The Loaded Goat

The Mayor determined to bring progress to Mayberry is involved with having a underpass built nearby. Town people joke that the motivation is more to do with having the freeway run by the mayors brothers filling station more than progress. The result are constant booms from the road crew using dynamite to clear way for the underpass. a local farmer brings his goat to town because the noise is making his goat nervous and he's afraid to leave it home alone. The goat chews through his ropes and wanders around town, eventually finding a stash of dynamite and eating a bunch of it. The show revolves around trying to keep the "loaded" goat from blowing up.

An angry goat full of dynamite terrorizes the town. How do Andy and Barney handle the situation?

Forget science, this is a funny episode. It's so good, its story was later swiped wholesale for the "F-Troop" episode "The Return of Wrongo Starr."

Otis Campbell (Hal Smith), always good for a laugh (unless he's the focus), is a stand-out. His reactions must be seen.

In fact, it's a plus for the episode that, according to the spoil-sports, the goat can't explode. I'm rather fond of goats. The idea of a goat being brought into town may seem weird to "sophisticated" urban types on the twenty-first century, but not to small country towns of the period.

I won't delve into whether or not it's possible, because reviewers discrediting it based on this aspect is ridiculous (it's a TV show where anything can happen).

When Hutch decides to bring his pet goat uptown because the blasting on the underpass, which mayor Stoner is having built to bring the highway closer to his brother's filling station, makes him nervous.

Hutch ties him to a bench while he runs errands. Jimmy, his goat, gets loose and wanders around town, and, in the process, eats dynamite... Lots of it (because he's always had a healthy appetite).

Once he's finally found, Andy and Barney try to keep him from exploding.

There are some hilarious one-liners... Like when Andy asks Otis if he's seen a big Billy goat he responds "Oh no... But I will" (because he just bought some liquor).

Barney yelling "There he goes!" when Andy is telling him to just stay calm is hilarious.

And the end, when the mayor is giving a tribute to Andy and Barney because he thinks a blast he just heard was the goat going off, with Andy and Barney with him. Hutch calls Barney "the little feller".

The larger portion of this episode involves a goat who gets into some dynamite being stored. He eats a sizable portion and becomes the "Exploding Goat." All kinds of efforts are used to keep him calm, so he doesn't explode and destroy the sheriff's office and the jail.

Does anyone really think that dynamite in a goat's stomach, amid all that digestive liquid, could EVER explode? If you can suspend your disbelief, this was otherwise one of my favorite episodes.