Petticoat Junction - Season 2

It's the first day of school and Kate is having trouble getting a couple of her daughters motivated to go. Betty Jo has a new friend, a little dog that follows her back from school. Kate refuses to let Betty Jo keep the dog, despite it being cute and well trained. Kate believes that he must belong to someone. Betty Jo brings him back to school, but he stills follows her home. Kate decides to let the dog stay until the owner claims him or until the dog starts to cause problems for the family. The dog does end up causing some problems, but Kate has a change of heart and let's him stay.

Henry Barton is dropping off his pregnant wife Elsie at the Shady Rest. While the baby isn't due for two weeks, Henry still wants someone to watch Elsie as he will be gone for three days. The women aren't at all worried, but Uncle Joe is quite concerned. Joe gets even more panicked when Kate tells him most babies arrive in the middle of the night. He comes up with an elaborate plan involving some of the men of the valley to get Doc Stuart to the Shady Rest if Elsie has the baby in the middle of the night. Without telling anyone, Joe has a trial run of his plan at 3am just to make sure it all goes smoothly. Everyone is quite mad at Uncle Joe. To make matters worse, Joe does it a second time. When Elsie does actually go into labor, it looks as though someone else will have to help with the delivery

Uncle Joe isn't thrilled with the idea of turning the Cannonball's baggage car into a mobile library. He likes even less having to build the library shelves. But after meeting her, Uncle Joe grows extremely fond of pretty librarian Phyllis Marsh. Despite their age difference, among other things, Joe is not shy about romancing Phyllis. Phyllis has to find a way to let him down easy without hurting his feelings, because she is actually engaged. Phyllis introduces her fiance Hal Jackson to Kate. Kate comes up with a plan to show Uncle Joe how inappropriate he and Miss Marsh are as a couple.

Sam, Charley, Floyd and Uncle Joe are rehearsing a reenactment of the signing of the treaty between the Umquaw Indians and the C&FW Railroad. The treaty gave Indian land in the vicinity of Deadman's Curve to the company. Joe thinks the reenactment will bring in tourists to the area and guests to the hotel. Meanwhile, Norman Curtis wants the company's stockholders' meeting to be held at the Shady Rest with Homer Bedloe presiding. Norman tells Bedloe he doesn't want anyone to vote for anything that would harm Kate or the people of the valley. Bedloe finds out about Joe's treaty reenactment plan. He then finds out that the Umquaw never signed the treaty according to C&FW files. Bedloe lets the Umquaw know. Despite not really wanting to do it, Chief Fleeteagle and Black Salmon make what will be a profitable deal for them and the end of the Cannonball. Kate may come up with the best deal of them all.

Hooterville has a long standing record of being the first community to have their political votes submitted to the state. Pip Winslow from Crabwell Corners is taking bets that they will beat Hooterville this year, because they have a new automatic voting machine. Hooterville may lose regardless because of a disagreement between Kate and Selma Plout. Selma threatens to cast her ballot late in the day just to spite Kate. A letter from the Governor comes addressed to the Hooterville Chamber of Commerce, which doesn't exist. So they can open the letter, Joe, Charley and Floyd create the Chamber. The Governor hopes they can extend their 20 year record. Kate believes she has a way for Selma to change her mind. Despite a couple of set-backs, Hooterville gets their votes in first.

Betty Jo wants to enter Dog in a contest to make a commercial for Tailwagger Dog Food. The winner also receives a $500 cash award. Kate tries to discourage Betty Jo because Dog doesn't have a chance against purebreds. The girls are thrilled when they receive a letter telling them that Dog is one of the five finalists. The letter also says that Mr. Talbot with the dog food company will be coming by to see Dog. What they don't know is that Henry Brewster, the local photo-finisher, who sent in both his and the Bradleys' entries, got the pictures interchanged. This means that Mr. Talbot was really naming Henry's collie one of the five finalists. But after meeting Dog, Mr. Talbot has an idea for a whole series of other commercials. He would like to use Dog and the entire family. Uncle Joe's meddling may ruin everything and Dog may have a say in how things go.

Uncle Joe shocks Kate by bringing home a buffalo! Kate tells him to take it back, but all sales were final. It's part of his scheme to dupe wealthy British sportsman Lord Harold Faversham into coming to "Shady Rest Hunting Lodge" to hunt wild buffalo. But, the buffalo is far from wild and the girls want to keep him as a pet. Another problem arises when Joe spooks the buffalo, who runs off, leaving Lord Faversham nothing to hunt for. Joe stalls Faversham for three days. The Lord is growing tired of Joe and threatens to sue, while the girl try to protect their new pet. Kate comes up with a way for Faversham to have all the hunting he wants.

