Hank Kimball

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Hank Kimball was the fictitious county agent of the 1965-71 American television comedy Green Acres. The show was about a rich New York City couple who decide to buy and run a farm in the wacky and surreal town of Hooterville.

Kimball was an unusual, perhaps unique, comic creation (played by Alvy Moore) who was a friendly, helpful but scatterbrained man apparently educated past his intelligence. Like most Green Acres characters he didn't start out as confused and scatterbrained. Over the first season he developed into the man who couldn't seem to remember anything, unless, as Oliver found out, you specifically told him NOT to remember it. He had an unusual self-correcting manner where he would make a statement, qualify it, correct it again, correct it further and then lose track of what he was saying entirely. A typical conversation (not actually taken from the show) might go:

Hank: "A hound dog, eh? I used to have a hound dog . . . or was it a bird dog? No -- not a bird dog. Dogs don't generally fly. No, that's it -- it was definitely a canary."

Oliver: "You just said it was a dog!"

Hank: "What was?"

Oliver: "The canary!"

Hank (ducks): "Where?"

He'd also frequently forget the name of main character Oliver Douglas as he was talking to him and ask him his name. Although supposedly a farming expert, his advice was usually worthless. For example, in one episode, Oliver Wendell Douglas has children visiting his farm from New York City. He lets each one plant a small garden. Hank comes and tells them he's the county agent and can tell them anything they'd like to know about farming. A child asks how seeds know what to grow into. Hank tells the child they just look at the pictures on the seed packs.