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Episode 8: Andy The Matchmaker · Nip It in the Bud!

0:00
SPEAKER_04: From Television City in Hollywood.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: Ant Row was right.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: Down in Mayberry, things are just grand.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: It's the friendliest little podcast in the land.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: Nip It in the bud.
0:24
SPEAKER_04: Hi everybody.
0:25
SPEAKER_04: Welcome back to Nip It in the Bud, our Andy Griffith retrospective podcast.
0:31
SPEAKER_04: I'm Paul.
0:32
SPEAKER_04: And I'm Tim.
0:34
SPEAKER_04: And Tim, here we are, still in season one, episode seven, Andy the Matchmaker.
0:41
SPEAKER_02: Oh, this is great.
0:43
SPEAKER_02: This is another episode written by Arthur, who is the fellow who wrote the uh pilot episode.
0:50
SPEAKER_02: And he also wrote Runaway Kid that we did last time.
0:53
SPEAKER_04: The original air date of this one was Monday, November 14th, 1960.
0:59
SPEAKER_04: And I took a look at the Nielsen uh ratings.
1:03
SPEAKER_04: So season one were excellent, hit right off the uh right from the start, finished at number four.
1:11
SPEAKER_04: And uh in the first three, it was behind uh they were all westerns, gunsmoke on CBS, where Andy Griffith's also on CBS, then Wagon Train on NBC number three was uh Richard Boone's Have Gun Will Travel on CBS, and then we got Andy Griffith, so that was the highest-rated comedy on TV that season.
1:34
SPEAKER_04: So we see that it opens up with you know, interesting, no Wally, no Gomer.
1:40
SPEAKER_04: There's Andy working on a car, right?
1:44
SPEAKER_02: Right out in the street, out in front of the courthouse, and pretty soon you see Barney striding up with a purpose, and he walks right by him, and Andy's completely befuddled by what's going on with Barney.
2:01
SPEAKER_02: And pretty soon the action moves into the courthouse.
2:04
SPEAKER_02: This is probably my favorite scene of the whole episode because it's the first time we see Barney resign.
2:11
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
2:12
SPEAKER_02: First of many.
2:14
SPEAKER_02: First of many.
2:17
SPEAKER_02: More or less starts undressing or taking off all of his equipment, his revolver.
2:24
SPEAKER_02: He's sort of inventorying as he goes, right?
2:28
SPEAKER_02: He is.
2:30
SPEAKER_02: He does a really thorough job here.
2:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, and it's kind of amazing how much stuff he's got.
2:38
SPEAKER_02: Uh, one revolver, one tie clip, one tie, and and of course, one bullet.
2:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, one bullet, I love it.
2:50
SPEAKER_02: And the whole time, Andy is trying to get him to slow down and explain why he's resigning, but uh Barney is like, you just don't get it, do you Andy?
3:07
SPEAKER_02: It's just so funny to see this.
3:09
SPEAKER_02: Uh, because I guess we know, having watched the show for so many years, that Barney is in the custom of resigning anything's anytime something's not going his way.
3:22
SPEAKER_02: But to actually see and realize, oh, this is actually the first time that he does it.
3:30
SPEAKER_02: Uh it just kind of warms your heart to see Barney actually resigning.
3:37
SPEAKER_02: And uh and then finally he he Andy gets Barney to describe, well, why are you resigning?
3:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I caught him red-handed, Andy, and I mean it really hurts that it was your own boy Opie.
3:53
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
3:55
SPEAKER_04: Opie writing uh, I guess what, a poem about Barney making fun of him on the bank wall.
4:03
SPEAKER_02: And the poem is priceless.
4:05
SPEAKER_02: Well, of course, Barney has to pull out a piece of paper from his pocket uh be as evidence because he wrote it down and he starts to read it to Andy, and there once was a deputy called Vife who carried a gun and a knife.
4:23
SPEAKER_02: The gun was all dusty, the knife was all rusty because he never caught a crook in his life.
4:30
SPEAKER_03: That's so good.
4:32
SPEAKER_02: Andy is just kind of beside himself, he's trying not to laugh, and he has to like put his hands over his face and kind of walk away from Barney for a minute to keep from cracking up.
4:44
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
4:45
SPEAKER_04: Because that that would hurt his feelings.
