The Andy Griffith Show Episode Review: Andy and Opie, Housekeepers (1961)

Synopsis: Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier) leaves town for a few days and, since Andy (Andy Griffith) and Opie (Ron Howard) are slobs, is convinced the house will be a disaster when she returns. Andy disagrees with her but Aunt Bee's prediction proves to be correct. Will he and Opie be able to get the house clean before she returns?


Review: When I first came across this episode while home at lunch yesterday, I almost skipped it. This is because, if I had a nickel for every television sitcom that "proved" men weren't as good at keeping the house running as women, I probably would have a lot of nickels.

However, I realized I'm not a television historian and, for all I knew, this could be the first show to use that plot. So, I wound up watching it anyway and was pleasantly surprised.

The thing that really stood out for me when it came to this episode is it wasn't anywhere near as predictable as I thought it was going to be. Sure, Andy and Opie proved to be the slobs Aunt Bee accused them of being and, within a couple of days, their house looked just like I would expect a real house with kids to look like (rather than a perfectly clean sitcom house). But, this episode also managed to have some surprises too.

I don't want to give away too many spoilers so, despite the temptation, I'm going to avoid giving any real detail about the events that happen at the end of the episode. I will, however, mention I love the twist within a twist set up by the last-second appearance of Bee's friend (Hope Summers) that ultimately led to a pretty funny joke at the very end.

In fact, I actually find it somewhat amusing a classic show like this one which, again, could have been one of the first (if not the first) show to use this type of story in the episode, managed to find a way to avoid a predictable conclusion when many of today's shows don't even bother trying. I guess that's one of the things that makes it a classic.

Final Opinion: This is a funny episode that isn't even close to being as predictable as the description makes it sound. I wound up enjoying it and would recommend it.

My Grade: A

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