Oliver Wendell Douglas
Encyclopedia
Oliver Wendell Douglas was the major character in the 1960s CBS
situation comedy
Green Acres
. The character's name was inspired by famed Supreme Court
justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
and possibly also by then-Supreme Court justice William Orville Douglas
.
Portrayed by Hollywood veteran Eddie Albert
, Oliver Wendell Douglas was a New York City
attorney
who had long harbored a dream of moving to the Midwest and operating a farm
rather than practicing "big city" law
. His wife, Lisa
, a glamorous Hungarian
immigrant
(who was played by Eva Gabor
, a glamorous Hungarian immigrant), had absolutely no desire to leave sophisticated New York City for a backward, rural
area. His idea also met with stringent resistance from his own mother, Eunice (Eleanor Audley
), who sided with Lisa against leaving New York City for the hinterlands.
However, once they actually arrived at their newly-purchased farm (a run-down nightmare whose farmhouse was little more than a dilapidated shack), it was Lisa, not Oliver, who immediately fit in to Hooterville
and its weird collection of zany characters. Oliver had a high opinion of farmers in theory; he often made a speech in which he referred to "crops shooting up out of the ground" and other platitudes about rural life, which on the program was invariably accompanied by a background of patriotic
music (Yankee Doodle to be exact); other characters frequently searched for the source of the music. Oliver was usually presented in the light of being the only sane character in an insane world; however, he, too, had his quirks, such as driving his tractor
wearing the same three-piece suits that he had formerly worn to practice law and addressing nearly every other person in Hooterville as Mr. or Mrs., though the Hootervillians referred to each other by first names (although they apparently reciprocated by continuing to refer to him as "Mr. Douglas").
Douglas also was either too blinded by pride or too stubborn to admit that he was a totally incompetent failure as a farmer. He did not fit in to a place where everyone took for granted that a "talking" pig
, Arnold Ziffel
, was his owners' "son", or where one of the two contractor "brothers" constantly remodelling his house was a woman, and somehow always lost out to local confidence man Mr. Haney
, from whom he had bought the farm in the first place. He also hired the young, annoying Eb Dawson, who called him & Lisa, his parents, whom Oliver was often irritated by. He is such a fanatic farmer wannabe in the pilot episode, that during a flashback while on a bombing mission in a P-38, he annoys his squadron commander with comments about how tomatoes are turned into catsup. A later episode shows Oliver was a Captain in USAF Reserves when the Hooterville townsfolk try to have him fly a broken down Curtiss JN-4
from World War I.
Oliver's denial led him to labor on in vain, year after year, when it was obvious to everyone else that he would be far more successful back in his New York law practice. His wife Lisa, a very reluctant rural dweller initially, fits right in to her new surroundings and is almost immediately accepted and befriended by nearly everyone. One running gag
shows how Oliver usually "loses" one way or another to the Hooterville yokels. In one episode Mr Haney, Lisa, and Hank Kimball think they've discovered a "Milk-making" Machine. Oliver has to tell them (tongue-in-cheek) that not only are the chemicals so expensive that milk prices would soar- but that this new milk also causes baldness! One episode shows Oliver as a "successful" lawyer when he manages to convince the US Army not to draft Arnold Ziffel the Pig. At the end of the episode Oliver has a new client to keep from being drafted-"Ralph Monroe"! Despite being a horrible farmer and once only making 16 dollars of profit for the entire year, the Douglases never had to worry about money -- for instance, they never have trouble replacing the numerous dishes that Lisa breaks. This once caused the other residents to believe that Oliver was making and selling alcohol, and that he was involved with the mob.
In a way, Albert was well-suited to his role. He was long active in a series of environmental and agricultural
concerns including a project to involve inner-city children in gardening, and was one of the organizers of the original Earth Day
, held annually on his birthday, April 22. Additionally, he was one of very few Hollywood actors to grow much of his own food, in a garden on his former Beverly Hills
estate, and served as an advocate for organic practices. (Apparently he was far more successful in his real-life efforts to raise food than his character ever was.) Additionally, Albert's character in 1956's The Teahouse of the August Moon, Dr./Captain McLean, was something of a prototype for Oliver: an eductated, sophisticated professional who passionately obscesses about becoming a farmer.
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
situation comedy
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
Green Acres
Green Acres
Green Acres is an American television series starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm...
. The character's name was inspired by famed Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932...
and possibly also by then-Supreme Court justice William Orville Douglas
William O. Douglas
William Orville Douglas was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. With a term lasting 36 years and 209 days, he is the longest-serving justice in the history of the Supreme Court...
.
Portrayed by Hollywood veteran Eddie Albert
Eddie Albert
Edward Albert Heimberger , known professionally as Eddie Albert, was an American actor and activist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid.Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing...
, Oliver Wendell Douglas was a New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
attorney
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
who had long harbored a dream of moving to the Midwest and operating a farm
Farm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...
rather than practicing "big city" law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
. His wife, Lisa
Lisa Douglas
Lisa Douglas was the leading female character in the 1960s CBS situation comedy Green Acres.Lisa , a glamorous Hungarian immigrant, was the wife of...
