The Will Rogers Follies is a musical with a book by Peter Stone, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and music by Cy Coleman. It focuses on the life and career of famed humorist and performer Will Rogers, using as a backdrop the Ziegfeld Follies, which he often headlined, and describes every episode in his life in the form of a big production number. The Rogers character also performs rope tricks in between scenes. The revue contains snippets of Rogers' famous homespun style of wisdom and common sense and tries to convey the personality of this quintessentially American figure whose most famous quote was "I never met a man I didn't like."

After serving in the military for more than twenty years, including a tour of duty in Vietnam, Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer (Glenn Close) had seen her share of battles. But nothing could prepare her for the fight ahead: an intensely personal struggle against the U.S. Army when she becomes the highest ranking officer ever to be discharged for being a lesbian. With the support of her partner Diane (Judy Davis), Cammermeyer undertakes an against-all-odds battle against the Army's policy. But to do so, she must risk everything – her career, her privacy and even the love of her family.

The Beans are poor, proud, hated by all, but alive in the sense that they struggle against their lot and support each other in time of trouble. Earlene lives across the street from the Bean's trailer, and the view from her window is better than any daytime television soap opera; especially Beal Bean, and especially Beal Bean shirtless. When Reuben Bean is sent to prison for resisting arrest for out-of-season deer hunting, Beal takes up with Reuben's woman Roberta. He also has a child by Earlene, with a triangle of sex complicated by poverty.