Episode list

The struggling Shady Rest Hotel is further jeopardized when a no-nonsense vice president of the C & FW Railroad is dispatched to investigate the apparently forgotten spur line that connects the towns of Hooterville and Pixley.

Kate uses a combination of charm, subterfuge, and wiles to prevent Homer Bedloe from catching the Hooterville Cannonball and getting to Pixley in order to initiate proceedings that would permanently terminate the train's operation.

Hard-hitting railroad president Norman Curtis travels to Hooterville with the intention of unceremoniously terminating the Cannonball's service, but he has a change of heart when he experiences Kate's hospitality and kindness.

The Shady Rest's Annual Jamboree is threatened when railroad CEO Norman Curtis breaks the Cannonball's throttle lever, but the executive tries to make amends with a determined effort to obtain the nearly-nonexistent replacement part.

Flyod Smoot, the conductor, is courting a woman through the mail - but when she ends it after receiving a photo of him, he loses all confidence. Kate tries to help him think all the women from Hooterville and the surrounding area have eyes for him, but instead he gets the idea that Kate has been secretly in love with him - now how does she let him down without breaking his heart again?

Uncle Joe spends Kate's money to buy cases of a stinky men and women's cologne for a fast buck. The money was for screens in the hotel to keep mosquitoes from repelling guests. Kate hopes to unload the stock and stop losing guests.

Athletic Betty Jo becomes the first-ever female entrant in the Shady Rest's Annual Horseshoe Tournament, but she experiences conflicting emotions when she finds herself with an opportunity to defeat the legendary Pixley Fats.

When Kate talks Bobbie Jo into going on a double date with Billie Jo but Bobbie Jo turns out to be a dud, Kate sets out to teach Bobbie Jo how to make some "hot rhubarb" with the boys.

Unknown to everyone in the valley, two young men - opinionated Arthur Gilroy and his friend Lowell Rightmeyer who does whatever Arthur says - both strangers to the valley, are on their way to rob the bank in Pixley. They change their plans when they learn that the next day, the Cannonball, without any armed guards, will make its express run from Hooterville to Pixley for the bank shipment. Arthur and Lowell decide to stay the night at the Shady Rest and stop the train the next day by placing a barricade on the tracks so that they can hold it up. Kate and the family are happy to have who they see as two polite and handsome young men stay with them. However, when Arthur and Lowell do hold up the train the next day, they are unprepared for Kate and Uncle Joe also being on the train, they who recognize the masked bandits. In combination with news from Floyd and learning what is in the bank shipment, Arthur and Lowell decide to make what they consider a more lucrative robbery at the Shady Rest instead. But will the down home attitude of Kate, her family and Charley and Floyd be able to turn around Arthur and Lowell's criminal lives?

The Cannonball and its primary passenger, Uncle Joe, are pelted with eggs after the Hooterville Hornets, coached by Uncle Joe, are drubbed in what may be their worst game ever. Another unexpected passenger on that run is Homer Bedloe, who, despite being hit with a couple of eggs himself, is surprisingly cordial and pleasant. While Uncle Joe doesn't see anything wrong with Bedloe being cordial and taking it like a man in defeat in his efforts to scrap the Cannonball - which probably included being humiliated back at head office for his failures - Kate on the other hand believes Bedloe is up to no good. She's right. News gets to Sam that two bigwigs from the railroad, on Bedloe's urging, are coming for a surprise inspection the following day, which is why Bedloe seems so lackadaisical about Charley and Floyd running behind schedule or the coach being stained with dried, rotten eggs. When Kate learns this news, she and the gang have several tasks ahead of them. First, they have to go into operation clean-up Cannonball mode, which will take them through the night. Second, they have to keep Bedloe preoccupied so that he won't know what they're up to. They hope he is lulled into the false sense that he's finally achieved his goal of scraping the Cannonball. And third, they have to railroad the visiting railroaders about how deluxe the service on the Cannonball is.

When Kate and the girls go into town to pick up the pocket watch they ordered through Drucker's store - the watch being Uncle Joe's birthday present - Kate, in an effort to boost Herby's confidence, he who is working for Sam, inadvertently offers him a job as Assistant Manager at the hotel, with an imminent promotion to Manager. Herby readily accepts. Kate doesn't have the heart not to give him the job, so she decides that she can give him some menial tasks at the hotel under the guise of the important sounding position. However, Uncle Joe believes that Herby's arrival and Kate not wanting him to go into town with her and the girls among other things means that Herby is his professional replacement at the hotel and Kate is setting him out to pasture against his will. Wanting to feel useful while doing something important, Uncle Joe goes in search of a job. He gets one, telling everyone that he is an executive with some large company. Knowing that he's probably earning money in some low level job, Kate comes up with a scheme that will make Uncle Joe's wish to be an executive come true. However, that scheme backfires, which sets in motion a deal between Kate and Sam to bring life in the valley for both Uncle Joe and Herby back into equilibrium.

