A friend is an enormous Green Acres fan, knows this telemovie was appallingly bad (she can clearly recall Eddie Albert actively telling the public not to watch it whilst appearing on the obligatory talk shows - he apparently signed on to do it before reading the script, then was threatened with legal action when he tried to get out of the contract whilst Eva Gabor was saying "oh, just take ze money darlink") but I think all this drama and talk of abysmal writing quality or anything resembling a decent plot has just made her more curious to see it (she never has). If anyone who has a copy in any quality could contact me I would really appreciate it, as it's highly unlikely to be commercially released any time soon. Thanks.
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pete319414 July 2009
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william-4828 December 2009How about a movie that is directed and written by the original director who directed all but 3 of the episodes? Introducing, Mr. Richard Bare!!!!! This should be filmed by August of next year for a 2011 release. Are you excited??? We are in the works of pre-production. The script is written, and boy howdy, is it good. The context will be set in the original time-frame. The cast will be famous and look alikes. Which A list actor do you think looks the most like Eddie Albert? How about Eva Gabor? Who should play Arnold? How about Mr. Kimball? We already have a Mr Haney! You must stick to the original values of the TV series. Especially in a movie as important as Green Acres as it has a HUGE following! Let's get er done.
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BandSAboutMovies18 April 2022If you can get past Arnold the pig putting flowers on the grave of Doris Ziffel in the credits, well, Green Acres was back. For two hours or so.
After 25 years, Oliver and Lisa Douglas (Edward Albert and Eva Gabor) are finally sick of farm living and moves back to Park Avenue. With them gone, Mr. Haney (Pat Buttram) no longer has someone to match, well, wits with and goes full final boss and sells everyone's homes to land developers who are planning on bulldozing all of Hooterville. So, as you can imagine, everyone goes from Green Acres to New York City to bring Oliver and his lawyer abilities back.
As the 25th anniversary of the show, this is a fine end to the story, as the Oliver and Lisa finally realize that Green Acres is where they want to stay. This was directed by William Asher, who directed plenty of beach movies like Muscle Beach Party, Beach Blanket Bingo, Bikini Beach and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini. He also created The Patty Duke Show. One of the writers of this TV movie, Guy Shulman, also wrote All Dogs Go to Heaven.
Nick at Nite helped so many shows like Green Acres find a new audience. I've watched it any time it aired in syndication, as it's literally comfort food for my tense and nervous mind. -
budikavlan14 September 2003This is one more movie based on a TV show which feels like it was written by someone who never saw the show, and based the script on what people had told them about it. It has the right characters, place names, and situations, but none of the wifty, oddball humor which made the show special. It was good they could get (almost all) the same actors back from the original series. As usually happens in reunion movies like this, something happens to threaten the situation, and the characters band together to (everyone say it together) "SAVE THE TOWN!" The end of the movie is everyone saying "Well, now we can go back to normal!" It's almost as if the scripts for these things come in a kit--they're that stereotyped.
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dirk-crockett10 June 2008Yes, it missed the mark big time. I've always felt that reunion shows of this ilk (i.e.,old 30-minute sitcoms) should be done in the same 30-minute time-frame. And, in this particular case, should have been done on similar sets as the TV show instead of filming outdoors in real settings. Because the producers and/or writers chose real-life settings for this reunion show AND stretched it to two hours, the look and feel of the show was completely alien to the original series. For me, that was the first glaring mistake. They should have stuck to the cheap indoor sets and made it a half-hour long. Maybe then they could've used the money they'd have saved and spent it on better writers, because the next glaring mistake was the bad writing. It stuck out like a sore thumb. I give this movie two stars instead of one, because the only endearing aspect of this "mistake" was seeing most of the original cast together again.
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This is probably the second-worst TV reunion show ever. While the honor for the worst goes to the Beverly Hillbillies reunion, this one is only marginally better. First off, the show begins by explaining that Oliver and Lisa had moved back to New York and had been living there many years!! This NEVER could have happened in the TV series and in many ways makes the show irrelevant--after all, what's funny about moving to Hootersville and then leaving because it DID suck after all?! Secondly, like the Hillbilly TV movie, a lot of the cast was dead or near-dead. Fred Zipfel was dead and Mr. Haney just looked dead (he was very sickly and died soon afterward). And the rest of them just looked old and tired. It was pretty sad watching this mess, as it just wasn't the same. It's true you can never really go back.
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brian_m_hass29 October 2016In this reunion movie, Oliver and Lisa Douglas decide to return to New York City. Mr. and Mrs. Douglas later return to Hooterville to help the residents when their small town is in trouble.
This reunion movie had a lot going for it. Most of the characters from the original "Green Acres" returned; and, there was no recasting (with the possible exception of Arnold the Pig). Often, when actors have been away from their old characters for a number of years, they can be a bit rusty when returning to their roles; but, none of that was evident here. The movie was well acted and featured an engaging story.
Often, reunion movies never feel quite the same as the original television shows. To some degree, that was evident in this movie as well; since the movie wasn't quite as zany as the original television series was. However, high school class reunions are never quite the same as being back in high school; but, people still like to attend those reunions to see familiar faces. It was a lot of fun to revisit the iconic characters of "Green Acres."
