Pat Buttram Movies

This animated Disney feature is based on a popular afternoon television show. The story centers on Goofy's teenage son, Max, who is terrified that he will grow up to be as dorky a dog as his daffy daddy. Just as shy Max has screwed up enough courage to ask his dreamgirl, Roxanne, on a date, Goofy stumbles in and announces that they need to spend some quality time together, and then drags Max off on a vacation. Just before they leave, Max tells Roxanne that he will be in the audience at the next Powerline concert, which is to be televised. As Goofy heads for the forest for some huntin' and some fishin', "hyuk," Max schemes to get them to LA where he hopes they will be able to sneak backstage after the concert and fulfill his promise to Roxanne. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

It's the ladies to the rescue in the low-budget actioner Angel's Brigade. Wearing form-fitting fatigues, the female stars play a team of highly trained avengers. Their mission: to wipe every drug dealer off the face of the earth. To accomplish this, they drive around in a custom-built van, decked out with the latest in high-tech weaponry. You've never heard of any of the leading ladies in Angel's Brigade, but the supporting cast is overloaded with such pop-culture celebs as Jack Palance, Peter Lawford, Jim Backus, Neville Brand, Pat Buttram, Alan Hale Jr, and Arthur Godfrey. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The final installment in the Back to the Future trilogy picks up where the second film left off, but it casts off the dizzying time travel of the first two films for mostly routine comedy set in the Old West. Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) receives a 70-year-old letter from his inventor friend, Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), who tells Marty that he has retreated a century in time to live out a relatively quiet life in the Old West. Doc Brown reveals that he hid his DeLorean car/time machine in an abandoned mine outside town, and when Marty does some research and discovers that the Doc died shortly after writing the letter, he decides to find the car, travel back in time, and warn the Doc about his demise. Meanwhile, the Doc, who has fallen in love with a local woman (Mary Steenburgen), realizes he can't hide in the past from the problems he has caused to the time flow in the previous two adventures. He reluctantly decides to return to the present with Marty, but first, they have to find a way to get the DeLorean up to time-travel velocity with a broken fuel line and no gasoline. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi

Gene Autry and his horse Champion play "themselves" in Columbia's Beyond the Purple Hills. This one finds Autry serving as a cattle-town sheriff. When his best friend is accused of murder, Gene does his duty and arrests the man--then conducts his own investigation to prove that his pal is innocent. Pat Buttram goes through his usual sidekick paces, while young Autry protégé Don Reynolds does some impressive horse-riding stunts. Of interest to TV-western fans is the actor playing Autry's wrongly accused buddy: it's none other than Hugh O'Brian, later to gain fame as television's Wyatt Earp. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Director Silvio Narizzano totes out a Sunday morning public affairs programming style in this it-could-happen-to-you drama about a popular high-school student who finds that he has what some consider a disability. Paul Carafotes plays a high-school student who loves to play football and music. But when the school doctor determines that he is partially deaf, he is barred from the football team. In order to hide his disappointment, the high schooler changes his outlook to one of disinterest, and he rapidly falls in with a tough gang that is making trouble around the high school. Demi Moore appears in a small supporting role in this film -- her first film role. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Overlooked when it first aired February 18, 1972, the made-for-TV Evil Roy Slade has gained a loyal and protective cult following in the past 20 years. The film was the second pilot for a never-sold TV western spoof created by Garry Marshall and Jerry Belson, Sheriff Who?. Actually, it was the second and third pilot, since Evil Roy Slade has been cobbled together from two hour-long films. John Astin is terrific in the title role, playing an outlaw so repulsive that, when he was orphaned and left stranded in the desert as a baby, even the wolves didn't want him! As an adult, Evil Roy Slade can't resist "going the extra mile" in his nastiness: while robbing a bank, he stops to pilfer a fountain pen chained to one of the desks, and the next shot shows Slade riding off into the sunset, dragging the desk behind him. Attempting to reform for the sake of pretty schoolmarm Betsy Potter (Pamela Austin), Slade simply cannot curb his crooked tendencies, so it's up to Dick Shawn as singing Sheriff Bing Bell ("Will somebody please answer that door?") to bring the criminal to justice. Shawn previously appeared in the original 1967 Sheriff Who? pilot as the "fastest interior decorator in the West"; in both films, he's almost unbearably funny. The Marshall/Belson script is full of hilarious running gags and throwaway jokes. Our favorite bit concerns railroad magnate Mickey Rooney's legendary stubby index finger: "They still sing about it around campfires at night," claims Rooney--and indeed, they do. The supporting cast includes such never-fail laughgetters as Milton Berle, Henry Gibson, Dom DeLuise and Edie Adams; also, keep a lookout for John Ritter and Penny Marshall in unbilled bits. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The third of producer Paul Henning's enormously successful "rustic" comedies of the 1960s, Green Acres made its CBS bow on September 15, 1965. Reversing the situation established on Henning's The Beverly Hillbillies, in which a group of yokels was transplanted to luxurious Beverly Hills, Green Acres stars Eddie Albert as prosperous Manhattan attorney Oliver Wendell Douglas, who to fulfill a lifelong dream forsook his sophisticated surroundings to become a farmer in the tiny rural community of Hooterville. Reluctantly going along for the ride was Oliver's sexy Hungarian wife, Lisa (Eva Gabor), who though she eventually resigned herself to farm life still insisted upon wearing expensive clothes and jewelry while milking cows and plowing the North 40. Alas, she never quite learned to cook, and her rock-hard hotcakes would soon become the source of many hearty laughs from the viewers. Unfortunately for Oliver, the farm he purchased was in deplorable condition, and the surrounding 160 acres weren't much better. Our hero had been suckered into this situation by bucolic con artist Mr. Haney (Pat Buttram), who continued to fleece the Douglases by selling them expensive -- and generally useless -- farm implements and creature comforts throughout the series' six-season run.

