ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW - DVD review

If Frank Capra had ever worked in television, I'm guessing he would have produced something along the lines of "The Andy Griffith Show," a folksy, feel-good, homespun situation comedy that offered an idealized portrait of American small-town life and reveled in family values long before the Republicans co-opted them for political gain.

Andy Taylor (Griffith) was the sheriff in the town of Mayberry, N.C., near the big city of Raleigh, while his deputy was Cousin Barney Fife (Don Knotts). A widower, Andy lived with his seven-year-old son, Opie (cute-as-a-button Ronny Howard), and the Aunt who raised him, Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier), who's now raising another generation of Taylor men. But the minor characters were as endearing as the stars in this prolonged fable about the benefits of country life. Even the town drunk, Otis Campbell (Hal Smith), was lovable, and one of the characters went on to star in his own series and spawn a new word in the lexicon of derogatory terms for country folk: Gomer (Jim Nabors), who brought a little bit of Mayberry to the United States Marine Corps. Knotts, meanwhile, would graduate to a film career that would rival Howard's—who, of course, would go on to "Happy Days," and even happier ones as a respected director.

"Andy Griffith" was a fixture on Monday nights, and it finished in the Top-10 shows every year of its run. The second season saw it ranked #7, the second highest sitcom after "Hazel." In the show's final season it ranked #1, with nearly a third of the nation tuning in to watch one of television's most beloved series—one that has thrived in reruns as well.

What made the show work as well as it did was the believable relationships that the characters displayed. We had no problem whatsoever believing that Andy and Barney were real law enforcement officers who were fond of each other, or that Opie was Andy's son, that Floyd Lawson (Howard McNear) really was a small-town barber, Howard Sprague (Jack Dodson) was a small-town clerk, and Thelma Lou (Betty Lynn) was a small-town girl who had a big enough heart to date the bumbling Barney. Andy, who never carried a gun unless he was after escaped criminals, was a living and breathing Norman Rockwell figure, a Yoda-wise father-figure to the entire town, and someone who always could figure out how to help someone solve a problem or behave the right way.

But be advised that this was North Carolina in the fifties, and so Andy and a number of others on the show light up cigarettes or pipes.

The 31 episodes from Season Two include one that was ranked the all-time favorite by fans in a TVLand poll: "The Pickle Story," were Aunt Bee's kerosene-tasting cukes put the men in her life in a real pickle. Tell her how awful her pickles are, or find a way to get rid of them. There are other classic episodes as well, and, best of all, plenty of episodes this season that were never overexposed in syndication.

Here's the rundown:

1) "Opie and the Bully"—When a bully hits Opie up for his milk money, Andy uses one of his stories to inspire his son to take a stand.

2) "Barney's Replacement"—When the state's attorney's office sends a man to Mayberry to learn law enforcement as a "free" deputy, Barney feels threatened.

3) "Andy and the Woman Speeder"—Beauty brings out the beast in everyone as Andy's case crumbles.

4) "Mayberry Goes Bankrupt"—In one of many feel-good, little-man-against-the-system plots, a resident who's evicted gets to turn the tables on the town when he discovers a bond his granddaddy bought.

5) "Barney on the Rebound"—One fight with Thelma Lou and Barney is ripe for the plucking—only it's a con-artist who's pulling his feathers.

6) "Opie's Hobo Friend"—In this frequently syndicated episode, Buddy Ebsen makes an appearance as a hobo who starts to have an influence on young Opie.

7) "Crime-Free Mayberry"—When an FBI man comes to Mayberry and announces that it's the most crime-free city in the U.S., the whole town wants to celebrate—except Andy, whose suspicions help him catch a few cons.

8) "The Perfect Female"—This one ought to be titled "The Perfect Male," because it's a real feminist episode in 1961 where Andy is man enough to settle for second in the battle of the sexes.

9) "Aunt Bee's Brief Encounter"—Veteran character actor Edgar Buchanan guests as a drifter/handyman who charms Aunt Bee but raises Andy's suspicions.

10) "The Clubmen"—Andy and Barney are invited to join an exclusive club, but of course Barney screws things up by trying too hard to fit in and impress everyone.

11) "The Pickle Story"—Somewhere in Oregon there's a fellow who's got a jar of kerosene-tasting pickles, handed to him as an "award" for safe driving in North Carolina—and all because Aunt Bee doesn't know how to can diddly.

12) "Sheriff Barney"—Barney has to deal with moonshiners and all sorts of things when Andy gives him a taste of "sheriffin'" so that he can decide whether to accept the offer of a job in nearby Greendale.