The girls are trying to learn some Japanese to make Betty Jo's Japanese pen pal, Nobuko Takamura, feel at home for her visit. Nobuko has come to the US to attend college to improve her English so that she can teach it back in Japan. She would also like to learn American customs. Nobuko tells Joe that in Japan, the women do the yard work. Joe gets Nobuko to do his chores until Kate puts a stop to it. On a picnic, Nobuko can't help but serve Billie Jo and Bobbie Jo's boyfriends. Kate tells Nobuko that the men should be the ones helping the women. Nobuko catches on to that custom quite quickly.

Billie Jo is upset that the Cannonball is late and she believes it has outlived its usefulness. Meanwhile, Homer Bedloe, the Hooterville Cannonball's arch-enemy, has been having terrible nightmares about the train. To get rid of them, his psychiatrist Dr. Leonard suggests that he "learn to love" the Cannonball. The Cannonball has been encountering some broken tracks. Kate decides to let the C&FW Railroad know. Bedloe writes back that he will fix the tracks. When Bedloe visits the Shadyrest Hotel, he is surprised how friendly everyone is being to him. Everyone except Uncle Joe. But Kate was just gas-lighting Bedloe and didn't really believe the change in him when he said he loved the train. She finds out Bedloe is planning to remove the old damaged tracks instead of replacing them to shut down the Cannonball. Kate comes up with a plan to stop him.

Jack Crandall, who is with H-D-L Food Products, is a passenger on the Cannonball. He is stunned when the train stops just so Charley and Floyd can pick apples for Kate's special recipe: Bachelor Butter. She gives it to the bachelors of the valley as a thank you for all they do for her over the course of the year. Jack Crandall tastes the butter and really likes it. He brings a couple jars back to his company to see if he can produce it for sale. Jack sends Kate a letter stating he wants to buy the recipe for H-D-L and will pay her $250. He will pay her another $250 after she shows him how to make it in their laboratory kitchen. At the test kitchen, Mr. Stevens and Mr. Kimberly are having a hard time translating Kate's measuring process into a precise recipe. When the apple butter doesn't turn out right, Kate has all her equipment from home brought to the test kitchen, including her oven. Jack understands when the next batch doesn't turn out either.

Kate doesn't have anything against Dan, Billie Jo's boyfriend, that is except his mother is Selma Plout, her arch-enemy. Kate and Selma are once again arguing at the Every Other Wednesday Afternoon Discussion Club. Kate doesn't even mind talk of Billie Jo and Dan perhaps getting married. Uncle Joe tells Kate there's a real possibility that the two are going to get married and she might want to think about becoming friends with Selma. Kate makes an attempt to be nice to Selma, but that doesn't work out too well. Rumors are flying and it's starting to look as though Billie Jo and Dan are going to elope. Sam makes a call to Pixley and finds out that Dan got married. Kate and Selma start crying in each others arms. Turns out Dan married Emily Lawrence and Billie Jo was just helping

Kate learns from Sam that the US Army is conducting war games in the area around the Shady Rest. Kate is worried about her three daughters because they are swimming in the water tower and wearing bikinis. Three lost soldiers from the Blue Squad - Hank Benton, Tod Langwell and Stu Howard - come to the Shady Rest after they spot the girls. Kate doesn't mind the GIs and the girls spending time together, as long as someone else is keeping an eye on them. General Patterson of the Green Squad arrives at the Shady Rest and is captured by the three GIs. More and more soldiers come by and they wind up having a large party. Kate manages to get the General to go along with things.

Uncle Joe has formed the Hooterville Volunteer Fire Department Volunteer Band. The band is so bad that it is driving paying guests away from the hotel. Joe hoped to raise money with the band to form an actual Hooterville Volunteer Fire Department. An upset Joe tells Kate she should come up with a better way to raise the money. After asking for donations only raises $62, Kates decides they need professional help. Kate wants to contact Henry Phillips, who works for a company that manufacture fire equipment, and ask his help. Calling in an outsider irks Uncle Joe and he says he can get all the equipment they need for the $62 they have. Joe winds up buying a bunch of junk. Mr. Phillips arrives and after a plan gone wrong by Joe, Kate finds a way to have Mr. Phillips get them what they need. Another plan of Joe's goes wrong and the Hooterville train station winds up burning down.

