Petticoat Junction: Season 4
Season 4 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of Petticoat Junction Season 3.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 4 Progress Shield
Young Love
Sep 13, 1966 · 25 min
Uncle Joe starts a Free Wedding and Honeymoon Contest to promote business for the Shady Rest Hotel. Out of all the entries, one stands out: that of Laura Bentley and Tony Allison,
Birdman of Shady Rest
Sep 20, 1966 · 25 min
While the girls are swimming in the water tower, a bi-plane flies overhead. The pilot, distracted by the beautiful girls he sees in the water tower, crashes the plane by the railro
Hooterville, You're All Heart
Sep 27, 1966 · 25 min
Steve's plane is still sitting damaged where it crashed near the railroad tracks by the hotel. Henry Sharp, from the finance company, comes by because Steve has missed a payment. S
He Loves Us, He Loves Us Not
Oct 4, 1966 · 25 min
Steve spends time individually with Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo and Betty Jo doing their favorite activities. Because of this, each girl believes that Steve has chosen her to be his girl.
The All-Night Party
Oct 11, 1966 · 25 min
Since she is now in junior college, Bobbie Jo thinks she's all grown up. She decides to go to an all night party with her friends. Kate refuses to let her go to the all-nighter, de
Cannonball, Inc.
Oct 18, 1966 · 25 min
Charley and Floyd derail the Cannonball going around Deadman's Curve. They believe the reason for the derailment was that Floyd had removed too many of the railroad ties to stoke t
Kate Grounds Selma Plout
Oct 25, 1966 · 25 min
Kate Bradley tangles with Selma Plout when Selma tries to lure pilot Steve Elliott into marriage with her daughter, Henrietta. Selma tries to throw both money into Steve's crop dus
The Almost Annual Charity Show
Nov 1, 1966 · 25 min
It's almost time for the Almost Annual Charity Show, and everyone is looking forward to Steve and Billie Jo performing a duet together. Selma strong-arms Sam, the overseer of the s
How Bugged Was My Valley
Nov 15, 1966 · 25 min
Kate sees Steve as a possible future son-in-law. She believes his life as a pilot is too dangerous and she would like to see him get a different job. When she learns that Steve has
Twenty-Five Years Too Late
Nov 22, 1966 · 25 min
Kate's first boyfriend, Walter O'Connor, who is now a major league baseball manager, is coming to stay at the Shady Rest. While Kate is excited to see Walter, she is still just as
The Runt Strikes Back
Nov 29, 1966 · 25 min
There's a dance on Saturday. Billie Jo and Bobbie Jo will only accept a date from either Steve or Don, the new young doctor in the valley. Neither Steve or Don have asked anyone to
Is There a Doctor in the Valley?
Dec 13, 1966 · 25 min
Young Doctor Craig announces that he's leaving the valley since there just isn't enough business for him and Doc Stuart. Kate thinks she's come up with a solution for him to stay.
The Santa Claus Special
Dec 20, 1966 · 25 min
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
My Daughter the Secretary
Dec 27, 1966 · 25 min
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
The Rise and Fall of a Tycoon
Jan 3, 1967 · 25 min
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.
His Highness the Dog
Jan 17, 1967 · 25 min
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
Girls! Girls! Girls!
Jan 24, 1967 · 25 min
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
Temperance, Temperance
Jan 31, 1967 · 25 min
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 Cli
A Star is Born
Feb 7, 1967 · 25 min
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
Shoplifter at the Shady Rest
Feb 14, 1967 · 25 min
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 Pockl
Don't Call Us
Feb 21, 1967 · 25 min
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
Hey, Look Me Over
Feb 28, 1967 · 25 min
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
That's Max???
Mar 7, 1967 · 25 min
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
The Fishing Derby
Mar 14, 1967 · 25 min
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
Kate's Big Deal
Mar 21, 1967 · 25 min
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 c
Author! Author!
Mar 28, 1967 · 25 min
Bobbie Jo is ecstatic that the poem she submitted to a magazine has been accepted for publication. Sam ends up devoting the entire front page of the World Guardian to Bobbie Jo. Th
Steve's Ol' Buddy
Apr 4, 1967 · 25 min
After Steve sends him several letters inviting him to Hooterville, his best friend Jeff Maxwell, an air force captain, finally decides to take Steve up on his offer. Steve told him
That Was the Night That Was
Apr 11, 1967 · 25 min
Late one evening, Uncle Joe and Sam, following a lodge meeting, run across a mysterious fellow looking for lodging. He calls himself Dr. Isaac Newton and claims that he's a geophys
The Eternal Rectangle
Apr 18, 1967 · 25 min
An excited Billie Jo has a one week singing engagement in Omaha. The only problem is that it is one week away from Steve. So that he won't be lonely, Billie Jo asks her sisters to
Kate's Cousin Mae
Apr 25, 1967 · 25 min
Kate's southern belle of a cousin, Mae Belle Jennings, comes to Hooterville for an unexpected visit. Cousin Mae unintentionally causes problems between Floyd and Charley, who recen
A House Divided
May 2, 1967 · 25 min
Henry and Wilma Tuttle have decided to move into Hooterville Valley. With their arrival Hooterville is now eligible to have a representative on the County Board of Supervisors. Sam
Go Away, Fat
May 9, 1967 · 25 min
Kate's cousin Mae visits and tells everyone that with some backing from a wealthy banker, she plans on turning the Shady Rest into a health farm using a diet and exercise program c