Arnold the Pig Listens to Farmhand Eb Dawson

Arnold was the family pet of Fred and Doris Ziffel (Hank Patterson & Barbara Pepper/Fran Ryan), farmers living in the small town of Hooterville. They considered this talented pig, the son they never had.

Arnold could play the piano, drink lime soda from a straw, deliver letters from the mail box, turn the channels on the television (he loved to watch THE CBS EVENING NEWS with Walter Cronkite), predict weather with his curly tail, and play cricket with his own miniature cricket bat.

Aenold often interacted with Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert) and his eloquent wife, Lisa (Eva Gabor), two city slickers who moved to the country and bought the old Haney place.

Doris and Fred Ziffel, Arnold's parents

Once, while playing checkers, storekeeper Sam Drucker (Frank Cady) said to Fred "You treat that pig better that your wife." Fred replied '"Have you seen Doris, lately?"

On the revival TV-Movie Return To Green Acres (5/18/90) Arnold the pig was played by four different pig actors. According to their trainer Brian McMillan each pig performed different stunts including going up and downstairs, sitting up and wearing cloths.

The original Arnold the pig (a male) was a Chester White pig from Indiana who was later replaced by other Arnold substitutes. His trainer was Frank Inn. Arnold won the American Humane Association's PATSY award in 1968 &1969.

Arnold Strikes an RCA Dog Pose

TRIVIA NOTE: Over the years, bogus urban legends about Arnold the Pig have given rise. One of the most outrageous reports that “at the farewell party thrown after filming the series’ final episode, the cast and crew of GREEN ACRES barbequed and ate the porcine actor who portrayed Arnold Ziffel” (as told in Stephen Cox’s :The Hooterville Handbook: A Viewer’s Guide to Green Acres", St. Martin‘s Press, 1993 p. 116, 119)

On the PBS cartoon series KIPPER, a pig named Pig is the best friend of Kipper the Dog. Pig's little cousin, Arnold the Pig always comes along on their adventures even though he's too little to speak yet.