4:48
SPEAKER_04: He really wants action.
4:49
SPEAKER_04: He's really it's really bothering him that he's a deputy and there's no action in that town.
4:56
SPEAKER_04: Right.
4:57
SPEAKER_02: He's saying, if only somebody would commit a crime.
5:02
SPEAKER_02: Maybe we just had a murderer or something.
5:05
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah.
5:07
SPEAKER_02: And he goes, party.
5:10
SPEAKER_04: Well, not anybody we know.
5:15
SPEAKER_04: Just something to keep them busy.
5:18
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
5:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
5:20
SPEAKER_02: If a couple guys were to come in from out of town and they were gonna shoot each other anyway, they might as well just do it here.
5:28
SPEAKER_02: Right.
5:29
SPEAKER_02: Right.
5:30
SPEAKER_02: This is the inside the mind of Barney Fife.
5:35
SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
5:36
SPEAKER_04: And Opie shows up and it's a kind he was uh he was aware of what happened and wanted to uh you know, kind of make let Barney know that he didn't write that poem.
5:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and at first, of course, uh as soon as Opie says I didn't do it, uh then Barney's upset that because Andy believes him.
6:01
SPEAKER_02: He said Opie wouldn't lie to me.
6:04
SPEAKER_02: And uh Barney says, I can't believe you're pitting my crime fighting skills against yours.
6:13
SPEAKER_02: And that's when Andy says, Well, the other thing is that Opie doesn't know how to write.
6:20
SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
6:23
SPEAKER_04: That would have been a problem to write that poem not knowing how to write.
6:29
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
6:30
SPEAKER_02: So even though he's got the chalk in his hand, and then of course it comes out how he wound up with the chalk in his hand.
6:38
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, a couple of big fellas were writing on the wall and they they uh shoved that chalk into Opie's little hands.
6:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and then they ran off like hound dogs that backed into a porcupine.
6:53
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
6:54
SPEAKER_04: And then Barney goes right back to inventory and still he still resided.
6:59
SPEAKER_04: How about he wants uh one of the potential jobs is to be a pickle tester?
7:06
SPEAKER_04: I thought, wow, I bet that's a well-paying job.
7:11
SPEAKER_04: You get to eat all the pickles you can.
7:13
SPEAKER_04: I mean, well he won't go hungry, I guess.
7:17
SPEAKER_02: I guess, which uh kind of uh is is gonna be great to revisit when we w watch the pickle story episode.
7:25
SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
7:26
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it'll be you'll be really uh have a lot of practice.
7:31
unknown: Yeah.
7:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's so funny that that comes out when Andy's asking him, Well, what are you gonna do?
7:38
SPEAKER_02: And and then the whole thing about being a pickle tester uh is just priceless.
7:45
SPEAKER_02: And and then Barney kind of gets to the end of his inventory, and uh you know this is something I I think I've done my whole life since uh since watching Barney and Andy interact in the show, uh where Barney is kind of resigned to his fate now, and he says, Well, Ange, it's been great working with you and over and out.
8:12
SPEAKER_02: And he kind of gives him gives him that little bump on the chin with his fist.
8:18
SPEAKER_04: And the goodbye old jail house.
8:21
SPEAKER_04: He's kind of reminiscing already about you know leaving.
8:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's that's so fun to watch.
8:30
SPEAKER_02: And he's blown his last whistle.
8:36
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
8:37
SPEAKER_02: That was that was one of the little fun bits as he's inventorying, you know, one whistle, and he says to Andy, uh, I did replace the P in it, but I ain't gonna charge you for it.
8:49
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
8:50
SPEAKER_04: Uh very kind of him.
8:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, he's he's being the big man about it.
8:58
SPEAKER_02: But it just, yeah, the way he's reminiscing already, he's just barely quit, and and he he wanders over.
9:07
SPEAKER_02: And this is the first time in the show I can remember him doing this, but it was kind of a staple too, where he wanders over and just kind of stands in the corner looking into the corner with his hand on the hat rack and his other hand on the bookcase, and it just killed me.
9:26
SPEAKER_02: I don't know why it is, just those little subtle things that Don Knott's would do to uh really inhabit the character of Barney Fife, and and you can just feel the weight of of his resignation on him at that point.
9:45
SPEAKER_02: So good.
