Green Acres “A Square Is Not Round” (December 14, 1966)

This especially deranged segment by Elroy Schwartz (one of the few not penned by the producing team of Jay Sommers and Dick Chevillat) springs from the same premise that operates every entry in this subversive sitcom: city-bred novice farmer Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert, TV’s best straight man) stumbles through some insane chain of events that seem perfectly reasonable to the loonies who populate the bizarro world of Hooterville.  In this case, one of Oliver’s hens begins producing cube-shaped eggs.  “One of the girls must have a square egg-maker,” is his blissfully left-brained Hungarian wife Lisa’s logical explanation.  Even funnier is the subplot about the toaster that only works when someone says “five” – a reference to the running gag that all the Douglases’ appliances have a numerical value which must total less than seven when plugged in or else, as Lisa would put it, a “fooz” will blow in the “electricical.”  This leads to a Preston Sturges-worthy exchange in the general store in which various kibitzers inform Oliver that he must have an outdated model, as all the newer models start at an eight, but perhaps Mr. Drucker (Frank Cady) can tinker Oliver’s toaster up to a six and a half.  It’s marred only by an unnecessary “it was all a dream ending,” but perhaps that’s a badge of honor – a confession that this outing was a tad too surreal even for this fourth wall-shattering show.