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Episode 9: Opie's Charity · Nip It in the Bud!

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: From Television City in Hollywood.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Aunt Ruffle was right.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Down in Mayberry, things are just grand.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's the friendliest little podcast in the land.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Nip it in the bud.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_03: Hi everybody.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome back to Nip It in the Bud, our Andy Griffith retrospective podcast.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_03: I'm Paul.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm Tim.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_03: And here we are, Tim.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_03: Still season one, episode eight, Opie's charity.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Says it all, doesn't it?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_03: It sure does.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_03: Original air date on this one, Tim, was Monday, November 28th, 1960.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: Right after Thanksgiving, I suppose.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's true.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: How about that?
• 0:57
  unknown: Yeah.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe that ties in a little bit with the theme here.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_03: Nowadays they'd never show an original original episode.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_03: It'd be a rerun.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you wouldn't want to waste any fresh material right around then, but this is fun.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so we got a couple of guest stars in this one.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_03: And opens again when there's uh a lot of baseball-themed uh uh scenes in this show.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_03: Uh there's Opie uh being a star pitcher.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: This just I really love this little bit.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he and Andy are out on the sidewalk in front of the courthouse.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Opie pitching, Andy catching.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: And uh Opie's looking in for the sign, and Andy puts down three fingers like a catcher would.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: And what really cracked me up is that Opie shakes him off.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, no, no, so he makes Andy put down another sign, and I think he puts down two fingers or one finger, and then Opie nods his head, like, yeah, that's that's what I was planning to throw here.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: It was so good.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, just right right in front of the courthouse, and and as he throws his and Andy's both the catcher and the umpire.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and Opie uh whips it right in there.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: And what I noticed, maybe you played with baseballs like this, but that ball they were playing with was pretty dark.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: It it wasn't like a bright, shiny white baseball like you'd see most kids playing with now.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that ball had seen some baseball, I think.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: And then after he throws a strike, we get to see another new guest star who lives in a town.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know that we saw her around too much afterwards, but um, we get to see Annabelle Sylby.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: Annabelle Sylby, right, but she does look familiar.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, she certainly is dressed like a townsperson in Mayberry, uh, flowery dress, got the little hat on, and uh purse.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: She's carrying a parasol, even though it's well, must be a parasol because it's not an umbrella, because it's not raining, I don't think.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: But that does play a key role here in a minute.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: But uh I noticed uh this is probably somebody you're really familiar with, uh Lerlene Tuttle, who has uh had a quite a few credits in Hollywood movies, TV.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, extensive uh uh resume for her.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and some of my um yeah memories of her, obviously she was the boarding house uh owner in the Ghost of Mr.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_03: Chicken, Don Knott's film.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_03: And she also played um Buford Puster's mother, the grandmother, in the three walking tall movies with Joe Don Baker and then Bose Vensen in the uh 70s.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_03: But my favorite role, and though she had many roles, TV and movies, though, in the movie, the classic movie Psycho, she was the sheriff, the who was a great actor, but do nothing sheriff who Vera Miles, um Janet Lee's sister in the movie, and and uh and Janet Lee's boyfriend Sam, played by John Gavin, they go to see the sheriff to report the you know the sister missing, and then also to report uh Martin Boston, the private investigator missing.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_03: And um they're both skeptical, the sheriff and Lorreen.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_03: And Lorene delivers some of the classic lines like when the sheriff tells them that Norman Bates's mother was is buried, she says she picked out her dress, periwinkle blue.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_03: She's just so chipper and cheerful.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_03: And she's like, when they're saying there was a woman in the window, she's like, oh, Norman took a wife.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_03: She was uh every time I see that movie, I get a charge out of the sheriff.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, years later, Hitchcock was asked in some interviews he did um with a French director why he had that scene with the sheriff.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_03: And he said he always likes to play along with the audience, and he knows that the audience is gonna say, Why are these two doing it themselves investigating?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_03: Why don't they go to the police?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_03: And he wanted to show what happens when you go to the police.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_03: And he's absolutely right, nothing.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, great.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: She is great, great actress, yeah.