I’ve been watching a DVD box set called “The Mayberry Collection.” It features a selection of well-remembered episodes from “The Andy Griffith Show.” There are also discs with episodes of “Gomer Pyle USMC” and “Mayberry RFD”, but I haven’t gotten to those yet.
Fans of “Andy” are fortunate in being able to determine within 2 seconds whether an episode is a classic or almost-certainly a dud. It’s like this: If Andy and Opie’s walk to the lake is black and white, that means it’s Barney Fife, Gomer Pyle and Floyd the Barber. If their walk to the lake is in color, it’s Goober Pyle, Emmett the fix-it shop guy and Howard Sprague.
Howard Sprague, as characters go, is about as interesting as drywall. I think the intention was to give Andy a friend who isn’t quite as exhaustingly dimwitted as Goober. But Howard is just incredibly…superfluous. He’s an extra straight man in a show whose straight man’s name is in the title.
Howard does get some episodes to shine…in one, he is one strike shy of a 300 game when the bowling alley’s lights go out. In another he throws caution to the wind, quits his job as town clerk and moves to the Caribbean. (He reconsiders and moves back, of course.)
Aunt Bee gets called to be on jury duty in an episode and the defendant is played by Jack Nicholson. He seems to be in a different universe than everybody else.
The slim collection of episodes on the box set from “The Andy Griffith Show”‘s final three seasons also includes all of the episodes with guest appearances by Don Knotts as Barney Fife, now working for the Raleigh PD detective unit…more often than not saddled with fetching coffee for the team.
In one of the episodes, Barney comes home to visit at the same time that a former Mayberry schoolgirl, now a famous actress, arrives in town for her movie premiere. Barney mistakes the commotion at the train station as being for his homecoming.
The episode has a quiet closing scene where Andy reads a letter from Barney to Aunt Bee.
Aunt Bee: “You know, I miss Barney.”
Andy: “I do too. I guess there’s just the one Barney Fife.”
Aunt Bee: “Yes.”
Then Andy leaves to go back to the courthouse and the camera lingers on Aunt Bee, giving a sympathetic glance.
It’s a wonderful, real moment, like so many “Andy Griffith Show” moments. But it’s also an admission of sorts, meant to be or not.
The truly great Andy and Barney epics–your “citizen’s arrest”, your cave rescue, your haunted house, and so forth–are still great. But in watching the color episodes, some of which are really not that bad, you realize how delicate the chemistry is on a television series…and how the loss of one character can be like removing a secret ingredient from a recipe. Oh sure, it’s still spaghetti sauce, but without the oregano it’s just not quite what you expect it to be. Ironically, Ron Howard’s departure would set the remaining seasons of “Happy Days” adrift in much the same way.
Right now there’s an episode playing that features Ken Berry as farmer Sam, the production team’s first step in the transition from “The Andy Griffith Show” to “Mayberry RFD.” I’ve never seen “Mayberry RFD”; it only ran 3 seasons and was not aired in reruns too often. Apparently it’s got Emmett and Goober and Howard and even Aunt Bee (poor lady, left behind by Andy apparently) with a new family out front.
I’m trying to think of another series that pulled off something like that. “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” becoming “Forever Fernwood” comes to mind. I know there’s at least one or two others…I will think about it and get back to you.
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