Episode
Petticoat Junction: A Star is Born
Overview
The National Amateur Hour is screening for new talent, and are holding auditions through the valley's own radio Station K. The winning performer is to receive $200. Once Uncle Joe hears about the prize money, he thinks that Steve and Billie Jo should enter. Sydney Sparks, a talent agent who heard Steve and Billie Jo, wants to represent them if they win the contest. His plans are for them to go on the road as a nightclub act. The family has mixed emotions. They are happy for the potential new career, but sad to see Steve and Billie Jo possibly leave for good. Billie Jo wants to do it and sees no down side. Steve doesn't as he doesn't want to be continually on the road living out of a suitcase. Uncle Joe thinks he may have a way so that Steve and Billie Jo don't have to make the decision themselves.
Details
- Series
- Petticoat Junction
- Season
- Season 4
- Episode
- Episode 19
- Air date
- 1967-02-07
- Runtime
- 25 min
Episode context
A Star is Born is Episode 19 in Season 4 of Petticoat Junction. It aired on 1967-02-07. The runtime is 25 min.
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Episode 18: Temperance, Temperance
Jeremiah Priddy, a temperance lecturer, is coming to the valley. Meanwhile, Betty Jo has a quiet little boy following her around, even back to the hotel. They learn his name is Clint and try to make sure he's OK until they find out who he belongs to. Eventually they find that his father is Mr. Priddy and that Clint has run away. It seems Mr. Priddy is less than a friendly or hospitable man. Mr. Priddy deals with his son much as he deals with anyone who drinks: unyielding. Kate has a change of heart about Mr. Priddy when she learns a little more about him. She uses this information to try and bring him and Clint closer together.
Episode 20: Shoplifter at the Shady Rest
Pixley's Sheriff Crandall is going on a fishing vacation. Uncle Joe makes an arrangement with Sam, the valley's justice of the peace, to house kleptomaniac shoplifter Eustace Pockle at the hotel. Kate doesn't like the idea, but allows Eustace to stay. Unfortunately for Kate and the hotel guests, Uncle Joe treats the hotel more like a jail than a hotel. Kate and the girls treat Eustace more like a hotel guest than a prisoner. Eustace, on the other hand, treats the hotel like any other place: somewhere to snatch trinkets. Just as Sheriff Crandall announces his early return to pick-up Eustace, Eustace escapes from the Shady Rest. They hope to be able to find him before Sheriff Crandall makes it back.
More episodes from this season
Episode 17: Girls! Girls! Girls!
Jealousy will permeate the Shady Rest Hotel. After he agrees to go to the turnabout dance with Bobbie Jo, Tommy Johnson has to back out due to another commitment. As Billie Jo and Steve recently had a fight and Billie Jo isn't speaking to him anymore, Bobbie Jo feels that Steve is fair game. Steve accepts Bobbie Jo's invitation. Tommy tells Bobbie Jo that he now can make it to the dance since the other commitment is no more. Since she already has a date with Steve, she now refuses Tommy. Feeling Tommy is now fair game, Betty Jo wants to ask him to the dance. Tommy says yes to Betty Jo's invitation. The problem with these pairings is that the girls are now jealous about each others boyfriends. Add to the mix Jerry Massett, a mechanic friend of Steve's from his air force days, who is visiting Hooterville. Jerry ends up asking a free Billie Jo to the dance, which makes Steve jealous. A storm helps the girls get together with their proper boyfriends.
Episode 21: Don't Call Us
Billie Jo is excited by the news that Sydney Sparks, the talent agent that approached her and Steve following their radio talent show win, got her an audition at the Flamingo Room in Springdale. Kate isn't too sure that she wants Billie Jo to pursue this career. Following the audition, Billie Jo is certain she got the job. Kate receives the news that Billie Jo didn't get the job because she didn't have a big enough name to draw in customers. With help from Uncle Joe and Sam, Kate thinks she knows a way for Mr. Austin, the Flamingo Room's manager, to change his mind. Billie Jo, based on a comment by Uncle Joe, may kill her own chances of show business success by her warped sense of what it means to be a star.
Episode 16: His Highness the Dog
A crew is filming a commercial at Lost Lake. The commercial stars Prince Hamlet of Kronenberg von Auschwile III, a rather large and imposing but valuable dog. Mr. Morton, the film crew director, needs Steve to fly him immediately to make a connection to a flight to New York. Hamlet can't risk the flight in Steve's plane, so he has to stay at the Shady Rest under the care of Uncle Joe. With all the special treatment Uncle Joe and the girls give Hamlet, Dog feels like the forgotten family member. So, Dog runs off. Uncle Joe makes Hamlet track Dog's scent, but Hamlet gets away. Everyone comes to realization who is really the valuable dog, when Dog finds Hamlet.
