Created by Paul Henning Gender Female Spouse Steve Elliott First appearance "Spur Line to Shady Rest" | Nickname(s) Betty
Miss Elliott Children Kathy Jo Elliott Creator Paul Henning Last appearance "Betty Jo's Business" | |
Relatives Kate Bradley (mother)
Bill Bradley (father; deceased)
Joe Carson (great-uncle)
Billie Jo Bradley (sister)
Bobbie Jo Bradley (sister)
Helen (aunt)
Mae Belle Jennings (cousin) Portrayed by Linda Kaye Henning (1963–1970) Similar Billie Jo Bradley, Sam Drucker, Oliver Wendell Douglas, Lisa Douglas, Arnold Ziffel | ||
Betty Jo Elliott (née Bradley) is a fictional character on Petticoat Junction, which originally aired on CBS (1963–1970). Unlike the actresses that played her sisters, Betty Jo was played by the same actress for the sitcom's entire run.
Character overview
Elizabeth Josephine, on the show usually called just Betty Jo, is the youngest daughter of Kate Bradley. She is a sweet and tomboyish redhead, and is the youngest of the Bradley sisters. She and her older sisters, Billie Jo and Bobbie Jo, are known in Hooterville for swimming in the Hooterville Cannonball's water tower. Although not as girlish as her older sisters, she is the eye of Eb Dawson, Mr. and Mrs. Douglas's ranch hand on Green Acres, though she doesn't show as much interest in him. Out of the 222 episodes of Petticoat Junction, Betty Jo is present in a total of 220 of them. She doesn't appear in the first season episode "Bobbie Jo and the Beatnik" or the second season episode "Have Library, Will Travel".
In season five, Betty Jo marries pilot Steve Elliott, a boy who first showed a great deal of interest in Billie Jo. After they get married they move to a cottage down the tracks from Hooterville, but move back to the Shady Rest Hotel (her late-mother's hotel) in the show's last season. According to Kate, her mother, Betty Jo's too interested in sports. In some episodes, her Uncle Joe shows favoritism towards her. During Junction's sixth season, Betty Jo gives birth to Kathy Jo. In season seven, it's announced that Kathy Jo is expecting a sibling; but nothing more is said about Betty Jo's second pregnancy.
Where the actresses playing Billie Jo and Bobbie Jo changed over the years (in total there were three Billie Jos and two Bobbie Jos), Betty Jo was played by Linda Kaye Henning, the daughter of series creator, Paul Henning who shared a birthday of September 16, for the entire seven-year run. However, despite the fact that she was Henning's daughter, she had to audition for the part and was almost passed over.
Betty Jo appears in one episode of Green Acres and in a handful of episodes from The Beverly Hillbillies, both of which were shows related to Petticoat Junction.