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: She uh and Andy immediately fall into a conversation about how she's uh more or less elected herself to be the chairperson of the underprivileged children's charity drive.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: And Andy responds pretty quickly so that is saying something like, uh, Oh, I suppose you expect me to be the fundraising chairman.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: And uh sure enough, yeah, that's that's what she came to talk about.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: But the a funny little bit there, and this is where the parasol came in, right?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Is that uh right before she walked up, Andy was saying to Opie, Boy, it'd be good if you had a batter uh that you could pitch to to uh get some practice in more of a live situation.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: And he Andy more or less sets her up as yeah as the batter, using her parasol for the bat, and uh she's turned pretty much the right way, and Opie throws another strike in there.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: She doesn't even realize what's going on.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, she's kind of lost to the whole thing, kind of in her old world own world thinking about the charity drive.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: But uh yeah, she she plays along nicely, I think.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: She does, yeah, when she realizes what they're doing.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: And uh at that point, uh Annie tells Opie, well, why don't you go find out somebody else to catch for you?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: And he he welcomes Annabelle inside the courthouse.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: But funny little thing I noticed there as I was watching them is that uh he's opening the door for her from the outside.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: He's got his catcher's met on, and then when you see him on the inside, catcher's met is miraculously gone, and there's no no mention of it.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: But it wasn't really a big point in the plot or anything, it just was like, yeah, there's a little television magic there, I think.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: First thing Andy does was uh ask her if she'd like some coffee, and boy, he's got this nice coffee set sitting there in the office, maybe brought in by Aunt B, I don't know.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they get on to the subject of her being such a proud woman, and uh and this is the first mention that we hear of her husband Tom.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: So he's uh he turns out to be a character, but that's where she starts kind of uh well tearing up a little bit almost, talking about poor old Tom who uh has you you get the impression that he's passed on two years ago.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: And uh that's that's where Andy starts making references to how Tom was a drinking man.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: But she protests about the whole thing, right?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: She she won't admit that he was a drinking man, but Andy Andy says something like how the fellow wasn't a drinking man, he sure had the um hangovers to to prove it, and stuff like that.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: The story kind of comes out that Tom had taken a business trip to Charlottesville and got hit by a taxi cab, and then uh Annabelle put on this fine funeral for him two years, two years ago, and that's that's where she uh breaks up a little bit again, and but then they move on to the uh topic of the uh fundraising drive and how that even the school kids are contributing.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_03: And Andy thinks that Opie's certainly gotta be one of the top contributors, yeah.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then he finds out that Opie has given all of three cents, every bit of three cents.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: And he is not proud of that.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and that's about the time that Opie comes back into the courthouse as Annabelle is leaving, and Andy finds out that Opie's only given three cents to the charity drive.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so Andy wants to talk to him about that.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and Andy makes references to um the uh people or ideas or things that Opie probably doesn't quite understand, but are pretty good for the audience.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: He calls him Diamond Jim and uh something like Charlie Moneybags giving three cents to the charity drive.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Opie asks if he gave too much.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: I could ask him for two cents back.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: But that that all leads into what for me was was almost a classic uh Abbott and Costello who's on first kind of situation, because Andy's trying to explain to Opie about the underprivileged boys in the county that he said there are about 400 of them in the county or one and a half boys per square mile.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: And that that kind of uh confuses Opie, let's put it that way.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: The whole thing about half a boy.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, he feels pretty bad about that boy.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he gets kind of stuck on that whole idea that half a boy, and uh and that's when Andy tries to explain to him, well, uh it's you know, a ratio.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: And Hopi Hopi says, Horatio who that's what I thought of you doing your uh who's on first thing back in your Penn State days.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yep, he keeps bringing up this horatio person.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_03: And he really gets frustrated.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_03: You notice that like that, I think in these early episodes, that's the most um impatient I've seen him with Opie.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think so.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think so.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: And he wants Opie to just forget about the whole half a boy thing.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: And Opie says, that's a tough thing to forget, Pa.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: He's got this mental image of half a boy, and yeah, like you said, Andy's getting frustrated, and he's trying to explain to Opie how important it is to give to charity and give without uh without expecting anything in return.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Let's put it that way.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: And Andy says, Haven't you ever given anything that uh just out of the goodness of your heart?