Uncle Joe has come up with another scheme to attract guests to the hotel: advertise it as a wedding/honeymoon destination. The special wedding/honeymoon package would include among other things Uncle Joe actually officiating the wedding ceremony. The existing Justice of the Peace just resigned and with two months until the next election, Uncle Joe plans on getting Sam, the county judge, to appoint him JP pro tempore until the election. Uncle Joe figures that by the time the election rolls around, his experience will sweep him to an election win. Kate and the girls can't argue with the idea, except that it was conceived and will be executed by Uncle Joe, whose plans always go awry. Uncle Joe manages to catch Sam to swear him in just before Sam leaves on a one week hunting vacation at Lost Lake. All Uncle Joe has to do is file the documentation at the courthouse to make it legal. After Uncle Joe performs his first wedding, for a young couple named Walter Shepherd and Elsie Gregg, Uncle Joe realizes that he forgot to file the documentation at the courthouse. Uncle Joe doesn't want to admit that he made a mistake to Walter and Elsie, and with it being Friday night and three days until the courthouse opens again, Uncle Joe and the gang try whatever they can either to maneuver Walter and Elsie up to Lost Lake or to find Sam themselves and bring him to the hotel so that he can perform another wedding ceremony before Walter and Elsie consummate what they believe is their marriage. Actually finding Sam is a whole different problem.

Mrs. Gladys Stroud, a renowned hotel critic, decides to come and review the Shady Rest after she is accidentally sent a brochure uncle Joe made. This was the vision of what he hoped the hotel would one day be, including indoor ice rink, bowling alley, and swimming pool. Now the family has to scramble to keep her from finding out the truth and closing them down for lying.

The Bradleys, Sam Drucker, Herby, Charlie and Floyd are decorating the Cannonball for it's annual Christmas Eve trip of caroling, gift-giving and merriment around the valley, but Homer Bedloe is determined to be a Scrooge and take possession of the train on Christmas Eve.

Herby is depressed when he gets drafted, so the girls cheer him up by suggesting he could be an astronaut. Uncle Joe hears this and decides he needs promote Herby's future political career to the whole town. When Herby gets a discharge for minor medical problems, Kate finds a way for him to save face with Bobbie Jo and the rest.

When Bobbie Jo brings home a mad-at-the-world young poet and slacker who has won her heart, Kate has to figure out how to show her his true stripes.

Kate has some exciting news for Billie Jo: the endowment policy that her father, who Billie Jo is named after, invested for her has matured. William's last wish was for Billie Jo to use the money to go to medical school. Kate expects Billie Jo to fulfill that last wish. But Billie Jo has a trip to Hollywood and acting stardom on her mind with that $500 instead. Kate thinks that Hooterville's long time doctor, Dr. Depew, can talk Billie Jo into it. But Kate's thinks that Dr. Depew's handsome new assistant, Dr. Clayton Harris, would be able to convince Billie Jo even more. Kate needs to use a little deceit as she knows Billie Jo won't stick around if she knows a doctor wants to talk her into becoming a doctor, and Dr. Harris wouldn't come if he knew that Billie Jo really had no interest in becoming a doctor at all. So using Uncle Joe as a patient with non-existing symptoms, Kate hopes to have Dr. Harris make a thorough examination with Billie Jo as his assistant, exposing her to the wonders of modern medicine. Will Kate's ploy work, or will either Dr. Harris and/or Billie Jo see through her scheme?

Billie Jo is still determined to use the $500 from the endowment policy her father took out to go to Hollywood to become a movie star instead of his intention for her to go to medical school. It doesn't help that Uncle Joe, who wants to go with her, is fueling her dream. Since Dr. Harris, Dr. Depew's handsome young assistant, couldn't convince Billie Jo to become a doctor, Kate believes that Dr. Depew himself might be able to. Dr. Depew believes Kate's mistake between Dr. Harris and Billie Jo was throwing them together in a doctor/potential doctor relationship, whereas throwing them into a boy/girl relationship starting as doctor/patient might do the trick. First, Kate and her accomplices have to convince Billie Jo that she's not looking well, then get Dr. Harris to come to the continual assistance of his helpless but beautiful patient. Kate believes there is one more piece to complete the puzzle, courtesy of a mock edition of the Hooterville World Guardian.

