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Green Acres was a spinoff of another CBS rural situation comedy, Petticoat Junction, and the third series in Paul Hennings rural triology for CBS.

The story of Green Acres is this: Oliver Wendell Douglas, a successful Harvard-educated New York City attorney, who lived in a luxurious Park Avenue penthouse with his glamorous, Hungarian-born, and socialite wife Lisa, became disgusted with city life and the rat race, and he wanted to satisfy his lifelong dream of becoming a farmer. He sees an ad in The Farm Gazette for a 160-acre farm in Hooterville, a small farming community. He purchases the farm from Mr. Haney, a rural con artist.

When Oliver goes back to New York to tell Lisa the news, she became very upset and she was crying hysterically. Both she and his mother, Eunice, objected to his decision, but Oliver still went ahead with it. As much as she loved New York and its stores, theaters, restaurants, and nightclubs, she reluctantly agreed to try farm life, but only for six months. Therefore, Oliver and Lisa move out of their penthouse apartment and start a whole new life in Hooterville.

When Lisa first saw the farmhouse, she was very upset, and threatened to renege on her promise, and go back to New York. The farmhouse was over a hundred years old and in terrible shape, but Oliver was determined to make the farm work and fix up the house. He hired handyman Eb Dawson, who had previously worked for Mr. Haney, and the brother-and-sister carpenter team of Alf and Ralph Monroe to enlarge their bedroom. At the same time, Mr. Haney sells Oliver nothing but worthless junk, including an old broken-down Hoyt Clagwell tractor and a pregnant cow named Elinor.

Lisa didn't know a thing about housekeeping and cooking. Come to think of it, her cooking was terrible. She made Oliver oatmeal without boiling it (ditto for the spaghetti), hot water soup (with no broth or vegetables), coffee that came out too thick, a Christmas fruitcake with unpeeled and unsliced fruit, and of course, her trademark hotcakes. (The Christmas fruitcake was made from hotcake batter.)

Even in Hooterville, Oliver and Lisa still wore their city clothes. Oliver wore his suits, ties, and vests, even when he did his farm chores and went into Drucker's General Store. Lisa's wardrobe consisted of glamorous, but very sexy gowns; gloves, fancy hats, jewelry, luxurious furs, fashionable suits and dresses, and of course, her trademark feather negligees.

Lisa did grow fond of the farm animals, including their neighbors

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