My Thoughts - The Andy Griffith Show: Opie and his Merry Men (1963)

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Synopsis: While playing Robin Hood in the woods, Opie (Ron Howard) and his friends meet a hobo (Douglas Fowley) who uses their love of the literary character to convince them to steal for him. When Andy (Andy Griffith) finds out, he comes up with a clever way of solving the problem without seeming like the bad guy.


My Thoughts:

In all seriousness, has nobody in Mayberry had the "stranger danger" talk with their kids? You would think Andy, of all people, would have had that discussion with Opie but the very first thing he and his friends do is have a picnic with the homeless guy they meet in the woods. Law & Order: SVU episodes start that way.

The episode ruins a great Barney Fife (Don Knotts) moment. I think I've said this before, but just because a show or movie is a comedy doesn't mean everything needs to be humorous. Barney's comment about not needing material things to be rich was sincere, insightful and added some depth to a character that is usually a comic foil. Instead of leaving it at that, the writers decided to turn it into a joke and completely diminish it.

Speaking of Barney, I find it VERY hard to believe he didn't know the Sheriff of Nottingham was a villain. He's clearly not a genius but he does have a high school diploma and, just as important goes to the movies (by my count, there were at least 10 feature-length Robin Hood movies by the time this episode was made). That ignorance just didn't work for me. 

Now, had he seen the movie/read the book and had a completely different interpretation based on his by-the-book view of law and order, then maybe I would have been more on board with it, especially after his comment about wanting to ban the book because it might be a bad influence on kids.

Wow, they worried about too many carbs back in the 1960s too? I honestly thought watching carbs was a much more modern idea before seeing Barney refusing a slice of a soon-to-be stolen apple pie on those grounds. Well, I learned something.

I know I have had a negative opinion about Andy as a father at times, but this was one of the times when I thought he did a good job. He could have simply done his job and arrested the hobo or forced him to leave, regardless of what his son might think of him. Instead, he decided to teach Opie and his friends a lesson about how some people will try to deceive you by exposing the hobo for what he really was.

The only thing stopping me from giving him kudos is the fact he didn't have the stranger danger talk with Opie to begin with. As sheriff, he should know better.

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Here are my thoughts from other episodes of The Andy Griffith Show: 

My Thoughts - The Andy Griffith Show: Barney on the Rebound (1961)

Thoughts from The Andy Griffith Show Episode The Horse Trader (1961)

My Thoughts - The Andy Griffith Show: Prisoner of Love (1964)

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

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