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Oh yeah, I did, Pa.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: I gave something to Jimmy today.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: And Andy's pleased, like, oh good, I'm glad to hear that.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and then he says, Well, what did you give him?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Opie says, Well, I gave him a sock in the head.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because he was making prop function, yeah, he was making prop fun of Charlotte, who is uh Opie says is his girlfriend.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so he don't like Jimmy no more.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: But he he was happy to give him a sock in the head.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: But this is where the first time we hear about how Opie is saving to buy something for Charlotte.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's what Andy really picks up on as the reason Opie hasn't given anything to the charity drive is that he's gonna squander his money on Charlotte.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: And Opie says, I'm not gonna squander it, Paul.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um blah blah blah.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then eventually he says, What's squander, Pa?
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he uses the word squander over and over, and then he said he doesn't know what it even is.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right, exactly.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: I love that little bit.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: No, this is another instance where Opie's kind of carrying the comedy part of the show here.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: He he's great.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: Especially with no Barney around.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's yeah, how about that?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, uh he really was missed and uh having uh not no explanation either, but having Opie there to help to balance the uh comedy is really important.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, absolutely.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: No Barney, no Eleanor Donahue.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um but Aunt B does make it an important appearance, and it's at this point in the episode that she comes in to the courthouse when Andy and Opie are having this conversation about charity, and uh she wants Opie to carry home some packages for him, and then she hears about how he's only given three cents.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_03: You know what's funny about that, Tim, is she comes in with no packages in her hands.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_03: She wants Opie to help with the packages that she got from shopping, but we never do see the packages.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_03: I guess they're still in the store and waiting for her to take Opie there to pick them up.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_03: I guess I kept waiting to see these packages.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you don't don't operate like that anymore.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Andy lets her know he's raising a Playboy.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: I love that so as they're kind of exiting.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: And Aunt B and Opie are on their way out of the courthouse, and Andy walks outside with them.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: And who does he see?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: But uh this other fellow who he doesn't recognize at first.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_03: He got with a hat on, a suit on, kind of well dressed, and I thought he looked like Shemp Poward.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_03: I thought he had a I don't know why.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_03: I just couldn't get that image out of my out of my head that that he looks just like Shemp Powered with a hat on.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_03: That's great.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_03: Great three stooges.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: I hadn't thought about that, but that uh actor was uh Stuart Irwin, who I guess one of his most famous roles was playing Joe Peluca from the uh bubblegum.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_03: How about that?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: From Bazooka Joe.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: I can remember getting uh some bazooka bubblegum and reading those crummy little comic strips about uh Joe Peluca.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if they were rerunning things from the uh I don't know, 1920s, but as a kid the comic strips I just thought were the worst.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, it was just so buoyant.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: But uh Stuart Irwin, he had kind of a long career that actually went back to the 1920s, if you can believe it.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: My goodness.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and had a lot of credits, uh, but I guess died in the in the mid-60s, so this is kind of towards the end of his career.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: Andy uh, like we were saying, didn't recognize him at first, um, but he says it's me, Tom.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: And finally the recognition uh recognition comes over Andy's face, and he said, Oh my gosh, you can't be.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: No, this isn't right.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: And they almost go into another uh who's on first kind of thing, like Andy's saying, You can't be.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I am, I'm right here.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: And well, uh, I went away.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Yeah, but you're gone.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: You can't come back after you're gone.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: And this whole this whole exchange with them is uh pretty comical to me.