10 Reasons Why the Colored Episodes of The Andy Griffith Show Sucked

Every morning, I watch two episodes of The Andy Griffith Show on CBS. Im not sure why, but CBS feels that it is necessary to show the colored episodes of TAGS which ran from 1965-1966. There are ten reasons why the colored episodes suck. Here are those reasons.

10. CBS

Between 1965-1970, executives at CBS began to feel that there were too many hicks on TV. The Andy Griffith Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Petticoat Junction had all been very popular shows that featured simply country people without the worries of life in the city. The conflicts these characters encountered usually involved things like drinking too much hard cider or livestock causing problems for the townfolk. These executives began to influence how the shows were written by taming the weird ways of the shows bumpkin characters. By 1971, the executives had cancelled all of them to promote a young, urban lifestyle.

9. The Young, Urban Lifestyle

The Andy Griffith Show started featuring episodes that catered to teenagers. The Senior Play featured high school kids trying to show the principal that the type of dancing that was popular in the mid-1960s was no more scandalous than in his own teenage years. Opies' Group featured the redheaded boy-wonder playing guitar for a rock band while that old moron, Clara Edwards, tried to get him to pay more attention to his schoolwork. These episodes suck. Dont bother watching them.

8. Opie Wasn't Cute Anymore

He was an adolescent and extremely awkward. I believe that everything changed after the black-and-white episode, Opie the Birdman, in Season 4. The innocence of the boy seen in the episode titled Opie's Charity was gone forever. After that, he was a jealous (episode 110), egotistical (episode 190), lying (episode 239) little turd.

7. Floyd Left

Howard McNear, who played the town barber Floyd Lawson, suffered a stroke early on in the series. After that, he was only filmed sitting down and his mannerisms changed considerably. This new Floyd was funny but for entirely different reasons. Despite his condition, he frequently appeared on the show until he suffered another stroke and was forced to call it quits before the start of the final season. His shop was then given to Emmett, of Emmett's Fixit Shop fame. Emmett never uttered one funny line on the entire show. When Floyd left, any possibility for a humorous situation disappeared. If a colored episode is on and Floyd isn't in it, dont bother.

6. Warren Ferguson

The writers of the show tried to replace Barney Fife with a similar by-the-books deputy who would let no crime go unpunished. Unfortunately, Warren was not funny. He was a straight-man. The reason why Andy and Barney worked was because Andy was the straight-man and Barney was the clown. You can't have two people on the screen who aren't trying to be funny! That is why Warren was dropped in the middle of the Sixth season. It is important to note that Jack Burns (who played Warren) was very funny and even went on become the head writer for the Muppet Show.

5. Andy Was Forced to Cover His Southern Accent

Listen to his dialogue in Seasons 1-5 compared to Seasons 6-8. It is like night and day. This falls under the same crap described in #10 but it was so bad that it needed its own section higher up on the list.

4. Goober Was No Gomer

Don't get me wrong. I love several episodes where Goober is the main attraction. I wouldn't take a bag of severed leprechaun heads for my VHS tape of the Goober Takes the Car Apart episode. But as soon as the show went to color, they had taken the character as far as it could without being annoying. See Episodes 186, 196, or 199 for proof. I think the problem was that he was an idiot but not a complete idiot. I mean, he has the ability to take a car apart and put it back together again several times within the span of a single episode. Gomer, on the other hand, was a complete and total idiot. He was so much of an idiot that his idiotic exploits forced the creation of his own spin-off show, which was very popular during its five year run.

3. Howard Sprague, the County Clerk

Here was a middle-aged man who lived with his mother and had a boring job. I felt sorry for Howard. He tried to move to an island in the Caribbean and he was miserable. Then, he moved back to Mayberry to continue his sad, boring life. He even turned away Millie, the only girl who ever loved him. Here was another character who wasn't funny and delivered lines that were followed by a laugh-track despite the fact that they weren't jokes. Even the episode that featured Howard as a stand-up comedian on Colonel Tims Talent Time wasn't funny. I will admit that I am a little jealous of the bachelor pad that he had in Episode 246.

2. Everett Greenbaum, Jim Fritzell, and Harvey Bullock Quit

The three names associated with the best Andy Griffith Show episodes are Everett Greenbaum, Jim Fritzell, and Harvey Bullock. They wrote some of the most memorable moments in sitcom history. Read the book Mayberry 101 to get the inside scoop on the episodes they wrote. When they left the show, a new team of writers came in who were all too willing to give the CBS executives the show they wanted, a sappy and dramatic piece of crap.

1. No Barney Fife!!!

When the show began, Andy Griffith had only planned to do the show for five years. With this in mind, Don Knotts signed a movie contract that would begin as soon as the fifth year was over. Andy later decided to continue the show but Don Knotts couldn't get out of the movie contract. Despite his 5 guest appearances, the show never recovered. Bernard P. Fife (or Bernard Milton Fife/Bernard Oliver Fife due to inconsistencies over the years) was too important to the show to lose. I will say that I love The Incredible Mr. Limpet and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken which were filmed as a result of this awful movie contract.



If it's any help, my cousin pointed out that the colored episodes are much better when you turn the color all the way down on your TV. For some reason, your brain tries to trick you into thinking the episode is funnier than it actually is. Try it sometime or just watch the 700 Club like I'm forced to do some mornings. God, I need cable.