Overall, this was an above-average reunion movie for a classic TV sitcom. It was filled with a lot of fun moments; and in many ways, it exceeded expectations. Fans of the original "Green Acres" are certain to enjoy it. -
If y'all grew up with the original TV series and its surrealistic humor, take a pass on this production...better yet, watch it once to just to learn one can't bring back the past. There's none of the off-the-wall humor of the TV series. Lisa Douglas (Eva Gabor) has to work hard to deliver stupid lines. Even Arnold Ziffel is phoning in his performance...although this Arnold is probably the tenth-great grandpig of the original. (Where's Cynthia, the basset hound??)
I watched this mainly to see if it was any good. There's two hours of my life I'll never recover.
Now, even though I've seen one-sentence reviews, I have to post 600 characters to put up mine. Thank the IMDB people for such discrimination. -
toyguy-315192 August 2022I'm saddened by the negative user reviews posted about this tv reunion. I agree it wasn't the offbeat humor from the original series but it was still nice to see so many of the cast members together again. Also, I just can't believe Eddie Albert would trash this movie on a talk show or to anyone. I met him in the late 1980's and everyone or thing he spoke about was with an honest, pleasant, upbeat demeanor. In fact I've never read or heard any negative remarks about anyone in the cast. Enjoy it for what it is and not for what others think it should have been.
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Jaclyn27 February 2004I agree with the previous reviewer who said that this reunion movie must have been written by someone who had never seen the original show. In a way, Green Acres was like Seinfeld for the 1960s, in that there were no lessons or morals learned and very little seriousness or sentimentality - just lots of weird humor (except for some lovey-dovey scenes between Oliver and Lisa at the end of some episodes). This is also a show that had a lot of fun breaking the 4th wall, with characters making references to the opening credits and such. That said, what on earth were the writers thinking when they wrote this movie? The movie isn't even funny - did they forget that Green Acres was supposed to be a comedy? The plot is very cliched - a greedy business man conspires with Mr. Haney to buy everyone's property in Hooterville and turn it into a mall or something. This results in many serious, sappy scenes that have none of the wacky flavor of the original. We even have a "lesson," as Eb's teenage son learns to appreciate his rural hometown instead of thinking it's boring. We also have a romance between the Ziffels' niece and the businessman's son, which I think only makes the show drag even more. Stick with the original - the only reason to watch this movie is if you're curious to see how the cast looked after 20 years.
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jlfirebirds10 March 2024This was a great reunion of most of the original cast, played by the original actors. A good story, with lots of laughs. Lots of running gags and details from the original series. Naturally, some things have changed, since there were 19 years between the end of the series and this movie.
My only three complaints: 1) It was filmed outside, rather than on a set, so they couldn't make it look quite like it did on the show. For example, the Douglas' house is now off the main road; the exterior layout of the house is now different and doesn't match the layout of the inside; there's no longer a railroad next to Drucker's Store and the town just in general looks a little TOO different. Hooterville was always "behind in the times" and therefore, the change should have been minor. 2) Some of the actors were not very good at acting, but it was a lower budget film and it was the '90s, so what do you expect? And 3) They made Mr. Haney out to be the villain. On the original series, he was a con man, but it was always in fun. He was never evil. In this movie, he is compared to the Devil.
However, these are relatively small complaints. If you are a fan of the original series, you should definitely watch this fun movie! It's currently free on Amazon Prime and you can find it on DVD in a few places online. -
nolukeno5 May 2004While it was a treat to see the old cast back together, the film suffered from "Reunion" fever that plagued many of the reunion movies of the era. Hatching a silly plot involving spies and trying to stretch it into a two hour movie was a huge mistake.
If they had bothered to watch the old series they would have known that the deviation from the original was killing what they were making before they even filmed it!
The old show consisted of wacky characters that the audience cared about, not some crazy plot that drags the characters out of the places we like to see them in. I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it didn't even show the interiors of the characters homes, and in the case of "Green Acres," the old Haney Place (the Douglas's farm) and Druker's Store were practically characters in themselves.
Besides that, in updating us on the town of Hooterville they forgot to include anyone from "Petticoat Junction," or even the Shady Rest Hotel, for that matter! This was a cookie-cutter production designed to cash in on nostalgia for the series. The actors were great, the script a shambles, and sadly the last time we got to see Pat Buttram, Alvey Moore and Eva Gabor act together.
They should have left the good work that was the original series..alone. -
Apparently William Asher never watched any 60's TV besides Bewitched. Otherwise he'd have seen Green Acres at least once and had a clue how to direct "Return".
Pure garbage is place for this, lame story is a total miss. Jokes falling flat far and wide. Give me the original and let's pretend that Bill never tried.
This is the worst remake of anything I can recall.
It would have been much better to have made a 2 hour reunion of the cast to reminisce about the original show.
The writers must have worked from a list of character bios and reverse engineered this travesty while completely missing everything that made the series awesome. I'm sorry I watched it and will never make that mistake again. -
Slopmaster400117 September 2003This would be a decent movie by its self but being a TV movie version of Green Acres its lost some of the original humor that made the TV series great.
I do however have to give it points for letting us see the old and new generation of Hooter Ville residents and thats never to bad.