Question: I enjoyed the Flipper column where you talked about their using female dolphins, but it got me wondering. What about Arnold, the pig on Green Acres? Boy or girl?
Answer: As you might expect, the rule for pigs was the same as it was with dolphins: Girls (or "gilts" in pig-breeding lingo) may not be made of sugar, spice and everything nice like their human counterparts, but they are easier to deal with. The first pig to play Arnold, farmer Fred Ziffel's brilliant and adorable oinker on CBS' 1965-71 rural sitcom, was male, but after that it was all ladies. And that included the Arnold doubles and stand-ins (not counting the cardboard ones used to set up and light shots), which numbered anywhere from two to four per season.
The reason for the high Arnold turnover is that pigs stop being cute o
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