13) "The Farmer Takes a Wife"—"Gilligan's Island" skipper Alan Hale, Jr. guests as a man who comes to Mayberry to find a suitable wife, and complicates matters when he decides Barney's girl is the one for him.

14) "Keeper of the Flame"—Opie joins a secret club, but things go awry when a barn burns to the ground.

15) "Bailey's Bad Boy"—A classic episode starring Bill Bixby ("The Incredible Hulk") as a spoiled brat who threatens to have his influential dad make trouble for Andy and Barney unless charges against him are dropped.

16) "The Manicurist"—Barbara Eden ("I Dream of Jeannie") guests as a manicurist who arouses the Mayberry men but rouses the women to protest.

17) "The Jinx"—In this funny episode, after Barney declares Henry Bennett a jinx, Andy tries to prove him wrong.

18) "Jailbreak"—Barney allows a criminal to escape their temporary custody, and the state police are called in to assist in the manhunt.

19) "A Medal for Opie"—Barney tries to help Opie train for the annual Sheriff's Boys Day race.

20) "Barney and the Choir"—Another classic episode, as the one sour note coming from the Mayberry Choir is hypersensitive Barney's.

21) "Guest of Honor"—When Mayberry decides to give the key to the city to the first person entering town on Founder's Day, it's unfortunately a pickpocket.

22) "The Merchant of Mayberry"—Weaver's Department Store gets some competition, as Andy finds himself in the middle.

23) "Aunt Bee the Warden"—Another funny one, with overcrowing at the jail leading to the town drunk, Otis, being detained at the Taylor household.

24) "The Country Nurse"—When a county nurse arrives in town and needs to inoculate everyone against tetanus, it takes the sheriff to help her get moonshiner Rafe Hollister.

25) "Andy and Barney in the Big City"—Andy and Barney go to Raleigh, where they get involved in a cat-and-mouse game between a jewel thief and a hotel detective. Arte Johnson ("Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In") guests.

26) "Wedding Bells for Aunt Bee"—When Aunt Bee feels she's cramping Andy's style and keeping him from finding a wife, she invents a beau to get her out of the house and Andy's life.

27) "Three's a Crown"—Barney interferes when Andy tries to court county nurse Mary Simpson.

28) "The Bookie Barber"—Another funny episode that finds Floyd the barber expanding his haircutting business, with hair-raising results. His new barber is actually a bookie.

29) "Andy on Trial"—When a newspaper publisher is busted for speeding, he sends an undercover reporter to Mayberry to get the dirt on Andy and Barney.

30) "Cousin Virgil"—Michael J. Pollard ("Bonnie & Clyde") guests as Barney's awkward cousin whose every action seems to bring disaster.

31) "Deputy Otis"—When Otis gets a letter that his brother's planning to visit town, Andy and Barney have to put him to work because he's told his brother that he's a deputy, not the town drunk.

All-in-all, it's roughly 13 hours of homespun entertainment, with Griffith's easy manner and Solomon-like wisdom a kind of panacea for all that ails.

Video: Some of the episodes show their age, with occasional flickers of dust and dirt and graininess, but by and large the quality is quite good. The show was telecast in black and white, and this dvd preserves the 1.33:1 aspect ratio, and the episodes are cleaner and clearer than what was broadcast in reruns.

Audio: The soundtrack appears to be Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, but the quality is decent, even during Andy's frequent guitar-playing and singing interludes.

Extras: Usually on a Paramount disc there are no extras, and seldom even an annotated list of episodes, so it was a nice surprise to see some attention to detail for this set. The five discs come in three clear keep-cases with writing underneath each disc that gives the episodes, a brief summary, and original air dates. The discs themselves are pictures of pies in various states of "eatenness," and while there are no commentaries or making-of features, Paramount included original sponsor ads for each episode, with play-all or play-singly options. For those who weren't around to see them, these were little staged clips that ran as a postscript at the end of each show, where Andy and the other characters plugged products like Sanka coffee and Post cereals as they did a virtual epilogue to the episodes. It's great to have these as part of the package, because it gives a broader context to the show that links it to a time in American history that's as wholesome as the pies that decorate each disc label.

Bottom Line: "The Andy Griffith Show" remains solid entertainment 40 years after it aired, and the second season is as steady as any—and partly, it has to do with the gentle and wise tone. Mayberry is the kind of place where George Bailey would have found plenty of kindred spirits—even, in Barney Fife, one who every now and then wants to leave that "hick" town for more global adventures. And yet, it all comes back to values, and this show had them in spades.