It's a dark and stormy night in Hooterville. Mr. Richardson is a guest at the hotel. Uncle Joe tells him about the curse of Chester W. Farnsworth, a guest at the hotel fifty years ago. He was a traveling drummer and notorious hotel towel thief. On a stormy night like this, he stole a Shady Rest towel from his room, went out into the night and was never seen again. Since then, Chester has been haunting all the hotels that he stole towels from. He has to return all the towels before he can end up in his final resting place. Joe figures it won't be long before Chester visits the Shady Rest. The next morning, Richardson is packing his bag and he takes a hotel towel. Dog sees him do it and takes the towel out of the bag. Richardson tells Kate and Joe that something made him do it. Other strange events start to occur. Kate finds out that a bunch of salesmen who were supposed to be guests won't be returning until the curse has been lifted. When more strange things occur, Kate decides to talk to Doc Stuart. He recommends speaking with Dr. Melman, a psychiatrist and an expert in paranormal events. Something happens to make everyone believe that Chester arrived and the curse has been lifted. But did he actually show up?

Uncle Joe has been receiving and sending what appears to be love letters, but won't say who it is. Kate eventually learns that Joe is writing to Mary Alice Perkins. Kate is upset because Mary Alice stood Joe up at the altar several years ago and ran off with his best man, George Perkins. Joe tells Kate that George has passed away. He also admits he never loved anyone but her, and that he has now forgiven her. It seems she is coming to the Shady Rest to marry Joe. When Mary Alice arrives, Kate is put off by her snobbish ways and her meddling. She even rearranges the hotel lobby. Preparations are being made for the wedding. Boo Boo Webster, Mary Alice's lawyer, shows up to give the bride away. As the wedding starts, Dog brings Joe a letter that says Mary Alice has run off with Boo Boo. Everyone is kind of relieved, including Joe. They all decide to go ahead with the party.

Billie Jo wins a contest at secretarial school and is offered her first job. She will be private secretary to author Oliver Fenton. World traveling Fenton is coming to Hooterville because his next book is based in a small town. He has rented one of the houses in town. Selma tells Kate that Fenton writes "those kind of books". After reading one of Fenton's books, Kate tells Billie Jo that she can't work for him. Uncle Joe tells Kate she has to trust Billie Jo. When Billie Jo meets Fenton, she finds him to be a graying old man. She now knows that her mother's worries are ill-founded. Joe now tells Kate he's worried about Billie Jo. Kate sends some spies to check on her. Over the next several days Billie Jo decides to have a little fun and test just how much her mother does truly trust her. Kate goes to confront Fenton and realizes Billie Jo was playing games with her. Kate and Oliver have dinner together and he asks her about her life. Kate gets Oliver's latest book and it's a romantic story based on her.

The girls are upset that they don't have a telephone at the hotel. They can't communicate with their friends and are social outcasts. Kate says it would cost $800 for the telephone company to install two miles of line just to get to the hotel. The girls have to get their calls at Drucker's Store and it's starting to disrupt his business. Then Floyd and Charley have to go back and forth between the store and the hotel with the messages. Sam refuses to take any more calls for them. Uncle Joe decides to start his own telephone company. He plans on using the barbed wire fencing surrounding all the local farms as the primary communication lines. A bunch of the local men come to the hotel to play poker. Instead, Joe gives them a sales pitch about his phone company. Joe plans to tap illegally into the Hooterville Telephone Company's line, but Sam doesn't let him. Joe comes up with a really complicated alternative. It's not long before the whole plan falls apart.

Volunteer fire chief Uncle Joe has designed a new nighttime alarm system. When a valley resident sets off a skyrocket in the event of a fire, a volunteer will fire off a cannon. Joe has done this to compete with the Crabwell Corners Volunteer Fire Department. But there soon is opposition to Joe's plan because, even though the canon fires blanks, things still get damaged. A fire breaks out on the Cannonball. Because Joe has all the fire equipment at the Shady Rest, Sam has to call Crabwell Corners. Joe challenges Bink Sharfells, Crabwell Corners Fire Chief, to see which volunteer fire department is the best. When none of Hooterville's firefighters want to accept the challenge, it looks like Joe will lose by default. Joe goes to sell his wooden Indian to pay off Bink. Kate and the girls offer to stand in for the firefighters. Despite Hooterville not starting out too well, the contest winds up a tie. Joe suggests a game of checkers to break the tie. Bink loses the game to Dog.

Convicts Barney Dawson and Max James have escaped from the state penitentiary. Meanwhile, Uncle Joe wrote a letter to the Postmaster General accusing Sam of running a lax and inefficient post office. Joe believes that if Sam posted photos of some criminals, he could capture them for the reward money. Sam makes fun of Joe being a member of the CIA. Sgt. Horton, from the state police, comes by and tells them about Barney and Max being in the area. Joe asks if there's any reward for them and he is told no. Floyd and Charley search the hotel and Kate wonders where Dog is. Turns out that Barney and Max are following Dog. Later that evening, Barney, Max and Dog show up at the hotel. Sam and Sgt. Horton arrive pretending to be Charley and Floyd. Sam and Joe bump heads and knock each other out. Kate is able to hit Barney and Max on the head with a CIA sign, knocking them out. Sgt. Horton ties them up. Sam explains that Dog came to his store and made Sam and Horton follow him to the hotel.