, a glamorous Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
immigrant
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
(who was played by Eva Gabor
Eva Gabor
Eva Gabor was a Hungarian-born socialite and actress. She was widely known for her role on Green Acres as Lisa Douglas, the wife of Eddie Albert's character, Oliver Wendell Douglas, Duchess in the 1970 Disney film The Aristocats, and Miss Bianca in Disney's The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under...
, a glamorous Hungarian immigrant), had absolutely no desire to leave sophisticated New York City for a backward, rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
area. His idea also met with stringent resistance from his own mother, Eunice (Eleanor Audley
Eleanor Audley
Eleanor Audley was an American actress who was a familiar radio and animation voice, in addition to her TV and film roles...
), who sided with Lisa against leaving New York City for the hinterlands.
However, once they actually arrived at their newly-purchased farm (a run-down nightmare whose farmhouse was little more than a dilapidated shack), it was Lisa, not Oliver, who immediately fit in to Hooterville
Hooterville
Hooterville was a fictional town that was the setting of the American television sitcoms Petticoat Junction and Green Acres.-Citizens:The town of Hooterville was founded in 1868 by Horace Hooter...
and its weird collection of zany characters. Oliver had a high opinion of farmers in theory; he often made a speech in which he referred to "crops shooting up out of the ground" and other platitudes about rural life, which on the program was invariably accompanied by a background of patriotic
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
music (Yankee Doodle to be exact); other characters frequently searched for the source of the music. Oliver was usually presented in the light of being the only sane character in an insane world; however, he, too, had his quirks, such as driving his tractor
Tractor
A tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction...
wearing the same three-piece suits that he had formerly worn to practice law and addressing nearly every other person in Hooterville as Mr. or Mrs., though the Hootervillians referred to each other by first names (although they apparently reciprocated by continuing to refer to him as "Mr. Douglas").
Douglas also was either too blinded by pride or too stubborn to admit that he was a totally incompetent failure as a farmer. He did not fit in to a place where everyone took for granted that a "talking" pig
Pig
A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...
, Arnold Ziffel
Arnold Ziffel
Arnold Ziffel was a pig featured in Green Acres, an American situation comedy that was produced by Filmways, Inc., and originally aired on the CBS network from 1965 to 1971...
, was his owners' "son", or where one of the two contractor "brothers" constantly remodelling his house was a woman, and somehow always lost out to local confidence man Mr. Haney
Mr. Haney
Mr. Haney was a local farmer turned salesman and con man in the rural Hooterville community who was a supporting antagonist character on the 1960s CBS television series Green Acres.Haney, portrayed by veteran character actor and longtime Western film sidekick Pat Buttram with the odd,...
, from whom he had bought the farm in the first place. He also hired the young, annoying Eb Dawson, who called him & Lisa, his parents, whom Oliver was often irritated by. He is such a fanatic farmer wannabe in the pilot episode, that during a flashback while on a bombing mission in a P-38, he annoys his squadron commander with comments about how tomatoes are turned into catsup. A later episode shows Oliver was a Captain in USAF Reserves when the Hooterville townsfolk try to have him fly a broken down Curtiss JN-4
Curtiss JN-4
The Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" was one of a series of "JN" biplanes built by the Curtiss Aeroplane Company of Hammondsport, New York, later the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. Although the Curtiss JN series was originally produced as a training aircraft for the U.S...
from World War I.
Oliver's denial led him to labor on in vain, year after year, when it was obvious to everyone else that he would be far more successful back in his New York law practice. His wife Lisa, a very reluctant rural dweller initially, fits right in to her new surroundings and is almost immediately accepted and befriended by nearly everyone. One running gag
Running gag
A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling....
shows how Oliver usually "loses" one way or another to the Hooterville yokels. In one episode Mr Haney, Lisa, and Hank Kimball think they've discovered a "Milk-making" Machine. Oliver has to tell them (tongue-in-cheek) that not only are the chemicals so expensive that milk prices would soar- but that this new milk also causes baldness! One episode shows Oliver as a "successful" lawyer when he manages to convince the US Army not to draft Arnold Ziffel the Pig. At the end of the episode Oliver has a new client to keep from being drafted-"Ralph Monroe"! Despite being a horrible farmer and once only making 16 dollars of profit for the entire year, the Douglases never had to worry about money -- for instance, they never have trouble replacing the numerous dishes that Lisa breaks. This once caused the other residents to believe that Oliver was making and selling alcohol, and that he was involved with the mob.
In a way, Albert was well-suited to his role. He was long active in a series of environmental and agricultural
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
concerns including a project to involve inner-city children in gardening, and was one of the organizers of the original Earth Day
Earth Day
Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. The name and concept of Earth Day was allegedly pioneered by John McConnell in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco. The first Proclamation of Earth Day was by San Francisco, the...
, held annually on his birthday, April 22. Additionally, he was one of very few Hollywood actors to grow much of his own food, in a garden on his former Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
estate, and served as an advocate for organic practices. (Apparently he was far more successful in his real-life efforts to raise food than his character ever was.) Additionally, Albert's character in 1956's The Teahouse of the August Moon, Dr./Captain McLean, was something of a prototype for Oliver: an eductated, sophisticated professional who passionately obscesses about becoming a farmer.