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The Andy Griffith Show


Sbbruin

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I started a thread on this on TOS.  But this ranks in the top 3 sitcoms of all time in my book.  I’m not going to make my case again.  Either you get it or you don’t.  Watching “The Big House” right now where they bring in a couple of hardened criminals.  Barney is at his absolute best in this episode.

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The first few seasons were gold. Thank God they shot more than 8 episodes per season like they get away with now.

The show lost a lot of the magic when they started shooting in color. Then Knotts left, Andy started drinking heavily, Howard McNear had a stroke, CBS went full formulaic sitcom mode and the show sank to the depths of Mayberry RFD.

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Knots left after season 5.  The show sucked after that.  I don’t consider that show the same show.  Don Knotts won the Emmy for best supporting actor in a comedy series all 5 seasons.  One of the great comedic actors of all time.

Edited by Sbbruin
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Knots left after season 5.  The show sucked after that.  I don’t consider that show the same show.  Don Knotts won the Emmy for best supporting actor in a comedy series all 5 seasons.  One of the great comedic actors of all time.


Andy said pretty much the same - saw it an article years ago. He said the first few years were gold/magic, and then after Don left it was just another show.

One of my all time favorite shows (again, the first years) - Andy and Don were amazing together but they also did a great job with all the side characters (Otis, Gomer, Floyd, etc.) of creating the little world of Mayberry.
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6 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

It was the episode where he dated the girl with the wealthy dad. She showed up driving a new T bird and everybody was all WTF?

They went to a restaurant. She ordered escargot and Andy ordered a steak and a beer.

Yeah that was the episode. It was on just the other day. I was heading to work, and only caught that scene.  Wheeeew, Damn, I thought I'd missed more than 1 episode !!

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Just good wholesome television. Barney is always funny, but it’s the secondary characters that were gold. Ernest T. Bass, Floyd, Gomer, Malcolm, Goober, Howard, Otis. 

Sports and Andy is basically all my parents watch on TV, so I saw them all growing up countless times. Never really gets old. I can’t even imagine how many times my dad has seen them all. 

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There's a reason I have every B/W episode of Andy Griffith show on my home streaming server.  I started subjecting the offspring to it years ago.

Along with every episode of:

I Dream of Jeannie

Gomer Pyle

I Love Lucy

Gilligan's Island

Plus all 39 episodes of The Honeymooners.  

I also introduced my youngest (age 6) to the Adam West Batman series 3 years ago.  My thoughts were the bright colors and campiness of the series would interest her.  It worked.

 

Edited by Francisco 2.0
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4 hours ago, ocugolf said:

Just good wholesome television. Barney is always funny, but it’s the secondary characters that were gold. Ernest T. Bass, Floyd, Gomer, Malcolm, Goober, Howard, Otis. 

Sports and Andy is basically all my parents watch on TV, so I saw them all growing up countless times. Never really gets old. I can’t even imagine how many times my dad has seen them all. 

Fuck Howard and Malcolm. Goober is borderline too. 

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1 minute ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Oh jeebus, Malcom was a quality character. Goober was a bit borderline, my least favorite of the original cast.  Howard was in that color BS he doesn't even exist in my universe.

Malcolm was more of a guest star. Gomer was in early seasons, but got spun off into a series, and replaced by Goober. Jack Dodson was actually pretty good in an early episode as a different character. He played an insurance salesman that got disappointed when he found out Andy was making a claim instead of buying a new policy. 

They started with strong supporting characters, but every character they replaced was replaced with a weaker character, sometimes terribad. Warren trying to replace Barney was the most obvious.

Still can't believe Andy had the hots for Helen Crump over Ellie. Personally, though, I would have gone for Floyd's manicurist (Barbara Eden.) 

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1 minute ago, Richard Kimball said:

Malcolm was more of a guest star. Gomer was in early seasons, but got spun off into a series, and replaced by Goober. Jack Dodson was actually pretty good in an early episode as a different character. He played an insurance salesman that got disappointed when he found out Andy was making a claim instead of buying a new policy. 

