''Harper Valley PTA'' (known simply as ''Harper Valley'' during its second season) is an American

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

television series based on the 1978 film of the same name, which was itself based on the 1968 country song of the same name recorded by singer

Jeannie C. Riley Jeannie C. Riley (born Jeanne Carolyn Stephenson; October 19, 1945) is an American country music and gospel music, gospel singing, singer. She is best known for her 1968 country music, country and pop music, pop hit "Harper Valley PTA", which mi ...

and written by

Tom T. Hall Thomas Hall (May 25, 1936 – August 20, 2021), known professionally as Tom T. Hall and informally nicknamed "the Storyteller," was an American country music singer-songwriter and short-story author. He wrote 12 No. 1 hit songs, with 26 more ...

. The series, starring

Barbara Eden Barbara Eden (born Barbara Jean Morehead; August 23, 1931) is an American actress, singer, and producer best known for her starring role as Jeannie in the sitcom '' I Dream of Jeannie'' (1965-1970). Other notable roles include Roslyn Pierce opp ...

who reprised her role from the film, aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

from January 16, 1981 to August 14, 1982.

Synopsis

The series went on to flesh out the story in the song, as it told of the adventures of Stella Johnson (

), a widowed single mother to teenager Dee (Jenn Thompson), who lived in the fictional town of Harper Valley, Ohio. The town was dominated by the namesakes of the founder, the Harper family, most prominently represented by the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

, Otis Harper, Jr (George Gobel). Mrs. Johnson's flouting of the small town's conventions, and exposure of the

hypocrisy Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform. In moral psychology, it is the ...

of many of its other notorious residents provided the humour. Her most notable foes were the wealthy and completely snobbish Reilly family, which consisted of the snobby head of the family, Flora ( Anne Francine); her snotty daughter, Wanda (

Bridget Hanley Bridget Ann Elizabeth Hanley (February 3, 1941 – December 15, 2021) was an American actress, known for her starring and supporting roles in TV comedy, western, adventure, and drama programs, including as Candy Pruitt in the Western dramedy ser ...

); her husband, Bobby, (Rod McCary) and their daughter, Scarlett (Suzi Dean). The stuck-up Scarlett was mainly Dee's nemesis, just as her mother and grandmother were Stella's arch-enemies. In the show's early episodes, Mrs. Johnson had been recently elected to the

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

of the PTA and this was the source of most of the show's plots (two of the other members were Vivian Washburn (

Mari Gorman Mari Gorman is an American actress perhaps best known for her work in television, particularly as a frequent guest star on the 1970s and 1980s sitcom ''Barney Miller'', but she is also known for her theater acting. She has won several acting awar ...

) and Willamae Jones (

Edie McClurg Edith Marie McClurg (born July 23, 1945) is an American actress and comedian. She has played supporting roles in the films ''Carrie'' (1976), ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' (1986), and ''Elvira: Mistress of the Dark'' (1988), and bit parts in '' ...

)); later it was decided that this idea had been carried about as far as was practical and the PTA aspect was dropped from the show, which was then retitled ''Harper Valley''. During this phase, Stella's relationship with Dee was more prominent and actor

Mills Watson Mills Watson (born William Oscar Watson on July 10, 1940)shockcinemamagazine.com Issue No. 5cover/ref> is an American actor who is probably best known for his comedic portrayal of the law enforcement character Deputy Perkins, first on ''B. J. and ...

joined the cast as Stella's eccentric uncle, Winslow Homer Smith. Nicknamed Buster, he was an inventor whose inventions never worked the way they were supposed to. Stella still did battle with the Reilly clan on occasion. Her best friend was Cassie Bowman, a reporter for the town's paper (

Fannie Flagg Fannie Flagg (born Patricia Neal; September 21, 1944) is an American actress, comedian and author. She is best known as a semi-regular panelist on the 1973–1982 versions of the game show ''Match Game'' and for the 1987 novel '' Fried Green To ...

). At various times, Stella had to deal with her evil twin, Della Smith (played by Barbara Eden wearing a black wig), much as she had when she was on her more famous series, ''

I Dream of Jeannie ''I Dream of Jeannie'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series, created by Sidney Sheldon that starred Barbara Eden as a sultry, 2,000-year-old genie and Larry Hagman, as an astronaut with whom she falls in love and eventually marrie ...

'', when she played her evil twin sister, Jeannie II. The show ran from January 1981 to August 1982 on

; it was later released into

syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

to local stations briefly in the mid-1980s, even though there were too few

episode An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a series intended for radio, television or streaming consumption. The noun ''episode'' is derived from the Greek term ''epeisodion'' (), meaning t ...

s made for it to be normally syndicated. Cable television network

TV Land TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division. Originally a spinoff of Nick at Nite consisting exclusively of classic television shows, the channel now airs a combination of recent and cla ...

showed reruns of the show in 2000.

Broadcast history

Episodes

Season 1 (1981)

Season 2 (1981–82)

External links

* * 1981 American television series debuts 1982 American television series endings 1980s American sitcoms English-language television shows NBC original programming Live action television shows based on films Television series based on adaptations Television series by Universal Television Television series created by Sherwood Schwartz Television shows set in Ohio {{US-comedy-tv-prog-stub