Ma And Pa Kettle
She based them on farming neighbors in Washington state, U.S.A. They became the featured characters in a series of popular, light comedic movies in the 1940s and 1950s.
The movies revolved around the absurd misadventures of the Kettle clan.
Premise
Pa (Franklin Kettle) (played by Percy Kilbride) is a gentle, slow-speaking, slow-thinking and lazy man. Ma (Phoebe Kettle) (played by Marjorie Main) is larger, raucous, more ambitious and smarter than Pa, but not by much, and can easily be fooled.
She is content with her role as mother to a small army of children on their ramshackle farm. At the end of the first film in the series, Pa Kettle wins a modern home that the family move into.
As the series continued, various reasons were devised to have the family relocate to the "old place", sometimes for extended periods of time.
Much of the humor comes from the preposterous situations the Kettles find themselves in, such as Pa being mistaken for a wealthy industrialist or being jailed after he accidentally causes race horses to eat feed laced with concrete.
Films
The Kettles first appeared in supporting roles in The Egg and I, starring Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert. Main was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1948 for her role in The Egg and I.
Main and Kilbride also appeared together in the 1948 Universal film Feudin', Fussin' And A-Fightin'.
Arthur Hunnicutt played Pa's brother Sedgewick Kettle in that movie and in The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm, the last Kettle movie, Parker Fennelly played Pa Kettle.
The eight Kettle films are:
The Egg and I - 1947
(The Further Adventures of) Ma and Pa Kettle - 1949
Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town - 1950
Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm - 1951
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair - 1952
Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation - 1953
Ma and Pa Kettle at Home - 1954
Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki - 1955
The Kettles in the Ozarks - 1956
The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm - 1957
DVD
The eight Kettle films have been released on DVD, as part of Universal's Franchise Collection series. Volume 1 contains The Egg and I, The Further Adventures of Ma and Pa Kettle, Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town and Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm, while Volume 2 contains Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair, Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation, Ma and Pa Kettle at Home, Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki.
Later revivals
The characters of Ma and Pa Kettle also appeared in television's first comedy serial, The Egg and I, which aired on CBS (September 3, 1951-August 1, 1952).
Ma Kettle was played by Doris Rich and Pa Kettle was played by Frank Twedell. Betty Lynn (better known as Barney Fife's girlfriend Thelma Lou from The Andy Griffith Show) played Betty in some episodes, including "Pa Turns Over A New Leaf" (which aired on May 21, 1952).
The 1980 satire film Loose Shoes (which also starred Bill Murray) included a sketch called "A Visit With Ma and Pa" where Ma Kettle was played by Ysabel MacCloskey and Pa Kettle was played by Walker Edmiston.
Animator Walter Lantz produced a short-lived cartoon series for Universal Pictures called "Maw and Paw" in which only four cartoons were released between 1953 and 1955.