great tv shows, but like most, it ran out of ideas before it ran out of film.
The old I Love Lucy holds up well to this day. The theme of mischief-making female never gets old but nobody beats Lucy.