Uncle Joe has made a deal with Lucy Wayne, the secretary of suave movie star Lane Haggard, for them to stay for two weeks at the Shady Rest. Incognito as Mr. Jones, Haggard, according to Miss Wayne, needs to get some rest and relaxation away from prying public eyes. But upon their arrival, Miss Wayne believes Uncle Joe has duped her. First, Uncle Joe has told what seems like the entire valley about their stay. And second, Miss Wayne wanted no attractive women around to fall under Haggard's reflex movie idol charms, with Kate and the girls what she considers not quite homely as Uncle Joe described them. The problem arises that those reflex charms do surface without Haggard realizing what he is doing, and the three girls, not used to such words from a big city man, believe what he tells each of them instead of those words being niceties which he says to every attractive female. While Kate tries to protect her girls, she also tries to help the one person to who those charms really do mean something, but who can't quite get him to the altar.

When the Junction needs money to stay afloat, Uncle Joe convinces two rich women the hotel is a reducing farm.

When Kate unexpectedly sees Homer Bedloe in Hooterville, she knows trouble is in store. Because of the continual problems he has faced trying to scrap the Cannonball, Bedloe states he has given up on that idea. Instead, he plans on selling the Cannonball - a seemingly one-of-a-kind antique locomotive - and he has a buyer on hand. He is millionaire retired train man and antique train aficionado, Phillip Waterhouse. Waterhouse, who comes with his personal secretary Cassidy, is an old, ornery and snobbish man who generally gets what he wants. Bedloe plans on giving Waterhouse a test run on the train. Instead, Kate manages to be Waterhouse's fellow passenger, leaving Bedloe behind in Hooterville. With Charley and Floyd's help, Kate hopes she can convince Waterhouse that the train is in such disrepair that it's not worth buying. But by the time they arrive at the Shady Rest, Kate learns Waterhouse's true motivation in wanting to buy the train, which was not as she expected. She hopes that with the family's help, she can get through to Waterhouse the necessity of the train to the valley, which may not be an easy task seeing that Waterhouse is not the type of man to listen to anyone's opinion except his own.

Uncle Joe decides to take up painting and hopes to make money with his new venture. When an antique dealer buys a painting, Joe thinks he is a new art master on his way to success. However, the dealer only wants the valuable picture frame.

Tomboy Betty Jo falls in love with Orville, who only has eyes for cars!

Uncle Joe is given the task of digging a drainage ditch for the Shady Rest. He finds the lazy way to do it by spreading rumors of a silver mine in the ground by the Shady Rest. He figures others will do the digging for him.

The girls enter a talent contents that Uncle Joe arranges. He also wants to arrange one of his nieces winning the contest.

When Kate's old friend Emily Mapes comes to the Shady Rest, she notices that Kate is unmarried and wants to see her wed. Emily recruits Kate's daughters to round up some bachelors to go to the Shady Rest to court Kate. However, Uncle Joe thinks that if Kate finds a man, he will lose his job

Beatlemania has hit Hooterville by storm, Uncle Joe has recruited Billy, Bobbie, and Betty Joe along with their friend Sally Ragsdale to form their own band called the Ladybugs. An agent is coming to Hooterville to see the girls in action; however Kate will not allow it. It is now up to the girls to turn their Mother less "square" as they put it.

Uncle Joe gets angry at Charlie and Floyd when he is left behind by the Cannonball. He decides to start his own transport business by using the "Flivverball" an old car converted into a railway car. Kate must now deal with the feuding groups before the cannonball goes out of business.

Homer Bedloe wants to get rid of the Cannonball Express in Hooterville, so he begins to harass Floyd and Charley. Kate finds a way stop Bedloe.

A rich and powerful woman stays at the Shady Rest. Kate hopes she will endorse the hotel in order to increase business and get a loan at the bank, but Kate finds she has to cater to every need for the woman, no matter how ridiculous.

Charley feels that no one is paying any attention to him, so he quits working on the Cannonball.

The president of the railroad company has a dog that seems bored. His solution is to send the dog to the Shady Rest for a vacation.

The latest guest at the Shady Rest is an old boyfriend of Kate's. He is rich now, but Joe thinks he is just a con artist and after Kate's money.

Homer Bedloe returns to Hooterville to try and stop the Cannonball Express. This time, he brings his son with him, who seems to follow in his father's footsteps.

A former resident returns to Hooterville and seems to be a self-made woman. Mary Jane is a business executive who can handle any situation and seems to have a way with men.

A business representative from a company visits the Shady Rest to determine if a business convention should be held there. No one seems to be able to close the deal, and Kate is missing.

After Kate's ordeal of being caught in a cave-in, she has a badly sprained ankle. A business executive is still considering the Shady Rest for a business convention. Can Kate close the deal?

Kate's former grade school teacher returns to Hooterville. Kate tells her children how Miss Keane was so strict on all the children, and she was a dreaded teacher. However, the returning Miss Keane seems to have mellowed over her years away.