Return to Green Acres (Eddie Albert, Eva Gabor and Alvy Moore)

A fun reunion movie
In this fun TV movie (made nineteen years after the original sitcom went off the air and starring most of the original cast) Mr. Haney (Pat Buttram) joins forces with a greedy land developer with plans to trick the citizens of Hooterville into selling their farms cheap so as they can bulldoze the town and rebuild it into an industrial city. During all of this, Oliver Douglas (Eddie Albert) and Lisa Douglas (Eva Gabor) are growing tired of Hooterville and move back to New York, only to find that New York doesn't mean the same to them as it once did. It is not their home anymore; Hooterville is their home, and with the help of their Hooterville friends, they return to that beautiful farm town to try and save it.

Most reunion movies are just horrible, like Return of the Beverly Hillbillies, Return to Mayberry and Rescue From Gilligan's Island (just to name a few), but this one was a lot of fun. As with the Green Acres series, the suspension of disbelief stretches so far...

Fun reunion, but not as zany as the classic series.
Fortunately in 1990 when this 25th Anniversary special was produced, most of the original cast was alive and well. Some cast members look as if only a few years had passed, all have jumped back into their original characters with perfection. What is amazing is that Frank Cady (Sam Drucker) is not only still around, but has aged well, he doesn't look 25 years older!

There are only three things missing from this special.
1) The Ziffels have passed away, but Arnold the Pig still lives on. Their passing is briefly explained by driving by their graves at the beginning. Their farm is now operated by their niece.
2) The Cannonball Train is gone, along with the train tracks next to Sam Drucker's store. No explanation is made of this, we just assume that in 25 years the train (like most) has been shut down.
3) The catchy Vic Mizzy music, which was a trademark of Green Acres, is sourly missing. This is one omission that could have been included. Even with Mizzy...

like visiting old friends
This movie is not up to the standards of the original series, but is good to watch and remember the good old days when it was a series,

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