Petticoat Junction Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
48 free Petticoat Junction trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Petticoat Junction ran on CBS from 1963 to 1970, set at the Shady Rest Hotel on a forgotten branch line where the Cannonball stopped whenever the crew felt like fishing. It was Paul Henning's middle show, born from The Beverly Hillbillies and parent to Green Acres. This quiz covers Kate Bradley and Bea Benaderet, Uncle Joe and his schemes, the three actresses who played Billie Jo, the Cannonball and its nemesis Homer Bedloe, Sam Drucker's store, the real locomotive, the theme song and the crossovers with Hooterville's other residents. Every answer is sourced and explained, so it works for a classic-TV night or a trivia game for seniors.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The rural purge that claimed Petticoat Junction inspired a joke that CBS canceled every show with what in it?
A tree
A tree was the punchline as CBS dropped its country comedies to court younger, urban viewers. Petticoat Junction went in 1970, a year before most of the rest.
Q 02What is the name of the hotel where Petticoat Junction is set?
The Shady Rest
The Shady Rest was modeled on a real hotel beside a railroad track, run by the grandmother of the creator's wife. Her memories of childhood visits supplied the train and the whole setting.
Q 03Who played Kate Bradley, the widowed proprietress of the hotel?
Bea Benaderet
Bea Benaderet had spent years in supporting parts on radio and on the Burns and Allen show. The series was written for her as her first starring vehicle.
Q 04Who played Uncle Joe Carson?
Edgar Buchanan
Edgar Buchanan appeared in all 222 episodes. Born in 1903, the 'uncle' was only three years older than the actress who played his niece Kate.
Q 05The actress who played Betty Jo was which relative of Petticoat Junction's creator?
His daughter
His daughter was billed as Linda Kaye so that viewers would not cry nepotism. She tried out only after the show's star urged her wary father to let her audition.
Q 06Which actress played blonde Billie Jo longest, from season four until Petticoat Junction ended?
Meredith MacRae
Meredith MacRae came over from My Three Sons in 1966 as the third Billie Jo. Jeannine Riley had left after two seasons to try for film stardom, and Gunilla Hutton lasted one.
Q 07Which future star was originally cast as Billie Jo but never appeared on Petticoat Junction?
Sharon Tate
Sharon Tate posed for early publicity photos as Billie Jo but never filmed an episode. Jeannine Riley, chosen from some 300 hopefuls, played the part for the first two seasons.
Q 08Who played the brunette middle daughter Bobbie Jo from season three onward?
Lori Saunders
Lori Saunders took over when Pat Woodell left after two seasons. Her Bobbie Jo drifted from shy bookworm to lovable scatterbrain.
Q 09The Bradley family's dog was played by an animal actor who later starred as which film hero?
Benji
Benji made the dog a film star in 1974, with Uncle Joe's actor beside him in his last movie role. On the series the pet never even got a name and was simply called Dog.
Q 10Lucille Ball first wanted the future Kate Bradley for which I Love Lucy role?
Ethel Mertz
Ethel Mertz went to Vivian Vance because the future Kate was already signed to the Burns and Allen show, where she played neighbor Blanche Morton.
Q 11Why is the hotel's train stop nicknamed "Petticoat Junction"?
The sisters hang petticoats on the water tower
The sisters hang petticoats on the water tower while they swim in it, as the opening titles show. The stop is no real junction at all, just a water stop beside the hotel.
Q 12Who created Petticoat Junction, as well as The Beverly Hillbillies?
Paul Henning
Paul Henning's Hillbillies was such a smash that CBS had a second rural comedy from him a year later. He built it around a supporting player from that cast and drew the setting from his wife's family stories.
Q 13Petticoat Junction's hotel was based on a real hotel in which Missouri town?
Q 21Which crop duster joins the cast in season four and eventually marries Betty Jo?
Steve Elliott
Steve Elliott crashes his plane near Hooterville and starts out courting Billie Jo. He ends up marrying her youngest sister instead.
Q 22Who played Dr. Janet Craig, the physician brought in as a mother figure in season six?