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: But uh that's that's where we finally get the true story of how Tom Sylby, it turns out to be coincidentally, Annabelle's husband, who we had just heard had gotten buried two years ago, and here he is back from the dead.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: But he wasn't really dead.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_03: Kind of an odd um another oddity in this first season that um isn't something that seems to like starting in season two.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know that we see these types of stories, but you know, just the idea that he you know, more you learn about him that he faked his own death.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_03: Or or maybe he didn't fake it, he just didn't come home.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he just didn't come home.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: But uh uh Annabelle was too proud to admit that she couldn't keep her husband, right?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so instead of admitting that, she goes to all the trouble of getting a mahogany box shipped back from Charlottesville and having this elaborate funeral for him.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, it was a good thing that he didn't come back.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we don't really find out that uh that they had any conversation about uh him not coming back.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: I guess they had a big fight before he left for Charlottesville, but uh yeah, it it takes two years before he comes back, and by that time he's he's already been laid out at the cemetery.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and they they had one of the best funerals they ever had.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_03: He's a changed man too, which is I guess why he came back.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_03: And uh kind of reminded me a little bit of um It's a wonderful life because what happens next is Andy taking him to the cemetery to see his own grave.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it had it had exactly that kind of feel.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Or it also made me think of uh Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn when they show up at their own funeral.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: The most comical thing about this for me when they're uh at the cemetery, Andy and Tom Sylvie, is uh you know, they read the headstone and Tom's asking what the funeral was like, and uh he gets kind of bent out of shape about uh a few of the things like there was this guy named Sam Peabody who he didn't like who showed up at his funeral.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: He wasn't happy about that, or how his Lodge brother sang the uh Lodge song, and at first he thought, oh, that's nice, and he starts humming or singing a little bit of the song, and uh, and then he realizes, well, how did they sing it without me?
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they don't have a good second tenor without me.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so he's he wants everything to have been perfect, um, but uh he you know he he can't uh actually kibbots on his own funeral because he wasn't there to plan it.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_03: And Andy does a nice job of kind of uh embellishing everything that happened and letting him know, you know, like especially in this, you know, his kind of the way he you kind of draws out his words and expressions with oh, yeah, this the way he talks.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, it was just fine, fine.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_03: He goes on and on, and uh what a funeral.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_03: And it really makes him proud that his wife threw him such a you know beautiful funeral.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_03: Whole time I'm watching it, I'm thinking, boy, because you know, um season one is the the when I turn on Andy Griffith and and watch when watching it out of order on TV when it's on, I I I generally, if it's not around see the the seasons with Barney, mainly two through five, is what I'm watching.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_03: And if it's the early seasons, I have to admit, uh, this is the first time I've seen them in years.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_03: And uh so this one surprised me a little bit because I thought this is a really, you know, kind of you know, not your everyday subject anymore, where somebody would actually run away like that, and the life would fake the death.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_03: And uh now you're back at the and Andy knows that once again we're seeing where as a lawman he's finding out things, and uh he's kind of doesn't see any problem in what what occurred here.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe it isn't.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_03: You know, maybe there is no uh that's okay to do, but it just seems odd.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but he is gonna try and set it right.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: So yes, he is.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: So he he says to Tom at the cemetery, well, come on back to the house, we're gonna sort this out.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and next thing you see is the squad car pulling up in front of Andy's house, and uh Opie is there, and Opie actually uh asks him, asks Andy for a dime to get a soda.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: And at first, I think he's just kind of in the agreeable mood because he's got Tom there with him, but he catches himself and says, Oh no, no, if you don't have more than three cents for the charity, you're not gonna get a dime to go get a soda, and we're gonna talk more about this later.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that was just kind of a passing reference to the fact that we're not done with that part of the story yet.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but uh you know, the other thread is is kind of in the front right now, and so they go inside and they're gonna call Annabelle, and Tom's complaining about it how oh no, I don't think I could do that to her, and uh you know, she's a proper widow now, and so he does he basically doesn't want to embarrass her, I think.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: He does miss her though, he does miss her, but yeah, and Andy kind of needles him about that, about how, oh yeah, you kind of miss her, don't you?
