On its surface, "Susan B. Anthony, I Love You," penned by executive producer Charles Stewart and script consultant Dick Conway, looks to be, charitably, a game if awkward attempt at staying contemporary or, cynically, a back-handed swipe at one of the many social, cultural, and political changes wrought by the 1960s, with smart money favoring the latter. When Billie Jo returns to the Shady Rest Hotel from her extended stay in Chicago, she has been radicalized by feminist Laura C. Knutson and her Women In True Cultural Heritage, stepping off the Cannonball in a severe male suit, her hair in a prim bun, spouting strident doctrine with all the zeal of the newly-awoken acolyte.
Yes, Stewart and Conway draw the eldest Bradley girl as the perfect straw-man--er, better make that straw-woman--to be scoffed at and ridiculed by the menfolk while Bobbie Jo, susceptible to new trends, champions her sister although Betty Jo isn't so enthusiastic--until an argument with Steve swings her into the feminist camp. Only Billie Jo's passing mention of the falling-out she had with her latest boyfriend Jerry Roberts (Paul Todd) in Chicago hints at how this episode will resolve itself to the eventual satisfaction of Mike, Uncle Joe, Sam Drucker, and Bobbie Jo's boyfriend Orrin Pike, with, crucially, Janet, an older woman and medical professional, staying noncommittal yet noticeably skeptical.
Hindsight is truly the luxury here, although one suspects that this episode already looked dated and sexist to many when it premiered, even if it there were likely many viewers--and not just men--who secretly applauded Stewart and Conway's treating Billie Jo's ardor as just another fad driven by hormones; they were probably dying to call the feminist group Broads In True Cultural Heritage, although Uncle Joe's snort at the acronym actually broadcast conveys that sentiment, anyway.
However, in a politically polarized America today, there are undoubtedly reactionaries who will cheer the skewering of "woke SJWs" a half-century ago. But who gets the last laugh? "Petticoat Junction" was soon to be swept away by the "rural purge" carried out by CBS, which replaced the series with . . . "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," a runaway critical and commercial success featuring the first liberated female lead in an American television series. And Susan B. Anthony wound up on a silver dollar.
Yes, Stewart and Conway draw the eldest Bradley girl as the perfect straw-man--er, better make that straw-woman--to be scoffed at and ridiculed by the menfolk while Bobbie Jo, susceptible to new trends, champions her sister although Betty Jo isn't so enthusiastic--until an argument with Steve swings her into the feminist camp. Only Billie Jo's passing mention of the falling-out she had with her latest boyfriend Jerry Roberts (Paul Todd) in Chicago hints at how this episode will resolve itself to the eventual satisfaction of Mike, Uncle Joe, Sam Drucker, and Bobbie Jo's boyfriend Orrin Pike, with, crucially, Janet, an older woman and medical professional, staying noncommittal yet noticeably skeptical.
Hindsight is truly the luxury here, although one suspects that this episode already looked dated and sexist to many when it premiered, even if it there were likely many viewers--and not just men--who secretly applauded Stewart and Conway's treating Billie Jo's ardor as just another fad driven by hormones; they were probably dying to call the feminist group Broads In True Cultural Heritage, although Uncle Joe's snort at the acronym actually broadcast conveys that sentiment, anyway.
However, in a politically polarized America today, there are undoubtedly reactionaries who will cheer the skewering of "woke SJWs" a half-century ago. But who gets the last laugh? "Petticoat Junction" was soon to be swept away by the "rural purge" carried out by CBS, which replaced the series with . . . "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," a runaway critical and commercial success featuring the first liberated female lead in an American television series. And Susan B. Anthony wound up on a silver dollar.