GREEN ACRES may be one of the sitcoms that never occurred to me to be a big screen feature but apparently someone thinks it is a good idea. The fish out of water comedy about New Yorkers who relocate to a farm in the Midwest is being adapted as both a feature film and a potential stage musical. GREEN ACRES ran on CBS for 6 years in the 1960s and may be better remembered for it’s theme song than anything else.
The project will follow a long list of TV shows that have attempted to reboot themselves as feature films including THE BRADY BUNCH, DUKES OF HAZZARD, and THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES. Some have enjoyed moderate success but none have been bastions of quality film-making. While GREEN ACRES could conceivably make for a moderately good film, just reading the synopsis does not invoke much faith in the project.
The series revolved around the Douglases — the level-headed Oliver, the straight man throughout the story and who is just trying to fulfill his dream of owning a farm, and his reluctant, foreign-born Park Avenue wife, Lisa, who tries to make the best of things as she bastardizes the English language to Oliver’s constant irritation and corrections.
GREEN ACRES was best known for the kooky supporting characters, all stereotypes of rural areas. While such humor doesn’t exactly require much creative writing, we have seen similar movies over the years including FOR RICHER OR POORER starring Tim Allen and Kirstie Alley and DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MORGANS? starring Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker. If GREEN ACRES follows either of those films, there is no hope.
GREEN ACRES has no writer or director attached, yet, but don’t hold out hope for it to be Wes Anderson or anyone of quality.