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, there's no more implication beyond that about anything in particular, but you know, I think nowadays if you saw a story like that, you'd hear a hear a lot more depth of discussion about what what's being missed.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but uh finally he does he does make the phone call and uh talks to Sarah and and then he does get Annabelle on the phone and uh asks her if she's are you sitting down which which is always kind of a crazy thing that people will ask on a uh at least on a show.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think I've ever heard anybody in real life say, Are you sitting down before you give them the news like that?
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, but but there we go.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um and he he says Tom's back and you don't hear anything, and Andy's waiting, and he says, Hello, hello, like she must have keeled over or something, fainted.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, yeah, and I and I thought, you know, I I thought he was gonna have her come over or something like in and and do it in person.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, doing that over the phone.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_03: I can you imagine?
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, I keep referencing the getting sidetracked with things this reminds me of, but as we're talking about it, um, you know, I had mentioned because that whole cemetery scene reminded me a little bit of it's a wonderful life, but this yeah, there's a movie called Seconds that came out in the 50s that uh that um Rock Hudson was in, and it's like become like a cult, a cult film where the the this corporation approaches people like you can fake your death and have a do-over, but to do that they kind of give you surgery so nobody recognizes you.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_03: And in that film, the the uh it's a bank like someone that works at a bank and is a real unhappy marriage, sort of like Tom and Annabelle, and fakes his death, and the surgical team makes him look like Rock Hudson, so it improves his looks and everything.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_03: And so then Rock Hudson he starts feeling because he's still the other man, he starts missing his wife, sort of like Tom.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_03: And he vent you're not supposed to do this, but he ventures back to to just at least talk to her.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_03: Now she doesn't know that's her husband, and he doesn't tell her, but he wants to see how she's doing, and you know, because he's he knows what he did to her, what he probably put her through.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_03: And the real irony in it is when he meets with her, she's never been happier.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_03: She felt that her husband just never wanted to do anything, never wanted but just talking about it makes me a little think of that because it it's such a bizarre storyline, but at the same time, it um you know it's it, it's it's uh it makes good for you know watching it happen to somebody else.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_03: I I would never want to go through it, but but it is interesting.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's really kind of a cool thought experiment that you know you can see played out uh in a movie or hear it in a TV show.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's that's really interesting.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, even when you you were talking about that and mentioned It's a Wonderful Life, it makes me think of that scene with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh after Clarence has magically uh taken George Bailey out of the equation to see what his life would be like, and he uh meets his his wife, Donna Reed, out in front of the library, I think it was.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: And he's he's trying to get her to recognize him, and she just is completely baffled by him and scared of him, actually.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so you know, different kind of reaction.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's it's it's really uh yeah, you know, because as an audience member, you know, hey, these two are husband and wife, and now look, and and I think this, you know, it it's it's it's it does make for an interesting story.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: The really underlying theme, I think, is the whole uh issue of pride about what a proud woman Annabelle was, and too proud to admit that her husband left her, uh, so instead she stages this funeral.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: But the same thing is going on between Andy and Opie here, and it's at this point in the story where uh Andy does finally convince Tom that he ought to go see Annabelle and talk things over.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: And and then we return to the other story thread, which which is about the charity and Opie.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: And this is another time, and you mentioned it earlier, but uh where Andy is pretty emotional about it.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, when he's trying to get Opie to see his see his point of view, um, and Opie is saying, I can't, I can't give that money out of my piggy bank because I need it for what I'm getting for Charlotte.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: And Andy gets upset with him and says, Well, you better just march yourself on upstairs, and there's gonna be no supper for you tonight.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, how about that?
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_03: No supper making the poor boy starve.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, it's pretty serious, it's pretty serious, but he was yelling a little too, you know.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_03: Uh yeah, he was that's uh very uncharacteristic of him.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and how about the um when he's trying to explain again and he uses the fruit as kind of uh example, and he's saying what if we cut this apple in half, you know, when yeah, and I I took both halves or whatever, and and uh I guess OP sees a worm in that apple.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, he says, Well uh well, I wouldn't care, Pa, if you took the whole apple, and well, why not?
