When the future comes a-callin' in the form of modern houses, exotic locales, and newfangled ideas, Ma and Pa must learn how to make the best of it with luck, pluck, and a little country charm.”[1] Originally based on real-life farming neighbors in Washington state, United States,[2] Ma and Pa Kettle were composite characters created by Betty MacDonald in whose 1945 best-selling, semi-fictional memoir, The Egg and I, they appeared.

The success of the novel spawned the 1947 film The Egg and I starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray, also co-starring Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride as Ma and Pa Kettle.

Most of the time, the older Kettle boys or even Pa's Indian friends, Geoduck and Crowbar, milk her.

The goats spend most of their time grazing around the farm, but the largest of them, a large billy with massive, curved horns, often causes everyone trouble.

Prior to the Kettle Farm area being demolished in 1969 to begin construction on the Gibson Amphitheatre, it was significantly altered for the filming of Spartacus.

The movie ranch appeared in other films and television series, including: The ten Kettle films are: Ma and Pa Kettle first appeared in supporting roles as neighbors in The Egg and I, starring Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert as a refined city couple who move to a rural chicken farm.

Marjorie Main, a veteran character actress, played a hardy country woman in dozens of films, so was a natural for the role of Ma Kettle.

The next film brought back Pa Kettle in the person of Parker Fennelly, who had played homespun, laconic types on radio; The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm (1957) was not successful enough to prolong the series, but Universal kept the older films playing in theaters into the 1960s.

At the height of the popularity of the series, exhibitors polled by Quigley Publishing voted Kilbride and Main among the most popular stars in the US: Betty MacDonald's characters 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).

Another episode, "The Purloined Jacket", starred Mary Perry as Cammy, Richard Carlyle as Joe Kettle, and William A. Lee as Ed Peabody.

[clarification needed][citation needed] The satirical film Loose Shoes (1980), which 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.

[citation needed] The Adventures of Ma and Pa Kettle Volume 1 [14] as the first part of Universal's Franchise Collection series.