June Lockhart
June Lockhart came from Lost in Space and had been TV's mother on Lassie before that. She arrived as the valley's new doctor after the original star's death, and stayed to the end.
Q 23How did Petticoat Junction handle Kate Bradley after her actress died in 1968?
She was said to be "out of town"
Eldon
Eldon's Burris Hotel stood beside the Rock Island tracks, run by the grandmother of the creator's wife. He saw the old place himself before it was torn down.
Q 14What was Uncle Joe's actor's profession before he took up acting at 36?
A dentist
A dentist, he ran a practice with his wife and handed it over to her when he turned to acting in 1939.
Q 15Who runs the general store in Hooterville that doubles as post office and newspaper?
Sam Drucker
Sam Drucker's store is a regular stop for the Cannonball, a train that runs less like a railroad than a local bus or taxi service.
Q 16Which actor played the same storekeeper on three different series at the same time?
Frank Cady
Frank Cady kept the same apron on Petticoat Junction and Green Acres and carried the part to The Beverly Hillbillies as well. His last screen role, in 1990, was the same storekeeper in Return to Green Acres.
Q 17Which railroad executive keeps trying to scrap the Cannonball?
Homer Bedloe
Homer Bedloe was played by Charles Lane, who said he perfected his crusty skinflint on I Love Lucy. The veteran of countless mean-man parts lived to 102.
Q 18Who played the Cannonball's engineer Charley Pratt in the first four seasons?
Smiley Burnette
Smiley Burnette had been Gene Autry's comic sidekick in dozens of B Westerns before he took the throttle. He died in 1967 while still in the cast.
Q 19One Billie Jo left Petticoat Junction and became Nurse Goodbody on which country variety show?
Hee Haw
Hee Haw made Gunilla Hutton its Nurse Goodbody after her single season as Billie Jo. The variety show let her sing as well, and she went on to release several singles of her own.
Q 20A year after their characters wed, what did the actors playing Betty Jo and her husband do?
Married in real life
Married in real life in 1968, the pair stayed together until 1973, well after the series ended. On screen their characters already had a baby by then.
She was said to be "out of town", never recast and never killed off. An aunt came to help run the hotel, then a lady doctor moved in as the girls' new mother figure.
Q 24Too ill to film her last Petticoat Junction episode, how did Kate's actress still take part?
Through her recorded voice
Through her recorded voice, Kate reads a letter aloud while a stand-in plays her from behind. It was the episode where Betty Jo has her baby, and the star was too ill to be there.
Q 25What cartoon character did the actress who played Kate Bradley famously voice?
Betty Rubble
Betty Rubble was hers from The Flintstones' 1960 debut. Before that she had been an uncredited voice in Warner Bros. cartoons, including the little old lady who owns Tweety.
Q 26Which relative of Jed Clampett did Kate's actress play in season one of The Beverly Hillbillies?
Cousin Pearl Bodine
Cousin Pearl Bodine is Jethro's mother, the one who talks Jed into moving to Beverly Hills. The part went over so well that the actress had a series of her own a year later.
Q 27Who composed the Petticoat Junction theme song with the series creator?
Curt Massey
Curt Massey had hosted his own network radio shows before he wrote the tune with the series creator. When he died at 81, the song was the first line of his obituary.
Q 28The Cannonball's moving shots were filmed on which Gold Country line, based in Jamestown?
The Sierra Railroad
The Sierra Railroad is nicknamed the Movie Railroad, and its engine No. 3 later steamed through Back to the Future Part III. The engine still runs at a state historic park in Jamestown.
Q 29Petticoat Junction's prop engine was built for A Ticket to Tomahawk, a 1950 Western with which future star in an early role?
Marilyn Monroe
A young Marilyn Monroe appears in the film, which needed a wooden engine light enough for mules to drag over a mountain pass.
Q 30What changed when Petticoat Junction's third season began in 1965?
It switched to color
It switched to color that fall after two seasons in black and white. Two of the three Bradley sisters were played by new actresses from the same season, so the look changed twice over.