Kate wants to know why the Cannonball has temporarily ceased operations. Kate and Uncle Joe get the Drucker's store where the Cannonball is stopped. The reason is a bird has built a nest on top of the smokestack and has laid five eggs. Charley and Floyd refuse to move the train until the eggs have hatched. They figure it will be two weeks before they hatch. When Homer Bedloe hears of this news, he is all in support of what Charley and Floyd are doing. He even puts an article in the paper about it. But he has a reason he wants to help the birds. If the train doesn't run for two weeks, he can shut it down permanently. Kate and the girls see the article in the paper. Homer shows up at the hotel and Kate is suspicious of his motives. Billie Jo and Betty Jo over hear Homer's plan and tell Kate. Kate comes up with a plan to save both the Cannonball and the birds.

O'Donnel's, a new supermarket, has just opened in Pixley. Sam hasn't had a customer since it opened. Even Uncle Joe goes to O'Donnel's to check it out. While there, Joe manages to annoy Mr. O'Donnel. Kate and the girls are still loyal customers of Sam's. Joe thinks that Sam should modernize his store. Sam starts to have anxiety attacks and doesn't recognize Kate and Betty Joe. Kate and Doc Stuart convince Sam to take a two week vacation. Kate and the girls agree to look after the store for him. They decide to reorganize the store. Kate briefly leaves Joe in charge of the store and he puts in an overly large grocery order with salesman Jack Hull. Charley and Floyd bring a train full of groceries to the store. Kate is furious with Joe when she learns it can't be returned. Kate winds up at the lodge where Sam is and she is just as dazed as Sam originally was.

The Governor announces that he will make a grassroots tour of the state. Uncle Joe is excited by the news, but no one else seems to care. The Governor has not announced his itinerary, but he is welcoming invitations from interested communities. Joe hopes to be able to advertise that the Governor slept at the Shady Rest. Joe says he sent an invitation and believes that the Governor is coming to Hooterville. Joe has a hard time organizing a welcoming as everyone is still not that excited. When the Cannonball arrives, there is no Governor. Turns out Joe forgot to mail the invite.

Uncle Joe sees some surveyors down by the railroad tracks next to the hotel. He mistakenly believes that a new road is going to be built there. Joe thinks the hotel will get a lot more customers. Kate learns from surveyor Ralph Craig that the last survey done twenty-five years ago was incorrect. The new survey shows that the border between Hooterville County and Pixley County runs right through the Shady Rest. Now Joe thinks there's money to be made from curiosity seekers. Kate and the girls are shocked when they see that Joe has painted a line through the hotel. He makes a sign calling the place Twin County Hotel. The hotel does do a lot more business. Mr. Travis, from the Pixley License Division, tells Kate there's a lot of red tape in operating a business in two counties. Licenses and fees required could cost her in the thousands. Mr. Lindley, from the Pixley Health Dept., also finds costly problems. Mr. Dixon from the Pixley Building Dept., finds more issues. Having half the hotel in Pixley also causes problems for the girls. Kate comes up with a permanent solution with the help of the Cannonball moving the hotel.

Uncle Joe mentions investing in the stock market and Kate reminds him about the bad stock he had her invest in once before. Meanwhile, the hot water heater in the hotel springs a leak. They'll need to buy a new one. Joe suggests selling stock in the Shady Rest Hotel Corporation to pay for it. Sam is willing to sell Kate a heater at cost for $97.50. Kate doesn't have that much. Kate resorts to boiling water on the stove to get hot water for the hotel. Kate goes to see Mr. Guerney at the Pixley Bank. But he has to turn down her request for a loan. Joe sells stock to Sam, Charley and Floyd to cover the cost of the water heater. They do this because they know Kate wouldn't accept a loan from them. Kate is not happy and still considers it charity. She comes up with a plan to teach Joe, Sam, Charley and Floyd a lesson. Mr. Guerney brings Kate some good news. Apparently that old stock she had is now worth something.