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's got a worm in it.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, Yeah, I don't want any peas of that apple.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a whole good little bit about that.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_03: How about how worms don't do Andy's trying to tell him they don't do anything, and and when the when Opie hears that the worm just sits around and eats all day and doesn't do anything, he envies the worm.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, I was feeling sorry for him, but now, yeah, that's right.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: At first he was feeling sorry, but now that's all.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you mentioned Abbott and Costello earlier, and that this also, because you know, it kind of gets totally sidetracked from the story, and now you're talking about the worm and the apple, and and it becomes an argument, you know, and it's it's just it's just funny that um you know, and it just really frustrates Andy because Opie keeps kind of taking him in that direction where he doesn't want to go.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's really building the tension there, right?
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_01: Because Opie is is not getting what Andy wants wants him to get, and uh, you know, instead he's sidetracking him all the time.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so when he does finally send Opie upstairs without his supper, that's when we see Aunt B come come in, and Aunt B calls Andy Annabelle.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, because she has heard this whole exchange and she just lets Andy have it.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: That uh, you know, you know Opie's a fine little boy, and how he wo he he he wouldn't do a bad thing.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you know, if he doesn't get this, this is really on you, Andy, you know, because of your pride about being because that was it.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: That I I forgot that part.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Andy's kind of complaining out loud about how boy, you know, this is making him look bad.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: The son of the sheriff gives him three cents to the charity drive and so on.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, and that's that's when Aunt B has had enough.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_03: She she's right.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, something she she was it was nice to see her in the last you know few episodes since that new housekeeper one, she hasn't had a lot to do, and really nice to see her.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and she was she was good with him, like tough, you know, like taking Opie's side totally.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_03: And um, and every point she made was true.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_03: It was it was this charity was more about Andy than Opie, and he's and I never thought about that, that he is being like Annabelle, like kind of chasing away his son, and uh, you know, worried about what people think more than you know, you know, you know your son, you know, what are you doing?
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right, right.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: And she she makes him him, Andy, do the right thing.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it is kind of a a little bit of a role reversal from what we would normally expect.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: Not so much that with those two, but Andy kind of being on the receiving end of a of a moral lesson, put it that way.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and he allowed himself to be in that role where he he's kind of you know the one being taught that lesson.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it kind of made it, you know, kind of explains all of the um way he was treating OP, which I thought, wow, you know, I hadn't seen this one in a while.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_03: I kind of didn't like what was going on, but this kind of makes up for it because EMP's setting him straight.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: And it it was good to see her have have a more significant role here in this episode, and and it's at that point that she kind of nods at him like you better get with it.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um and when he's saying, Well, I guess I better call Opie down for supper again, uh, which he does, and Opie comes like sprinting down and saying, Do you like me again, Pa?
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, what a great line that was.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_03: I just thought, boy, I think that would make I think anybody watch and say, you really felt feel that.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_03: Do you like me again?
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and that just seems true to life.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think little little kids can really be affected by what's going on with their parents, and to to the point of feeling like they don't like me anymore.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: And for him to ask that question uh is kind of a key key point there, too.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's like that's we've kind of reached the the climax almost here, uh where yeah, you like me again, Paul?
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: And oh Opie, I never stopped liking you.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: And and that was good to hear too.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but then then they sit down to dinner and or supper, and that's where more of the story about Opie and Charlotte comes out.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_03: He's still Andy's still kind of giving them zingers about, you know, even though he's okay with everything, it won't give him a hard time anymore.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_03: He's still throwing a lot of uh sarcasm by you know, when you buy your girlfriend popcorn at the theater, and when you like almost like you know, making him still trying to make him feel guilty for having that money for her.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh I mean he sort of makes it sound like he's trying to convince himself, well, this is okay, you know, if he wants to buy her a toy, wants to buy her popcorn at the movies, you know, he he's gotta be okay with it.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: But it does come off as kind of sarcastic still, and uh, and like he's he's needling Opie a little bit.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_01: But that's where we find out that well, Opie's not doing that, he's gonna buy her a coat.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_03: I like how he um, you know, Andy's like, you know, you never said that, and Opie says, Well, you never asked me.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, that that reminded me, I keep segueing here, but it reminds me of my favorite episode, Opie's Three Wishes, when Barney kind of does the same thing.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_03: He won't let Opie ever finish, and then he assumes what Opie wants, and at the end, Opie's like, no, Barney, you never you never let me finish.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_03: Like that wasn't what my third wish was.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_03: And this reminds me of that in this one because um he he's true, he never got to say why he had that that money was saved for.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_03: Andy just assumed it was for a toy or movies.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, and that's where uh we get uh a good little finish there with that.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, when Opie kind of jumps in and says, Well, what are we having for dinner, Pa?