9:46
SPEAKER_04: Then we get a a a new visitor, yes.
9:51
SPEAKER_02: How about that?
9:52
SPEAKER_02: A new visitor, Miss Rosemary.
9:55
SPEAKER_04: The first and only time we ever see Miss Rosemary in the in the series.
10:01
SPEAKER_04: How about that?
10:04
SPEAKER_02: That is really something, but it it uh sort of paves the way for the ones who came after, wouldn't you say?
10:13
SPEAKER_02: Oh, definitely.
10:14
SPEAKER_04: I thought it was interesting that this uh that she just continually was called Miss Rosemary, like not you know, not rosemary, not anything else, just you know, it's not something you hear everybody else, like you don't hear Miss Helen or Miss Thelma Lou, or you know, it's interesting.
10:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but but they did call Ellie Walker that too.
10:37
SPEAKER_02: Maybe that's true.
10:39
SPEAKER_02: Maybe the first season they were yeah, maybe that was it.
10:44
SPEAKER_02: Maybe that was it.
10:45
SPEAKER_02: But uh yeah, she she comes bustling in and is just a ray of sunshine, I guess, here in this whole downer atmosphere of Barney resigning, and she's got Andy's judging coat with her.
11:04
SPEAKER_02: She's done some cleanup and alterations, I guess.
11:08
SPEAKER_02: And uh yeah, and then then a little of the background comes out about what's been going on between Miss Rosemary and Barney.
11:17
SPEAKER_04: And you know, a little interesting uh side bit on uh this actress, interesting name, um Amzi, A-M-Z-I-E Strickland, and she does appear in this series in later years in different roles, uh, but she's been in tons of, I mean, it's just too many to even list of television and movies, just a fantastic career that she had uh making her debut on on this series as Miss Rosemary.
11:48
SPEAKER_02: She is somebody that uh as I was finding out a little bit about her too, it was amazing to learn that from age 18 until age 80, she had eight decades of work in film and TV.
12:07
SPEAKER_02: Incredible.
12:08
SPEAKER_02: Even though she's she's not well known, like you said, she really was a staple of uh a lot a lot of television shows.
12:19
SPEAKER_02: And in fact, I saw you mentioned the Westerns when we started today, and she was in Wagon Train and Bonanza and all the all the big Western shows.
12:34
SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, it's it's really interesting to see her here and as Barney's first real love interest.
12:45
SPEAKER_02: But it's so comical the way that uh Barney doesn't want to really admit to it in front of Andy, but he has been walking Miss Rosemary to church on Sunday.
13:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, how about that?
13:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:06
SPEAKER_02: Putting in the shoe leather, I guess.
13:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:11
SPEAKER_02: And you can tell she's pretty sweet on Barney too.
13:15
SPEAKER_02: Uh how she says things like, Well, you lawmen really make a body feel safe.
13:22
SPEAKER_02: And meanwhile, Barney's saying, Well, I only do it because I walked by her house on the way.
13:31
SPEAKER_02: Uh, but yeah, I think you can tell there's something going on there between these two.
13:37
SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
13:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but but it's the uh the line from Miss Rosemary about that you guys make Body feel safe is that Andy takes the opportunity to run with that and says, Well, yeah, given all this, there ought to be three of us, but Barney and I manage, and in fact, one of us ought to be out on patrol now.
14:01
SPEAKER_02: And that's when Barney decides he's gonna go pick up all his stuff.
14:08
SPEAKER_02: Right.
14:09
SPEAKER_02: He's no longer quitting.
14:11
SPEAKER_02: He's no longer quitting.
14:13
SPEAKER_02: And great physical action, physical comedy by Don Nods there as he's picking up his holster and his gun and his uh bullet, of course, don't forget your bullet, and sort of backing his way out the door so he can go on patrol.
14:33
SPEAKER_02: Right.
14:33
SPEAKER_02: He can hardly handle all that stuff and open the door at the same time.
14:40
SPEAKER_04: Then Opie wants to go to the drugstore for some to Walker's drug store for some ice cream.
14:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
14:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
14:49
SPEAKER_02: It finally dawned on me because first he came in um at the time they were talking about the chalk poem on the wall, and then he leaves, and now he comes back because he wants to go for a cream soda, and all the time I'm wondering, what has Opie got just like free reign to be wandering around town all day?