Mr. Haney was but one of the many eccentric characters who seemed to have been put on earth to make Oliver Douglas' life miserable. Others included county agent Hank Kimball (Alvy Moore), who never made a statement without immediately contradicting himself ("Good morning, Mr. Douglas. Well...it isn't really good because it's gonna rain...and it's after noon, so it's not really morning..." etc., etc., etc.); doltish handyman Ed Dawson (Tom Lester), who looked upon the Douglases as his surrogate parents and constantly prevailed upon them to bail him out of trouble (usually girl trouble); carpenters and twin siblings Alf and Ralph Malone (Sid Melton and Mary Grace Canfield), who never quite managed to finish construction on the Douglases' bedroom; and neighboring farmer Hank Ziffel (Hank Patterson) and his wife, Doris (played first by Barbara Pepper, then by Fran Ryan), owners of a TV-watching pig named Arnold, who regarded himself as a human being -- and who developed into the series' biggest "superstar"!

Inasmuch as Green Acres was the sister series to Paul Henning's Petticoat Junction -- also set in the mythical village of Hooterville -- there were a number of crossover episodes between the two programs. Also, Frank Cady appeared as storekeeper Sam Drucker on both shows, while one of Petticoat Junction's main characters, Uncle Joe Bradley (Edgar Buchanan), dropped in from time to time. One of the series' most endearing trademarks was its strain of surrealistic humor. This manifested itself in many ways, but none quite as memorable as the method in which the opening credit titles were presented. In several installments, a confused Lisa Douglas would comment upon "those little names" that appeared in front of her on the screen; and in at least one instance, the directorial credit showed up on a newly laid egg! Although it is not generally known, Green Acres was based on a radio series titled Granby's Green Acres, which like its TV counterpart was created by Jay Sommers and written by Dick Chevillat. All but one of the TV series' episodes was directed by Richard L. Bare, a past master at depicting comic frustration, as could be seen in his wonderful "Joe McDoakes" theatrical shorts of the 1940s and '50s. Green Acres might well have run forever had CBS not decided during the 1970-1971 season to purge itself of all its "rural" comedies; thus, the series came to an end on September 7, 1971, still as popular and hilarious as ever. ~ Rovi

