The Andy Griffith Show first aired on October 3, 1960, and ran an incredible eight years until September 1968, recording 249 episodes. Aunt Bea (Frances Bavier) baked a pie, Opie (Ron Howard) ran home from school, and Sheriff Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith) sauntered calmly up the porch steps for a family dinner. It was an everyday scene on a show that many families watched together in the 1960s. As a situational comedy (SitCom), the show offered a dose of small-town life in fictional Mayberry, North Carolina.
The show also included a lot of life lessons as we watched little Opie grow up under the care of his single father. While there is never much discussion about Opie’s mom, the show did mention that Andy was a widower. Andy and Opie live in a quaint house with Andy’s Aunt Bea, the quintessential homebody. She cooks and cleans for the family and keeps the boys in line. We found some of the best moments on the show for you.
1. Barney Fife Was Always Doing The Unpredictable
Don Knotts, a good friend of real-life Andy Griffith, played the bumbling Deputy Barney Fife. Always the funny man, Barney has a million ideas about how to be a “good” deputy, and most of them fall short of the mark. Early in the show, Barney is identified as Cousin Barney, but they dropped the emphasis on the family relationship later. In the episode we selected, Barney is tasked with identifying a shoplifter in the local department store. Watch as he bumbles through the assignment in classic Barney style!
2. Summer Camp For Opie
When Andy decides he wants to send 13-year-old Opie to a Saturday summer camp, Aunt Bea and Opie are less than enthusiastic. In the end, Opie agrees to go, but only after some serious guilt-tripping from his dad.
3. The Infamous Pickle Story
In an effort to boost Aunt Bea’s confidence, Andy and Barney pretend to like her homemade pickles. Dreading the horrible tasting pickles, the boys bite into them and make yummy noises until Aunt Bea leaves. Their ploy to boost her confidence worked so well that she entered her pickles in the pickle-making contest at the local fair. It just got better and better!
4. Negotiating For An Increase In Your Allowance Is Difficult
When Opie gets a new friend at school, he discovers that the friend has a higher allowance and isn’t required to “earn” it by doing chores. Watch as Opie earnestly tries to negotiate an allowance increase. These heartfelt family moments are what made The Andy Griffith Show so popular throughout its entire run.
5. Barney Has A Girlfriend And Tomorrow Is Her Birthday!
In a calm moment, Andy and Barney are off duty and relaxing on the porch. Barney mentions that it’s his girlfriend, Thelma Lou’s, birthday the next day. Andy asks what gift Barney got her, and they make small talk about him not having selected anything yet. Andy is trying to read his newspaper, and Barney is obviously fishing for help selecting a gift. He ho-hums through the same line several times in the scene, while straight-man Andy doesn’t bother to offer any assistance at all.
It is a fitting end for us, as we had difficulty selecting our favorite scenes. The entire series is a combination of coming-of-age as we watch Opie grow, and the normal family issues that creep up in any family. We watch Andy Taylor skillfully navigate the sometimes intricate circumstances of life in a small town. The show tackles relationships, hard-hitting issues like alcoholism, single parenting, friendship, and more. Through it all, we are left with an overwhelming sense that life is good.
If you are interested in streaming The Andy Griffith Show, it is available on Pluto TV. With subscriptions, you can also watch it on Paramount+, and the ROKU Channel. Many of the full-length episodes are also available on YouTube. The show remained in the number one slot in TV ratings until its cancellation in 1968! It is also one of the very few shows that has been continuously available in syndication. There has not been a point in my lifetime when The Andy Griffith Show was not on TV!
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