Andy Griffith shows

I like the one where Barney & Gomer go in the haunted house. Also, anything with Otis or Ernest T. Bass in it is great.

 

I like the one where Barney buys the car from the old lady who is actually a crook, and the car turns out to be a lemon.

Also the one where Floyd meets the lady with whom he has been corresponding, and has exaggerated himself, and has to cover up.

And many more...what a great show.

 

...And the one in which, at the end, Andy walks in on Barney who is sweet-talking Juanita on the phone. Andy sneaks up from behind & starts quoting Barney's poetry along with him. Classic!!!

 

Take a look at this:

http://tagsrwc.com

 

I love them all,as long as they are in black and white. But my favorite seen of all time is when Barney is taking Andy to the diner in the side car and they take off and it is sitting there on blocks.

 

Many AGS eps have a theme of simple honesty, or honest simplicity, unfolded with a humorously ironic plot. One of these is "The Sermon for Today," in which the visiting preacher chides the instant/can't wait/rusharound pace espoused by the modern world. He longs for the "band concerts under the stars" and such simple pleasure of the past. The Mayberry gang thinks about all this and decide to try to put together their old town band and have a concert that night. But the music, the uniforms, and the bandstand all make this impossible, and they are tired from all the efforts with nothing to show. So in essence they tried too hard to hurry up and have a slow carefree evening, with concert and all.

A very similar theme is the ep, "Man in a Hurry," about a pushy business executive whose car breaks down near Mayberry on a Sunday and he is almost apoplectic that the people do not drop everything to serve his interests. But before the end he concludes there is a lot to be said about the easygoing life of an unhurried town and he doesn't wish to leave so fast. A corny unrealistic conslusion, but again the humorous irony is there in that he is frustrated so long by the setting he wants more of it.

One more ep I will refer to as one of my favorites is "Andy on Trial." A big-name, big city publisher is determined to get back at Sheriff Andy for forcing him to appear in court in Mayberry for a simple traffic ticket, so he sends a female reporter to pose as an interested college student to 'dig up some dirt' on Andy. She finds the right source in Barney and his narcisstic bragging, and his complaining about Andy's 'hick' ways of running the office. The publisher plants a news item which results in Andy being charged with malfeasance. At the hearing, Barney is astonished to discover that he is the witness who can corroborate the charges. And for once he sets aside all his false pride and admits he blabs and brags too much. Andy had "used the squad car for unofficial business" by giving a ride to the market to an elderly lady who could not make it otherwise. He lets Otis the drunk "lock himself in and out of the jail" to give him a safe place off the street, not because Otis makes trouble. He does not "run a taut ship" because in a small town understanding people is more important than understanding the letter of the law. So with the accusation that Andy runs a corrupt office, just the opposite is proven, Andy is exonerated, and the antogonastic publisher is defeated.

 

Hey Charles,you are not to far from me. I live about 35 miles south of Birmingham. Last year on vacation we spent a day in Mt. Airy NC. We saw the house where Andy grew up,I met a lady that grew up with Andy.There are several things there that he later used on the show.The information center in downtown Mt. Airy is loaded with Andy stuff. They have a suit that was wore by Otis on the show. We ate at Aunt Bea's Barbecue,I didn't order any pickles though! I love that show.

 

Charles,

It's hard to say who is my favorite, but I do think that Floyd is underrated. He's near the top in my book.

 

Charles,

It's hard to say who is my favorite, but I do think that Floyd is underrated. He's near the top in my book.

 

The Andy Griffith Show was originally a spin-off of the "Danny Thomas Show." DTS had an episode where DT drove through Mayberry & got a parking ticket which, seeing as how he was an NYC big-shot, he didn't think he should have to pay. As I recall, Andy was the town sheriff, judge, and mayor. The idea was so popular that they made a show out of it. The story line sounded very similar to the episode about the big-city reporter who investigated Andy that ChristianCynic referred to.

Another story about TAGS since I am from NC. WFMY-TV in Greensboro, NC showed reruns of the show at 5:30 PM beginning at the time it went into syndication in the mid 60s. When I was in college in about 1986, the program manager got the bright idea to take the show off and substitute something else (what the substitute was, I don't recall). The station was bombarded with letters, phone calls, and was picketed for doing this. In less than two weeks, TAGS was back on at 5:30 & still has that time-slot as far as I know.

And this bit of trivia, the Democratic party in NC tried in 1996 to persuade Andy Griffith to run for the US Senate against Jesse Helms. Griffith declined.

 

Some of us weren't around back then ... Of course we wouldn't say that audibly because then it might make others feel old ... But we just call them experienced ...

 

I love the AGS. I saw it when I was young but our reception didn't come in very well. Now that I have a satellite I can rewatch all the classic shows. One of my favorites is when a traveling man has car trouble and can't get his car fixed because its Sunday. He is in a big hurry and has to stay over at Andy's. Thru the episode he learns to relax and enjoy the simpler life. When Gomer (or Goober?) finally fixes his car, the man pretends to hear something wrong with it so he can stay a little longer.

Barney is my favorite character.

Susan

 

Last night, TVGuide had a special on the top 50 TV shows of all time. AGS was ninth. Of all the shows in reruns from the 50s & 60s, AGS would be rivaled only by I Love Lucy as the most rerun. I thought it should have been ranked higher but was glad to see it in the top 10.