The President Who Came to Dinner

Great episode, and basically a way of making this the third part of the "Train might get shut down" that was a kind of serial format as the series began. After the first uptight executive couldn't do it, it's now the President of the company, played by Roy Roberts. Through an initial turn of events, thinking he's a hobo, the family takes him in, and he takes to them... and the show goes on. A very good episode despite repeating itself. The show was being established on how down-home these people are compared to big city folk and so this theme was still being cemented.

Last week, Homer Bedloe wasn't able to shut the Cannonball down. So this week the president of the C& FW Railroad, Norman Curtis will go to Hooterville and take care of business.

He arrives via helicopter due to the railroad's remote location, but he falls down a hill, ripping and soiling his clothes in the process. Also, he has lost his wallet. So when he waves down the Cannonball, all on board just think that he's a hobo. Kate's onboard and asks Floyd and Charlie not to throw him off the train. Curtis is at first going to tell them who he is, but instead decides to work incognito.

So it ends up being the old story of the "man in a hurry" who learns to appreciate the rustic simple life, in this case of The Shady Rest Hotel and Hooterville. The complicating factor? It appears that Norman is starting to fall for Kate, given her gracious attitude and kindness towards him, who she thinks is a simple hobo.

Will complications ensue? Watch and find out.

As far as the C & FW Railroad is concerned, if at first Homer Bedloe (Charles Lane) doesn't succeed, get the president to do the job. Having learned that Homer got hornswoggled by those country bumpkins in the Hooterville Valley, C & FW president Norman Curtis (Roy Roberts) decides to go there to terminate the wayward Hooterville Cannonball himself in "The President Who Came to Dinner" (a play on the 1942 movie title "The Man Who Came to Dinner"), only he winds up getting killed by kindness by Kate Bradley, her three fair daughters, and rest of the "Petticoat Junction" clan who have no idea who he is.

They don't call it "situation comedy" for nothing. Here's the situation: Berating Homer for identifying himself as a C & FW representative, Norman decides to remain incognito while in Hooterville and even has himself dropped off by helicopter in the bush so he can flag a ride with the Cannonball when it passes by. But an accidental tumble to the tracks sullies his suit as he loses his wallet, so when he does hop aboard the train, Kate, Floyd Smoot, and the others all mistake him for a hobo down on his luck and take pity on him.

A sly script by Ed James and Seaman Jacobs and guileless performances by the cast sell the pretext in this timeworn yet still effective exercise in mistaken identity with its gentle jabs at casual assumptions. After letting him strap on the feedbag at her Shady Rest Hotel, Kate arranges to have Norman work as Uncle Joe's assistant to pay for his room and board, with Norman becoming delighted to be rid of his urban-based responsibilities, at least for now, while growing to appreciate the slower pace that includes fishing with Charley Pratt and Floyd from the Cannonball off a creek-spanning trestle--then having a change of heart when he returns to the boardroom.

With respect to the train's fate, "The President Who Came to Dinner" simply kicks the Cannonball down the country road with the expectation that the Cannonball will keep getting kicked as the series unfolds. Roberts turns in a fine guest appearance while Edgar Buchanan settles in to being the well-meaning but pompous foil for star Bea Benaderet as "Petticoat Junction" begins to pick up a full head of steam.