15:12
SPEAKER_02: Right.
15:13
SPEAKER_04: Well, we know from Runaway Kid that Andy's not gonna turn in any runaway kids.
15:22
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, maybe that's it.
15:24
SPEAKER_04: That's why they all they end up in Mayberry.
15:29
SPEAKER_04: Right.
15:31
SPEAKER_02: Freedom, freedom.
15:32
SPEAKER_02: Freedom, freedom, yes, Mayberry for freedom.
15:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so Opie's back anyway, and he wants to go for an ice cream soda over at the drugstore, and uh that's that's when they walk outside again, and Andy gets that gleam in his eye, like you can tell he's got some kind of a scheme in mind.
15:53
SPEAKER_02: He's telling Opie, well, if you got a tooth doctor in town, you ought to once in a while have some people who've got uh toothache.
16:05
SPEAKER_02: And and if you got a street cleaner, well, it's kind of the responsibility of townspeople to make the streets a little bit dirty once in a while.
16:15
SPEAKER_02: And if you got a deputy sheriff and you wonder, okay, where's uh there's a scheme afoot here, right?
16:26
SPEAKER_02: And the next thing we see is Andy and Opie uh with Ellie inside Walker's drugstore.
16:35
SPEAKER_04: Apparently he's trying to talk Ellie or already has into uh making up a crime.
16:43
SPEAKER_02: Can you believe it?
16:44
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's that's I'm thinking, wow, what a different Andy we this first season is.
16:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
16:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he hasn't really quite settled into the character that we know in later years.
16:59
SPEAKER_02: But uh he's he's feeling like he's gotta well, I mean, I guess we're reading between the lines here, but he's feeling like he's gotta buck uh Barney up a little bit, help him get his confidence back.
17:13
SPEAKER_02: So there's he and Ellie are scheming about this uh made-up crime where uh uh robber came in, masked robber, and took twenty-four dollars twenty-four dollars out of the book, sir.
17:32
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
17:33
SPEAKER_02: That's a whole good bit there too, because Ellie, El Eleanor Donahue is like, are you sure, Andy, that that seems like a pretty small crime.
17:43
SPEAKER_02: And he says, Well, uh, we we can't start off too big.
17:50
SPEAKER_02: We gotta let him kind of work his way up to bigger bigger crimes and bigger uh um jobs for a deputy to do.
17:59
SPEAKER_02: And that's when you you hear the siren and you see the squad car coming up in a cloud of dust, and Opie warns them both to look, he's like acting as the lookout, saying, Hey, Barney's here, he's here.
18:16
SPEAKER_02: And and lo and behold, Barney comes in and he is revved up and he is excited.
18:23
SPEAKER_04: You know, another uh thing that's now Barney uh was out on patrol, so he wasn't at you know, right at the courthouse, but we know from past episodes that you know Ellie just kind of leans out the door of the drugstore and there's the courthouse.
18:41
SPEAKER_04: So um, you know, doesn't have far to go if he's at the courthouse, but we do know he was out on he was out on patrol, so that would kind of explain him flying in with the sirens on.
18:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
18:56
SPEAKER_02: Now we we don't get any idea how they contacted him about this whole situation.
19:04
SPEAKER_02: Um, but I guess that's left to our imagination.
19:10
SPEAKER_02: He comes in uh practically guns blazing, but uh instead of his gun, he gets out his fingerprint kit.
19:18
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he hasn't used it in a couple of years.
19:21
SPEAKER_02: I wonder why.
19:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
19:26
SPEAKER_02: And and great more physical comedy from Don Knotts, where he's getting out all his stuff and he's talking about the powder that he's gonna use that uh and and how the whole situation is gonna go down.
19:42
SPEAKER_02: That well, dust for the fingerprints, we'll match him up and bing bang bang, you know, he'll he'll bring in the suspect and they'll book him, and that's the end of the Walker case.
19:55
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
19:56
SPEAKER_04: And then when Ellie's uh even telling him about the crime, I mean, he is smiling from here.
20:02
SPEAKER_04: He's trying to suppress it so that he's not looking like he's enjoying her heart, you know, that she was robbed, but he's loving every minute of this.
20:12
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
20:13
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, yeah.
