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The first episode of Petticoat Junction (NOT the pilot film, since no pilot was ever made!) finds C & F.W Railroad president Norman Curtis (Roy Roberts) dispatching his vice-president Homer Bedloe (Charles Lane) to the tiny community of Hooterville, there to find out why one of the railroad's branch lines doesn't connect with the Main Line. Upon arrival, Bedloe shows up at the Shady Rest, a little hotel run by widow Kate Bradley (Bea Benadaret) with the help of her lazy Uncle Joe (Edgar Buchanan) and her three toothsome daughters Billie Jo (Jeannine Riley), Bobbie Jo (Pat Woodell) and Betty Jo (Linda Kaye). After encountering numerous frustrations at the Shady Rest--beginning with an ornate elevator that had never worked!--Bedloe is shocked to find that the C&FW is represented by the Hooterville Cannonball, an 1890s-vintage steam engine than runs whenever its engineers feel like it. The outraged Bedloe vows to fire the engineers and put the Cannonball out of business--but crafty Kate isn't about to let that happen!