Crabwell Corners is suing the Town of Hooterville for possession of a Spanish-American War cannon. Crabwell Corners feels it is rightly theirs. Meanwhile, Billie Jo was supposed to go to the Pioneer Dance with her steady, Henry Brewster. But they had a big fight and Billie Jo says they're finished. Tad Winslow of Crabwell Corners challenges his lazy dog, a blood hound named Speedy, against Betty Jo's dog in an obedience contest. If Tad wins, Betty Jo has to get Billie Jo to go with him to the Pioneer Dance. Betty Jo finds out that Billie Jo made up with Henry. Kate and then Joe go to speak to the Winslow's to call off the bet. But things intensify, with now the winner getting either the Crabwell Corners' fire engine or the Spanish-American War cannon. To make matters worse, Kate and Joe find out that Speedy isn't Tad's dog after all. Tad has a well trained German Shepherd. The day of the contest arrives. The score is close, but Dog pulls a trick of his own and wins.

Kate's spring cleaning coincides with the US Air Force doing maneuvers over the valley. Part of those maneuvers includes testing out a new high powered camera. It looks like an ordinary black box with wires coming out of it. For security, it is set to explode twelve hours after any unauthorized removal from the plane. Colonel Millbank, who is flying the aircraft, accidentally loses the camera. It winds up landing on Shady Rest property. Meanwhile, General Elmer Loomis and Millbank try to narrow down where the camera may have landed. Joe finds it and thinking it might be valuable, brings to the hotel. But as often as Kate and the girls try to get rid of it, Dog keeps bringing it back. Loomis and Millbank finally make it to Hooterville. They learn from Charley and Floyd it may be at the Shady Rest. With little time to spare, they get to the hotel and start searching for the box. They mess everything up that had just been cleaned. Dog brings them the box with no time left. However, the box winds up being a dud and doesn't explode.

Kate has a lot of outstanding debts, plus she hasn't made a mortgage payment in six months. Uncle Joe suggests turning the hotel into an ostrich farm to raise money. Mr. Guerney, the President of the Pixley Bank, informs her that there is a new majority shareholder of the bank. Because of this, she has two weeks to pay $138 on her mortgage or the bank will have to foreclose. Mr. Guerney didn't tell Kate that the majority shareholder is Homer Bedloe, who hopes to ruin Kate. The girls say they will get part time jobs to help raise the money. When he realizes Kate is in trouble, Doc Stuart gives Billie Jo a job. Betty Jo gets a job with Fred Ziffel. Kate won't take any handouts from Charley and Floyd. Bobbie Jo is teaching piano. Joe can't find a job. Kate gets a job as a short order cook, but she doesn't last long at it. Kate and the girls do come up with the amount needed, but some of it's in I.O.U.s. Bedloe says that isn't good enough and still wants to foreclose. Mr. Guerney comes up with a way to give Kate a little more time. Dog chases Bedloe out of the hotel.

In this second half of a two-part story, Homer Bedloe has controlling interest in the Pixley Bank and has fired its President, Mr. Guerney. He has decided not only to foreclose on Kate's mortgage, but foreclose on all the bad mortgages in the valley. That will make the Cannonball's services useless. The Shady Rest is going to host a Monte Carlo night as a modest fundraiser. Traveling salesman Mr. Davis comes by. He is surprised to see all the gambling equipment and then the girls doing a can-can dance. Kate explains that it's just for the fundraiser. Whoever wins the most fake money by the end of the evening wins the secret grand prize. Betty Jo's friend Willie gets vibrations off of the roulette wheel and can guess the number every spin. Uncle Joe wants to take Willie to Vegas to win enough money to solve all their problems. Joe can't raise the money for tickets to Vegas. With Willie and Mr. Davis' help, Kate comes up with a plan to save the valley and get rid of Bedloe. But it doesn't work. It's the night of the fundraiser and no one shows up except Bedloe. Willie comes by and says he's lost his power. Bedloe stops his foreclosures and the fundraiser goes on.

Because they don't have one, Uncle Joe wants to be named the Mayor of Hooterville. And as mayor, he would get an all expenses paid trip to the state capitol for the state's mayors' convention, and a free haircut. Sam, Charley and Floyd don't think that Hooterville needs a mayor. If they have a mayor, that person should be elected. They and the girls convince Kate to run, even though she really doesn't want to. When Joe learns Kate is running, he decides to move out of the Hotel. Selma Plout will do anything she can to make sure Kate doesn't win. She even becomes Joe's campaign manager. But they have a hard time gathering anyone to listen to Joe speak. Kate on the other hand has no problem getting people to her rally. Selma also has another reason to help Joe, she would like to be the mayor's wife. Kate and the girls miss Joe. Kate tells Sam and Selma that she's dropping out of the race. Joe wants to drop out as well so he doesn't have to marry Selma, but a law says he can't. Kate make sure Joe's wooden Indian gets enough write in votes to win.