They started with strong supporting characters, but every character they replaced was replaced with a weaker character, sometimes terribad. Warren trying to replace Barney was the most obvious.

Still can't believe Andy had the hots for Helen Crump over Ellie. Personally, though, I would have gone for Floyd's manicurist (Barbara Eden.) 

Oh yeah, the list of character guests is pretty long.  He was one of the few that had repeat episodes I believe. Jim Lindsay was the other one that comes to mind.  Yeah Helen was kind of a cold bitch. I loved Ellie.

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15 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

I feel kids nowadays miss out with so many entertainment options.

These were my top 5:
Andy Griffith
Brady Bunch
Dick Van Dyke
Beverly Hillbillies
I Love Lucy
 

I can't remember the order they came on TVLand but it was these 4 core shows that my parents had on every night:

Leave it to Beaver

The Andy Griffith Show

Adam-12

Dragnet

 

It got to the point where my dad insisted that the hotels he stayed at on vacation had TVLand.

 

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58 minutes ago, Richard Kimball said:

Malcolm was more of a guest star. Gomer was in early seasons, but got spun off into a series, and replaced by Goober. Jack Dodson was actually pretty good in an early episode as a different character. He played an insurance salesman that got disappointed when he found out Andy was making a claim instead of buying a new policy. 

They started with strong supporting characters, but every character they replaced was replaced with a weaker character, sometimes terribad. Warren trying to replace Barney was the most obvious.

Still can't believe Andy had the hots for Helen Crump over Ellie. Personally, though, I would have gone for Floyd's manicurist (Barbara Eden.) 

Aunt Bee lost her broach or something, they made the insurance claim, and then she found it later. 

 

Goober "existed" early on, before he was seen IIRC.  

"Man in a Hurry" episode referenced Goober working on that Lincoln, but we didn't see him, just Gomer. 

Edited by Gil Bang
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54 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

I can't remember the order they came on TVLand but it was these 4 core shows that my parents had on every night:

Leave it to Beaver

The Andy Griffith Show

Adam-12

Dragnet

 

It got to the point where my dad insisted that the hotels he stayed at on vacation had TVLand.

 

This past sunday some off-channel had 2 episodes of Dragnet, followed by 2 of Adam 12, and then "Emergency". 

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16 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

This past sunday some off-channel had 2 episodes of Dragnet, followed by 2 of Adam 12, and then "Emergency". 

A lot of my generation of firefighters got into it because they watched Emergency! growing up. 

Dragnet trivia: Jack Webb and Harry Morgan always wore the same clothes (Webb the gray jacket and black slacks and Morgan the gray suit) cause they reused transition scenes all the time, like getting up and walking from the desk, walking to the car, and walking into buildings. There was only one episode where Webb wore something different, a red sweater. 

 

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16 minutes ago, Richard Kimball said:

There was only one episode where Webb wore something different, a red sweater. 

Let me guess, the episode where Friday goes over to Gannon's house for a "guy's night" and they bust a door to door magazine scam. Something about a cream cheese and liverwurst sandwich mixed in there, too.

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Just now, RPM said:

Let me guess, the episode where Friday goes over to Gannon's house for a "guy's night" and they bust a door to door magazine scam. Something about a cream cheese and liverwurst sandwich mixed in there, too.

No, although Gannon wore an apron in that episode. It was one where Friday took a night class and when the rest of the class found out he was a cop, they voted to kick him out. 

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Damn. Was sure that was it. One of the rare episodes they showed their personal lives off duty. There was one other with Joe's apartment and he had to deal with the busy body neighbors.

Loved Emergency! on Saturday nights. (KMG-365) They changed emergency medicine across the country. "Why don't we have this shit?"