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Well, you and Aunt B are having fried chicken and I'm eating crow.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_03: Because how about he was gonna buy her a coat, a winter coat for yeah.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because her ma didn't have any money to get her a nicer coat.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Opie was saying how it looked pretty worn out.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_03: But uh I guess he wouldn't, uh what he he wouldn't have the money till uh I think the way they were the way Aunt B was talking about it, it sounded like like winter is over right now, and this is for next winter.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, and by then he'd have the money.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_03: No, I thought there's an opportunity for Andy to throw in more money and get her the code now, right?
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for Andy to contribute a little charity there.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's gonna cost a little more than you know, a half a buck.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_03: Right, exactly.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_03: That was very good.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_03: Very good.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_03: The crow line was perfect, really good story.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_01: And written by this fellow Arthur Stander, who has written the last couple episodes that we watched before this, uh Andy the Matchmaker and Runaway Kid, and the pilot episode.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, I guess he he died fairly young, and you kind of wonder what what other directions he would have taken uh the show in if he had lived to uh write more episodes.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_03: How about that the epilogue there where Andy and Tom are on the uh bench?
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_01: Bench outside the courthouse.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_03: Whippling.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, whittling.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_03: How about that?
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_03: And I'll tell you, Tom, uh, even though it sounds like everything's going good with Annabelle, she accepted him back, and and um he's a changed man.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_03: I thought, wow, he's still wearing that hat.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_03: He's still wearing he hasn't settled in yet.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_03: Nice to see everybody so formal, you know.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_02: Oh right.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, the whittling, I thought that was interesting that that they were both doing that on uh, you know, and looking forward to that bench and future episodes and seasons when Floyd and you know the others, we start seeing some of the other beloved characters from the show sitting on those benches and just uh and Andy's always popping down and how and some of the funniest bits always occur on that bench.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's where it happens, yeah.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it was it was good to see that kind of enter in.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, uh after that scene and epilogue at the end, the audience really loved this episode because they broke into great applause.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_03: We didn't hear much from them throughout the show.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_03: They didn't the laughter's kind of been subdued now.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_03: You don't hear the uh the uh canned laughter thrown in, but just the applause at the end, which so it's kind of kind of nice.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of nice, helps helps finish on a high note, does really does.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's always great, and uh I am looking, I'm really looking forward to the next episode too, called A Feud is a Feud.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I think it's uh certainly a memorable one for me, and uh I'm sure when we walk and talk about it next time, uh anybody listening will remember it if you're a fan of the show, which you must be if you're listening to the two of us.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_03: That's a great title though, a feud is a feud.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_03: I I think the the titles are have have been uh you know, sometimes it can be a little misleading, but I think like this one and the uh you know the feud of feud definitely gets you interested to see what it's about.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so uh if I remember right, uh there is a Romeo and Juliet aspect to that episode, but there are a lot of great moments in it.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_01: Can't wait to talk with you about it next time, Paul.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, me too.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, thanks everyone for joining us.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_03: Remember, Aunt Laura was right, too much TV, but it's good TV.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_03: So just like I guess Aunt B was right in this one.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_03: So really.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, those ants, they know.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for being with us on Nippit in the Bud, and we will see you next time.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed this Nip It in the Bud podcast, listen to our All in the Family podcast.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_01: G, our old LaSalle ran great wherever you listen to your podcasts.