20:15
SPEAKER_02: You hit on a great point there, Paul, because it was so fun to watch him trying to suppress that excitement and happiness, really, about the fact that he's got something to do, and temper that with the idea that, well, yeah, this is a horrible thing to have happen, but we're gonna be on it, you know.
20:35
SPEAKER_02: So he is all all good and all ready to go.
20:40
SPEAKER_02: And as he's working with the powder, all of a sudden he he's so excited he just gets it everywhere, including all over himself.
20:50
SPEAKER_02: What a mess.
20:52
SPEAKER_02: What a mess.
20:53
SPEAKER_02: And he said, Well, Robert probably wore gloves anyway.
20:58
SPEAKER_02: So he starts packing it all up again, and you know, he's getting back to work, but I guess the whole fingerprint thing will have to wait.
21:07
SPEAKER_04: I like that he tells Opie to keep off the streets.
21:13
SPEAKER_02: Stay off the streets, Opie.
21:15
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yes.
21:17
SPEAKER_04: Which is good advice for Opie since we know he's been running around unsupervised.
21:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
21:26
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
21:26
SPEAKER_02: And that's there, here we are again after that scene.
21:31
SPEAKER_02: The next thing we see is Opie riding his bike up to the corner.
21:35
SPEAKER_02: And he gets off, and uh he walks inside, and there's Andy on the phone with Ellie talking about the whole situation with the supposed robbery.
21:50
SPEAKER_02: And that's what Opie wants to talk about once Andy finally gets off the phone, and yeah, that little bit where he's talking about.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: About uh how he was in school that day.
22:03
SPEAKER_04: He had to stand in the corner twice for not paying attention.
22:09
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
22:11
SPEAKER_02: And they asked him, Well, were you not paying attention?
22:14
SPEAKER_02: Nope.
22:17
SPEAKER_02: Because he was divided and thinking about the crime spree going on in Mayberry.
22:21
SPEAKER_04: He came up with good uh good uh ideas there or things to think about.
22:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
22:30
SPEAKER_02: He he had really been studying the whole situation, and he he wants to know uh why why did they do it in the first place?
22:42
SPEAKER_02: And Andy kind of explains, well, I'll we'll be keeping Barney busy, and he'll be doing his job as deputy sheriff, but then Opie wants to know, well, how long will he keep looking for a uh criminal that doesn't really exist?
23:04
SPEAKER_02: Smart question.
23:06
SPEAKER_02: Smart questions, yeah, and then all of a sudden Barney bursts in with someone who he's accusing of being the uh robber at the Walker drugstore.
23:24
SPEAKER_04: Not only that, Timmy, he's got his gun out and pointed right at this guy.
23:30
SPEAKER_04: Oh man, he is waving Yeah, waving that gun all over.
23:35
SPEAKER_02: You gotta hope the bullet is still in his pocket.
23:39
SPEAKER_04: Yes, I hope so.
23:43
SPEAKER_02: And he starts explaining the logic about how he went about finding this guy.
23:50
SPEAKER_02: And it's it's just classic Barney is uh I can remember another another episode where he's asking Andy, uh, how do you fight fire?
24:03
SPEAKER_02: And Andy goes, with a hose.
24:07
SPEAKER_02: He goes, No, you fight fire with fire.
24:12
SPEAKER_02: It's just reminding me of that whole thing where he he's going through the logic, well, we haven't seen anybody come in by bus, and he he didn't come in by car because we didn't see anybody drive off in a cloud of dust and all these things.
24:28
SPEAKER_02: So he finally had stumbled on the idea that, well, he must have come in by freight.
24:34
SPEAKER_02: Hey, freight.
24:35
SPEAKER_02: It's like he's he figures this guy must be a hobo.
24:41
SPEAKER_02: Right came into town on a boxcar or something.
24:46
SPEAKER_02: But you're not gonna fool foxy fife.
24:50
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
24:51
SPEAKER_02: You're not gonna out fox Barney.
24:54
SPEAKER_02: That was the whole thing.
24:56
SPEAKER_02: And that's when Opie starts to protest about the whole thing, right?
25:01
SPEAKER_03: Mm-hmm.
25:03
SPEAKER_02: Said, but Pa, but Pa.
25:06
SPEAKER_02: You know, he's about to spill the beans about how that uh that criminal was just made up.
