Cast changes Petticoat Junction

1967 cast, l-r: meredith macrae (billie jo), lori saunders (bobbie jo), , linda kaye henning (betty jo)

billie jo played sharon tate. though cast photo taken tate, never appeared in show. though long rumored possible explanations tate s replacement include emergence of racy photos of tate, reality martin ransohoff, filmways producer, felt wasn t prepared central role, , agents convinced pass opportunity. billie jo played first 2 seasons (1963–65) jeannine riley, left pursue movie career. in third season (1965–66), riley replaced gunilla hutton (not present 11 episodes), , rest of show s run, billie jo played meredith macrae.

bobbie jo played in first 2 seasons (1963–65) pat woodell, left series start singing career. in scenes in few episodes, when pat woodell unavailable, bobbie jo shown behind, double standing in. remaining seasons, character played lori saunders. woodell , saunders resembled each other physically, character of bobbie jo gradually revamped after cast change, going shy bookworm humorous scatterbrain. book glamour, gidgets, , girl next door herbie j. pilato attributes change in character actress lori saunders having different flair comedy pat [woodell]. after saunders took on role, @ times gave lines daffy delivery. show writers picked on , gradually changed character of bobbie jo paul henning s original conception of brainy introvert high-spirited, delightfully ditzy extrovert.

in 1967, show suffered first loss when smiley burnette (engineer charley pratt) died of leukemia right after filming wrapped fourth season. floyd smoot (rufe davis) took on running train alone engineer , conductor. floyd replaced following season wendell gibbs, played byron foulger. during show s last season (1969–70), foulger had become ill continue , did not appear. davis guested floyd smoot 2 episodes, 1 of them being last train pixley . addressed off-screen in 1 episode invisible character. coincidentally, foulger died on same day final episode of petticoat junction aired: april 4, 1970.

bea benaderet, played main character kate bradley, died in 1968; june lockhart joined show dr. janet craig, mother figure girls, 1968 until show s end in 1970.