Thoughts From The Andy Griffith Show Episode Guest of Honor (1962)

Synopsis: To attract more visitors to Mayberry, Andy (Andy Griffith) suggests picking a stranger to be the town's guest of honor at its Founder's Day celebration. However, this plan nearly backfires when the person they choose (Jay Novello) turns out to be a pickpocket.



My Thoughts:

So, I am admittedly a bit confused. The whole point of this guest of honor thing was to attract outsiders to Mayberry. Yet, in the very same episode, not a minute after coming up with the idea, Andy had to swear in three extra deputies because they were expecting out-of-towners at the Founder's Day celebration. It sounds to me like getting visitors really wasn't that much of a problem.

And about those deputies. As many times as Andy has had to ask for additional help, you would think he would make some effort to at least provide citizens with some minimum training, so they are somewhat prepared when he needs them. I mean, I understand it is usually for something like crowd control, but would you really trust Floyd (Howard McNear) to be able to handle that? For all his faults, Barney (Don Knotts) seems to at least have the right idea when he lectures them about taking the responsibility seriously, something Andy didn't even think to do.

He might be a good pickpocket, but not very bright. After basically being given free rein in Mayberry, he had all the opportunity in the world to score big with just a little bit of discretion. Instead, he grabs everyone's watches right off the bat? Had he just taken one, nobody probably would have noticed, him taking them all at once was a bit like him announcing it to the whole world.

Who was he talking to on the phone? It sounded a lot like he had a partner in crime, but the episode never really elaborates on that. I'm not even sure why the episode even bothered to have him make that call. It would have made a lot more sense had the episode not already revealed the truth about him. Plus, wouldn't you think that eavesdropping operator, Sarah, would have been listening in on that call?

I feel like the ending of this episode failed to provide closure. OK, so they caught the bad guy and put him behind bars, but what about the Founder's Day celebration and the fact he was supposed to be the guest of honor? Did they announce why their guest didn't attend any of the other things that were planned for him? I feel like they would have needed to but, at the same time, that would have been pretty embarrassing.

Final Opinion: Honestly, I feel like this episode would have been considerably better had the writers not let the cat out of the bag about Mayberry's guest citizen and, instead, revealed his criminal history later. In its current form, it is more predictable than funny.

My Grade: C

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