25:15
SPEAKER_02: And so Andy is working real hard to usher him out the door and give him a dime so he can go over and get an ice cream soda.
25:23
SPEAKER_04: Right.
25:24
SPEAKER_04: Andy comes up with a good idea there, the call where the fella's from.
25:30
SPEAKER_04: Uh I guess it's Mr.
25:32
SPEAKER_04: Crawford, and uh, you know, find out about him from the sheriff, I guess in Chattanooga.
25:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, over in Chattanooga, and I thought, wow, this guy is pretty far from home.
25:44
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
25:46
SPEAKER_02: Uh Chattanooga being in Tennessee could could be not too far from this part of North Carolina.
25:54
SPEAKER_02: But uh, you know, meanwhile, this fellow that Barney has brought in is complaining that he's gonna sue for false arrest.
26:03
SPEAKER_02: And Andy's trying to calm things down a little bit um and have a little conversation with um Barney about the whole thing.
26:13
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, that's where he comes up with the idea, like you said, that well, we'll call the sheriff.
26:18
SPEAKER_02: And that's it's almost like a stalling tactic while Andy's trying to figure out what to do with this guy that clearly didn't commit the crime, but uh he's trying to save Barney's feelings too.
26:31
SPEAKER_02: Right.
26:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
26:34
SPEAKER_04: And uh Barney's trying to get him to talk while Andy's making the phone call.
26:40
SPEAKER_04: And uh used to have I noticed in this episode that the flashlight played a big role.
26:46
SPEAKER_04: Something I don't remember seeing him carrying around much, but uh when he inventoried it, he had his flashlight, he was giving back.
26:54
SPEAKER_04: And now when he had Mr.
26:56
SPEAKER_04: Crawford in there, he tries to shine a light in his eye to get him to talk, but and uh apparently the batteries are pretty dead on that flashlight.
27:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
27:07
SPEAKER_02: You can barely see a little bit of uh a light show up on his face.
27:12
SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, that's that's not super effective.
27:16
SPEAKER_02: And uh oh, and and Barney uh, you know, as he's trying to intimidate the the suspect, he's saying, uh, we've got ways to make you talk.
27:27
SPEAKER_02: And he also tries the glass of water.
27:31
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
27:32
SPEAKER_04: Trying to get him you're pretty thirsty, aren't you?
27:36
SPEAKER_04: He's waving that water around him.
27:38
SPEAKER_04: Uh that had no effect on him at all.
27:42
SPEAKER_02: No effect whatsoever.
27:44
SPEAKER_02: Oh, and just interesting little side note uh this guy, Tracy Crawford, which was the name he gave to Andy and Barney, uh, so that they could call the sheriff in Chattanooga, is an actor named Jack Mann, who uh uh also appeared with the two of them in No Time for Sargents.
28:09
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
28:10
SPEAKER_04: One of their somebody they have a history with.
28:14
SPEAKER_02: Right.
28:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's uh I don't know what the background of all that is, but it does seem like uh some of their pals from that film found their way into the Andy Griffiths show, too.
28:28
SPEAKER_02: Mm-hmm.
28:30
SPEAKER_02: Um but I I found it interesting.
28:32
SPEAKER_02: I know this isn't exactly a crime show, but I was expecting them to ask this guy for some kind of ID.
28:40
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
28:42
SPEAKER_02: Uh he just uh Andy asks for his name and he gives him a name, and that's when he calls the sheriff in Chattanooga.
28:53
SPEAKER_02: And he's he's wait uh Andy has uh called and uh using Sarah, of course, asking Sarah to place a call to the sheriff in Chattanooga, and he's Andy's kind of waiting for the sheriff to come to the phone while Barney's doing his uh interrogation, you might say.
29:15
SPEAKER_02: And uh finally, uh Andy or or you you hear Andy getting a chance to um talk to the sheriff in Chattanooga, and he's given him the description, and he's finishes up the conversation and says, Thank you very much, and uh and then he goes to Barney, well we're gonna have to drop the charge uh of this robbery, and you can just see how crestfallen Barney is about that whole situation.
29:51
SPEAKER_04: You're putting the gun in his mouth.
29:54
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the bad, not a good thing to do.
29:58
SPEAKER_04: Andy has to tell him not to do that.
30:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
30:03
SPEAKER_02: Don't want to be doing that, Barney.
