Andy Saves Barney’s Morale – The Andy Griffith Show season 1
In Andy Saves Barney’s Morale, Barney is acting sheriff when Andy goes to Centerville. He’s eager to prove to Andy that he can be trusted with responsibility. However, when Andy returns eight hours later, half the townsfolk are in jail on various flimsy charges. Even the mayor! Andy dismisses every charge and sends them all home. And Barney becomes the town’s laughingstock.
Chester Jones: Barney! Barney, quick, you got to catch him!
Barney Fife: Who?
Chester Jones: The fella what just hit and run!
Barney Fife: Hit and run? Where?
Chester Jones: Out to the baseball field.
Also at the barbershop. And everywhere else he goes in town. His morale is soon so low that even Hilda Mae fails to raise it.
Hilda Mae: I tell ya Sheriff, that fella was so buttered-up, if you tried to grab him, he’d squoosh right outta your hands.
…
Hilda Mae: It isn’t right, Sheriff. Folks are really so fond of him.
Andy Taylor: Yeah, that’s right. They are.
Hilda Mae: Sure. Everybody likes Barney. That’s what makes it so bad. They don’t realize they’re hurtin’ him. It’s just a joke to them.
Andy Taylor: [getting an idea] Uh-huh. Well, now, that’s probably because they’ve never thought about it quite that way before.
Barney’s morose, unable to sleep, and on the verge of quitting. After all, what good is a deputy that nobody respects? He can’t go on as a laughingstock. So, Andy starts hinting to the various townspeople that he can’t have a deputy who folks make fun of …. And he’s going to fire Barney. But Barney, for all of his flaws, is genuinely liked by the townspeople. So before Barney can quit, the various folks he arrested put themselves back in jail! Starting with Aunt Bee, whom Barney arrested for inciting a riot! They praise him for upholding law and order in Mayberry. Barney feels vindicated and his confidence returns. Original airdate: February 20, 1961
Cast of characters
- Andy Griffith (A Face in the Crowd) … Andy Taylor
- Ron Howard (The Music Man) … Opie Taylor (as Ronny Howard)
- Don Knotts (The Incredible Mr. Limpet; The Apple Dumpling Gang) … Barney Fife
- Frances Bavier (The Stooge; The Day the Earth Stood Still) … Aunt Bee Taylor
- Howard McNear (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) … Floyd Lawson
- Florence MacMichael … Hilda Mae
- George Dunn … Pete
- Dick Elliott (Springtime in the Rockies) … Mayor Pike
- Hal Smith (The Great Race; Adventures in Odyssey) … Otis Campbell
- Burt Mustin (The Shakiest Gun in the West) … Jud Fletcher
- Joseph Hamilton … Chester Jones
Trivia
- Don Knotts stayed awake for two days and nights and did not shave. In order to look appropriately haggard for the scene where he’s supposedly tossed & turned all night, unable to sleep.
- Jud Fletcher played by the “ever senior” Burt Mustin claims to be 74 years old, but he was actually 77 at the time this episode originally aired.