Webb really perfected the procedural. He was cutting edge for his time. It was reality before "reality". However, there were a few that didn't make it. An Adam-12 spinoff starring Robert Conrad about the LA ADA called... The DA. It was up against The Brady Bunch and lasted 15 episodes before it was replaced by a new show called Sanford and Son.

905-WILD, an Emergency spinoff about LA County Animal Control with Mark Harmon never made it past a crossover/pilot episode. How many times can you have an escaped tiger in a neighborhood grocery store?

He also made O'Hara, U.S. Treasury with David Janssen on CBS (a rare departure from NBC) that was actually pretty good and got nominated for a Golden Globe - Best TV Drama. Unfortunately it was up against The Partridge Family and Room 222 on ABC and got murdered in the ratings. It lasted one season.

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7 hours ago, Sbbruin said:

Now watching “Aunt Bee the Warden” where the jail is too crowded so a shitbagged Otis has to stay at Andy’s.  And Aunt Bee doesn’t have time for Otis’ shenanigans.  Good stuff.

I believe I'll sleep a little longer, Aunt Bee.

Keep my breakfast hot..... and my coffee simmering.

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22 hours ago, Richard Kimball said:

Malcolm was more of a guest star. Gomer was in early seasons, but got spun off into a series, and replaced by Goober. Jack Dodson was actually pretty good in an early episode as a different character. He played an insurance salesman that got disappointed when he found out Andy was making a claim instead of buying a new policy. 

They started with strong supporting characters, but every character they replaced was replaced with a weaker character, sometimes terribad. Warren trying to replace Barney was the most obvious.

Still can't believe Andy had the hots for Helen Crump over Ellie. Personally, though, I would have gone for Floyd's manicurist (Barbara Eden.) 

Barbara Eden was such smoke in that episode.  And I agree about the Ellie/Helen choice.  From what I understand, Andy was real-life shagging Helen.  Fucking the boss hasn't always been frowned upon, I guess. 

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One of my favorite shows of all time. This was my dad's favorite show so I watched it growing up. I used to record these episodes onto VHS tapes for my dad so he could watch an episode when he came home for lunch back in the summers. So I'd watch with him and got hooked instantly. My dad didn't like the color episodes or the episodes when Barney left so I never watched them. Are they really that bad? I always thought about watching them one day.

The one where Barney buys that car from the old lady and then all the shit starts acting up while they are driving it is classic. And then they find out they were running a scam.

That old lady stealing from the store was one of my favorites. And Barney going undercover inside the store.

Opie getting 3 wishes and Count Vandalckee is another all time favorite. 

Opie not finishing high in the relay race and he ends up quitting and Andy saying he is disappointed. Then Barney showing him how bad he looks by going into that tirade at the courthouse for Opie. Until he founds out he really didn't get that raise and gets mad for real haha.

So many classics from that show.

Edited by Vic Mackey
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6 hours ago, DougO said:

There are some decent moments in the post-Barney era, but they got to be more and more about Andy being annoyed by all the dumbasses and weirdos of Mayberry. And a lot of them just got really stupid.

The biggest dumbass, weirdo leaves Mayberry, and of course Andy is going to get frustrated. Barney made the rest of them seem downright sane. Poor Andy.

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5 minutes ago, Deej said:

The biggest dumbass, weirdo leaves Mayberry, and of course Andy is going to get frustrated. Barney made the rest of them seem downright sane. Poor Andy.

I'm sorry that really does belong to Ernest T. Bass.  Not an actual citizen of Mayberry, but he was a nuts nut.  

Andy played the straight man to Barney of course.

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1 hour ago, Sbbruin said:

My favorite episodes are:

The Haunted House

Three Wishes for Opie

The one where Barney and Gomer pose as Dr. Pendike, DVM and Mr. Opie Taylor Sr..  

Citizen's Arrest

Man in a Hurry

Man in a Hurry is great.

What was the one with the two old ladies that are bootleggers and they keep turning in other bootleggers to get rid of the competition?

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