The Andy Griffith Show

When Television programming was entertaining, AND wholesome, and funny.

Andy Griffith fits the bill for all three. One of my favorite episodes is when Aunt Bee wins some expensive prizes as a game show contestant. I love the shows with the Darlings (The Dillards), and one where Barney Fife tries to find Andy a girlfriend.

As I was growing up, my brothers and I were allowed to watch this show freely, and we used to compete with each other to see who could whistle the theme song the best.

I highly recommend watching this show whenever you can. It's incredibly funny without being skanky, like many modern day sitcoms, and wholesome without being preachy. It just WAS.

I love this show so much. I'm 26 so I didn't get to see it when it originally aired. However I've watched this show my whole life. I remember watching it when I was a youngster. I think I was about four or five the first time I saw it.

The Andy Griffith show is heart warming and enduring gem. It has made me laugh year after year for decades. It expounds on many social issues like single parenting, child rearing, relationships, and friendships. In the process it mixes a lot sarcastic, witty, and slapstick humor. Andy occasionally will play guitar and sing. It's just all around great entertainment for the whole family. The

The plot of each episode varies from serious to hilarious. There's a nice variety to watch. I of course have my favorite episodes and those I don't like that much. In the end, I just enjoy spending some time each day with the gang from Mayberry.

The character development is the best part about this show. Barney can at first can seem to be an idiot and anonying. However after awhile I began to enjoy his antics. Andy is simple and easy going. Floyd the barber is a busy body. Ronnie Howard is the cute kid, who's intelligence and maturity surpasses his age. In the end it's the characters that make this show fantastic.

I'm glad DVD has made this wonderful gem available to past, present, and future generations. I know I'll be watching this show with my kids. I hope one day the first tune they whistle is the theme to the Andy Griffith Show.

My favorite Andy Griffith show episode is the Christmas show when mean old Ben Weaver tries to get himself arrested. (Enter "Will Wright" in the database search box and note #6 under Notable TV guest appearances) On Christmas Eve, Ben Weaver (a legitimate liquor dealer) insists that Andy arrest a farmer for making some illegal moonshine to celebrate Christmas with. Andy brings the farmer's wife and two kids to the jail and, with Barnie, Opie, Aunt Bea, and Ellie, the whole lot of them celebrate Christmas right there in the jail. Ben becomes aware of this; feels left out; and tries to get himself arrested so he can join in the festivities. Thanks to some brilliant acting by Will Wright you start off intensely disliking Ben Weaver and end up feeling genuinely sorry for him.

"The Andy Griffith Show", in my opinion, will always be in the top 10 of my favorite shows, and I've watched the reruns numerous times since the first episode in 1960. I'm sure Danny Thomas has received many accolades for creating this timeless classic. My only criticism is that it stayed on the air three years too long. When Don Knotts exited, that's where it should have ended. The support characters of Goober, Howard and Emmitt never captured the comic timing or spirit of the original cast, and the storylines were bland. I especially detested Jack Burns' character Warren. He was very annoying. The last three years just weren't funny or even compelling enough to bother watching. Even Andy became more cranky and less down-home. He even lost his southern accent and laid-back ways.

The Andy Griffith Show will always be remembered as one of the great slice of life series that ever came on television. It represented the ideal small town full of not only ordinary citizens but the crazies that inhabited it as well, especially characters like Ernest T. Bass and the Darlings. The thing that really made this show great was the relationship between the ever cool Sheriff Andy Taylor and the hyperactive Barney Fife. It was Barney as well as the characters of Aunt Bea, Floyd, Otis, Gomer, Goober and, later, Howard and Emmitt that made this show the classic that it was. Also, in later years this show was criticized for not having any black characters on it. If you think about it, this show was merely a reflection of the times that the show took place in, the early to mid 1960's. Despite that, this show will always be a classic.

Also, one of my favortite episodes will always be the bootlegging episode with the two sisters when you get to see Barney let loose and go POW, POW, POW with his trusty ax.