City-bred attorney Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert) and his chic, sophisticated wife, Lisa (Eva Gabor), undergo quite a period of adjustment throughout the first season of Green Acres. Having insisted upon bundling himself and his wife to a 160-acre farm just outside the bucolic town of Hooterville, Oliver is determined to make a go of his new investment, even though the farm and farmhouse are in deplorable shape. Not making life any easier for Oliver are a motley group of local eccentrics: Mr. Haney (Pat Buttram), the bucolic con artist who sold Douglas the farm, and who continues to scam money off the gullible attorney by generous providing him with any number of useless implements and "creature comforts"; clumsy handyman Eb Dawson (Tom Lester), who for some reason regards Oliver as his surrogate daddy; absentminded county agent Hank Kimball (Alvy Moore), who seldom made a statement without immediately qualifying or contradicting himself; and local storekeeper Sam Drucker (Frank Cady), whose favorite pastime (evidently) was misunderstanding everything Oliver asked him. Also seen on occasion are neighboring farmers Fred and Doris Ziffel (Hank Patterson, Barbara Pepper), whose pet pig, Arnold, had not yet assumed full "superstar" status. Season one of Green Acres reaches a climax of sorts as Lisa Douglas, who has never let a day pass without yearning for her beloved "Park Avenue," is allowed to decide whether she and Oliver should return to New York or whether they will remain in Hooterville. Just guess what she decides. ~ Rovi

Season three of Green Acres begins as attorney Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert) is nominated for the political post of state senator. Alas, this dream come true is destined to become as much a comic nightmare as city slicker Oliver's efforts to become a successful farmer in the bucolic community of Hooterville. Likewise doomed to failure is Oliver's attempt to improve the local telephone service; by season's end, our hero returns to his usual routine of accepting calls by climbing a nearby telephone pole and tapping into the party line. In another episode, Oliver's glamorous wife, Lisa (Eva Gabor), harks back to World War II, when she and her husband first met. Lisa is also the center of attention in the episode in which one of her Hungarian relatives moves into the farm and makes life even more miserable for poor Oliver. In other season-three developments, handyman Ed (Tom Lester) falls in love and elopes, but soon returns to the Douglas farm a single man. Carpenters -- and twin siblings -- Alf and Ralph Monroe (Sid Melton, Mary Grace Canfield) dissolve their partnership just as they are finally poised to finish building the Douglases' bedroom. Lisa saves herself and her husband from bank robbers by serving up her notorious indigestible hotcakes. And Arnold the pig, the pampered, TV-watching pet of neighboring farmers Fred and Doris Ziffel (Hank Patterson, Barbara Pepper), is whisked off to Hollywood, where in a two-part story he is groomed for film stardom. This particular escapade brings the third season of Green Acres to a close, with the promise of even more rustic zaniness to come in season four. ~ Rovi

Season five of Green Acres begins as the ramshackle farm of Oliver and Lisa Douglas (Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor) is invaded by Lisa's Hungarian mother (Lilia Skala), a bejeweled countess. As "Mudder" remains on the premises for weeks and weeks, the male citizenry of Hooterville, notably hotelier Uncle Joe Bradley (Edgar Buchanan) and con artist Mr. Haney (Pat Buttram) pay court to the countess, hoping thereby to land a wealthy wife. Elsewhere, Oliver grows a huge beanstalk in his garden, prompting a visit from the "Jolly Green Giant"; a long-undelivered special delivery letter arouses the curiosity of everyone in town; county agent Hank Kimball (Alvy Moore) proposes to carpenter Ralph Monroe (Mary Grace Canfield), whose brother, Alf Monroe (played in previous seasons by Sid Melton), has disappeared without explanation; and Arnold the pig is expelled from school. The season ends with a double birthday party for Oliver...and Arnold. ~ Rovi

It's silliness on the high seas as two sneaky sailors race across the South Pacific in this fast-paced and campy comedy. The fun begins when one bets the other $20,000 that he, with an all girl crew, be the first to Tahiti in a sailboat race. The other, not to be outdone, has a few monkeyshines up his sleeve and actually wins the race. The beaten bettor then makes the claim, that he can beat the victor to the mainland using a crew comprised of baboons. That is too much to resist for the other and the race is on. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Watch the comedy unfold as Milton Berle trades wisecracks with his hilarious guests on this videotape. Some of the funniest people in show business are featured in this collection hosted by "Mr. Television" himself. Pat Buttran, Dick Martin, Mort Sahl, and Eddie Quillon are interviewed. Footage of Abbott and Costello, Lenny Bruce, Martin and Lewis, Jackie Gleason, and many others is included. ~ Karla Baker, Rovi

This film gives a fictionalized version of how the popular real-life radio program of the title began. A promoter has an idea for a show devoted to various country musicians, and an ad agency owner is interested. The promoter goes down South, finds some talented acts, and brings them back to Chicago, but the owner has changed his mind. The musicians pose as the owner's servants and wow him with a show to end all shows, and "National Barn Dance" is born. ~ Steve Huey, Rovi