30:05
SPEAKER_02: Uh, which, yeah, as we've already seen, the the gun will fire off at unexpected in the courthouse if there's a bullet in it.
30:15
SPEAKER_02: But uh thank goodness that didn't happen here.
30:19
SPEAKER_02: Uh but yeah, once he gets off the phone, uh Andy says we're gonna have to drop the charge because he's wanted for five more serious charges back in Chattanooga.
30:30
SPEAKER_04: Right have to extradite him.
30:33
SPEAKER_02: Have to extradite him to another state.
30:36
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
30:37
SPEAKER_02: So Barney's thrilled then.
30:40
SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, isn't he?
30:43
SPEAKER_02: I got him, I really got him.
30:45
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
30:47
SPEAKER_02: He did.
30:48
SPEAKER_02: I mean, he that was good police work.
30:51
SPEAKER_02: Good police work, just being out on patrol using his his logic of uh looking around the the freight yards and seeing this guy who's just kind of wandering around looking suspicious.
31:05
SPEAKER_02: Um so then you see Barney ushering him into the jail cell, and that's always comical.
31:15
SPEAKER_02: Yes, because he's telling him to suck in his gut and you know move it along and all this stuff, and meanwhile waving his gun all over the place and locking him up.
31:28
SPEAKER_02: Oh, it is great.
31:29
SPEAKER_02: And it's at that point then that Ellie and Opie burst in.
31:34
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
31:35
SPEAKER_02: Just completely baffled by the fact I guess Opie had told Ellie that they had caught the criminal.
31:45
SPEAKER_04: She's she wants to put a stop to this, uh, but she walks right in at the right time.
31:53
SPEAKER_02: She does, and and Andy's saying how great uh a job Barney did, and how this is gonna be in the paper the day after tomorrow.
32:03
SPEAKER_02: And yeah, meanwhile, uh she and Opie are still looking pretty confused, but uh Andy is trying to let them know that it's okay, this all turned out for the best.
32:19
SPEAKER_04: Barney says it's a jungle out there, it's a jungle out there, yes.
32:24
SPEAKER_02: Uh you can tell he's got his swagger back, right?
32:27
SPEAKER_04: He's got it back.
32:29
SPEAKER_02: He's back.
32:31
SPEAKER_02: And so uh just then the epilogue really uh comes out at Andy's porch now.
32:41
SPEAKER_02: After Barney said it's a jungle out there and he heads back out on patrol to go round up more criminals.
32:48
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we're we're back now on Andy's porch the next morning, and here comes Barney in in just uh big hurry, carrying his newspaper.
33:00
SPEAKER_02: And he shows Andy the front page about how Deputy Fife oh uh nabs criminal or something like that.
33:11
SPEAKER_04: And they never show us the headline, that would have been nice to have seen, but uh yeah, you know, sounds like a nice, nice article.
33:20
SPEAKER_02: It does.
33:21
SPEAKER_02: But we do get to see this uh great picture of Barney uh in the newspaper, all smiles, and you know, he's really done his job, and he's feeling pretty puffed up at this point.
33:37
SPEAKER_02: Uh and uh it's at that point that Andy asks him if he'd like to go on a date with or a double date with Andy and Ellie with Miss Rosemary.
33:52
SPEAKER_02: And that's that's when Barney is uh being being all puffed up as he is, he uh sort of gets up on his one knee and says, Well, you know, I'm not in that big a hurry now.
34:08
SPEAKER_02: Right.
34:10
SPEAKER_02: Now that he's a big man in town, he can meet anybody now.
34:16
unknown: Yeah.
34:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so uh and and the next thing we see is who else but Miss Rosemary coming up to Andy with a pie, which uh she said earlier in the episode.
34:32
SPEAKER_02: I guess we forgot to mention this key plot point, but she was going to be making pies for another town event.
34:40
SPEAKER_02: And uh she had promised to bring one to Andy, and here she is, and she we she congratulates Barney.
34:49
SPEAKER_02: And he's like, what for what?
34:51
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
34:54
SPEAKER_04: You know, one side bit on that pie.
34:56
SPEAKER_04: One, it we find out that blueberry is his favorite, and also I thought of Aunt B, who's not in this episode.