Episode 22: Hey, Look Me Over
Steve has been spending a lot of time with Betty Jo. He's giving her flying lessons and she's his grease monkey in the airplane's repairs and maintenance. Billie Jo becomes jealous of her younger sister. Billie Jo tries to be more like Betty Jo and be a grease monkey for Steve. While Betty Jo tries to act more grown up in an effort to be seen in a more feminine light. Neither Billie Jo or Betty Jo achieve what they wanted. Betty Jo in particular feels let down as she wanted to feel like a threat to Billie Jo. After Steve's attempts to make it up to Betty Jo while letting her down easily fail, Betty Jo decides to take drastic measures to get what she wants.
Episode 15: The Rise and Fall of a Tycoon
Homer Bedloe shows up unexpectedly. He's come to announce there will be a new general manager for the Cannonball, who will oversee the train's operations. That person is Uncle Joe. Uncle Joe begins to act like a tyrant in bossing around Charley and Floyd. Charley, Floyd and everyone in the valley are mad at Uncle Joe for his new operating rules. Charley and Floyd quit leaving Uncle Joe to operate the train on his own, which he doesn't know how do. That's exactly why Bedloe appointed Uncle Joe. Norman Curtis, President of the CF&W is arriving shortly to make an inspection. Kate gets Charley and Floyd to resume their jobs so that the train can look to be operating efficiently. They may have a problem in doing so after what Uncle Joe did to the train.
Episode 23: That's Max???
Steve receives a telegram from his old flying buddy, Max Donohue. Max wants Steve as a business partner up in Cascade Valley. Steve decides to not accept Max's offer. Kate suggests to Steve that Max join him in Hooterville, which Steve knows wouldn't work but doesn't say why. Without Steve's knowledge, Uncle Joe sends a reply telegram to Max, asking him to relocate to Hooterville to join the Carson-Elliott Enterprises. Max decides at least to investigate, which doesn't sit well with Max's business and personal partner Jack. Max arrives and turns out to be a woman. Max will need to get an agricultural flying license from the state capitol, which Billie Jo and the rest of the family misinterpret to mean a wedding license. There will be a wedding, but it will be Max and Jack.
Episode 14: My Daughter the Secretary
The local Discussion Club is sending their secretary to the weekend long national conventional, all expenses paid. That means Billie Jo, but she doesn't really want to leave Steve for an entire weekend. However, Selma doesn't ever remember voting for someone to fill the position permanently. She wants to hold a special vote to elect a permanent recording secretary. Selma is pushing for Henrietta to go instead of Billie Jo. The outcome of the resulting vote, with only Billie Jo and Henrietta on the ballot, is a tie. Both Selma and Kate think they have the answer to breaking the tie with their respective daughter coming out on top. Both daughters may have other things on their mind.
Episode 24: The Fishing Derby
Business at the Shady Rest is worse than usual. Uncle Joe speaks to Sam about the Shady Rest and Drucker's Store jointly hosting a fishing derby on Lost Lake. Joe figures that they can advertise expensive prizes, such as a boat, outboard motor and fishing gear, and order the prizes on a 30-day layaway plan. Since Sam and Joe always catch the biggest fish on Lost Lake year after year, Joe figures one of the two of them will win the derby and they can return the prizes before the 30 days. In the meantime, the hotel will be filled up and Drucker's Store will be busy with new customers. Kate has no idea of the underlying scam when she agrees to the derby. The derby does bring in business to both the hotel and store. But it also brings in Rod Granger from the Riverside Chronicle, who seems able to out-fish Sam and Joe. Just when it looks as though Mr. Granger is going to win, Joe comes in with a bigger fish.
Episode 13: The Santa Claus Special
It's the Christmas season, and everyone's in a rush to decorate the Cannonball in preparation for their annual caroling and gift delivery runs. Their plans are placed into jeopardy with the arrival of Homer Bedloe. He says that what they are doing is against railroad policy and he won't allow it. Kate hopes that Bedloe will have some heart, and she tries to use her best Christmas spirit in treating Bedloe with kindness to change his mind. Only Norman Curtis, the President of the Railroad, may be able to make Bedloe change his mind.
Episode 25: Kate's Big Deal
Without telling anyone in the valley the reason why, Kate takes a trip to the big city. When she returns she tells everyone that she decided to sell the hotel and she went to the city to finalize the terms of the deal with the buyer, Mr. Holloway, a chain hotelier. The money from the sale will provide any opportunity the girls want. The valley residents are sad to see Kate and the girls leave, but the girls are initially happy about the news. But the girls all come to the realization that they still like calling the Shady Rest home, especially after Steve announces that he's staying regardless. Kate comes to understand what life in Hooterville and at the Shady Rest really means to them all. But she feels that she made a verbal agreement with Mr. Holloway that she ethically cannot back out of. Uncle Joe tries to use a little emotional blackmail to convince Kate not to sign to final papers.