35:03
SPEAKER_04: You know, she's usually offended when he's eating, whether it's Malcolm Merriweather or anybody else's cooking.
35:12
SPEAKER_04: And uh, I was surprised that in fact, all the food and dessert he gets, he's gonna get another uh he's got Miss Rosemary bringing him dessert.
35:24
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, great point.
35:26
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, uh he keeps in good shape for all of the he's eating.
35:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, really.
35:33
SPEAKER_02: Must be all that uh uh footwork that he's doing as uh sheriff around town.
35:40
SPEAKER_02: Right.
35:42
SPEAKER_02: But uh Andy takes that opportunity to um then since Barney's told him that he's really not interested uh in asking M Miss Rosemary out on a date, now that he's such big stuff around Mayberry, that Andy's gonna try and set this right.
36:04
SPEAKER_02: Uh and so he starts making a little speech about what a fine woman Miss Rosemary is, and would you let me start to call on you?
36:18
SPEAKER_02: Which I guess really saying, can I take you out on a date?
36:24
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
36:26
SPEAKER_04: That gets Barney a little really upset.
36:29
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, oh my gosh.
36:31
SPEAKER_02: He's uh he's not she's spoken for, yeah.
36:37
SPEAKER_02: She's spoken for, but has never actually they've never been on a date together.
36:44
SPEAKER_02: Uh so with Andy's help, they they managed to get the words out.
36:52
SPEAKER_02: But uh well the part about this that cracked me up was uh Andy telling Miss Rosemary, this is it.
37:00
SPEAKER_02: Now don't mess it up.
37:02
SPEAKER_04: Yes, because she's hesitating before she agrees.
37:06
SPEAKER_04: And uh yeah, that she she does.
37:11
SPEAKER_04: I like how and and Barney shakes her hands.
37:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, she's got her nice white gloves on there, and she kind of puts her hand out to him.
37:22
SPEAKER_02: I thought she was trying to grab it or uh put a hand on his arm or something, but instead he takes it and gives her a handshake.
37:32
SPEAKER_02: Like uh we sealed the deal on this date finally.
37:37
SPEAKER_02: And uh and that was kind of a nice heartwarming way to end the episode there.
37:42
SPEAKER_02: Really, really fun.
37:44
SPEAKER_04: And then the audience applauds as we go.
37:48
SPEAKER_04: But you know, this one, uh Tim, I thought the title was misleading in the Andy the matchmaker.
37:55
SPEAKER_04: It really was predominantly, though he did he was a matchmaker with Miss Rosemary, but it was the main kind of plot line was kind of Barney feeling quitting and feeling he has no purpose in that job, he's not busy, and Andy working really hard to get him build up his confidence.
38:17
SPEAKER_04: So I thought that matchmaker, you know, if you if you'd never you're looking at it, you're thinking, hey, this is gonna be about Andy's fixing up somebody, but it was really about a lot more than that.
38:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it it really was.
38:33
SPEAKER_02: There was a lot of stuff going on in this episode, and yeah, I I would agree that was not the main thrust for me either, but uh I had to put a red star next to this episode just because it was the first one where Barney resigns, and uh so uh next time uh we've got another episode written by Arthur that we talked about earlier, and this one is called Opie's Charity.
39:05
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, very interesting title.
39:08
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but another one about Opie.
39:11
SPEAKER_04: Opie obviously is key to this uh uh always to the series, but definitely these early episodes.
39:19
SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, yes.
39:21
SPEAKER_02: I I don't think I appreciated that before we started going through the episodes in order the way we have been.
39:29
SPEAKER_02: Agree how central he was.
39:32
SPEAKER_02: It was good to see uh Don Knotts as Barney Fife really coming to the foreground here in this episode and doing some of the kinds of things we expect to see from Barney Fife.
39:48
SPEAKER_02: So really loved it, Paul.
39:49
SPEAKER_02: It was another great one.
39:51
SPEAKER_04: Me too, me too, and thanks everybody for listening.
39:55
SPEAKER_04: And uh, we'll see you for Opie's charity on our next episode of Nip It in the Bud.
40:03
SPEAKER_01: If you enjoyed this episode of Nip It in the Bud, you might also like our other show.
40:13
SPEAKER_01: G, our old LaSalle, Ran Great, an All in the Family podcast, available wherever you listen to your podcast.