ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW - DVD review

Mayberry without Barney Fife? Say it ain't so!

But the sixth season of "The Andy Griffith Show" was a transition one for the show and for Don Knotts, who "returns" in just a single episode as the popular, bumbling, by-the-book deputy loved not only by average Joes and Janes across America, but by the critics as well. Knotts earned an Emmy for his supporting work in the family-oriented comedy each of the first three seasons that the show aired. And if the Awards format hadn't been changed the following year so that outstanding actors for comedy and drama were lumped into the same category, and the year after that eliminated altogether, he probably would have kept on winning. How good was Knots? For a single episode this sixth season, "The Return of Barney Fife," he picked up his third Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy. And the seventh season, when he returned for another episode, "Barney Comes to Mayberry," he earned his fourth Emmy.

It's tough to lose a personality of that caliber—and I say that as a sad pun, since Knotts died earlier this year. You can't really replace him, and fans of the show will certainly remember how the short-lived Warren Ferguson (Jack Burns) era as the new deputy fell way short. The world was changing. This would be Thelma Lou's (Betty Lynn's) last season as well playing Barney's girlfriend. Sheriff Andy Taylor (Griffith) seemed crankier this season, his son Opie was older (though they still made Ron Howard walk barefoot in the opening whistle-on-the-way-to-the-lake title sequence), and Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier) gets even more ruffled than usual. So the Taylors do what any TV family does when the going gets tough—they go to Hollywood.

The biggest compensation for the loss of Barney Fife was seeing what Mayberry and all its regulars—like Andy's girl Helen Crump (Aneta Corsaut), Barney's girl Thelma Lou (Betty Lynn), Goober (George Lindsey), Howard (Jack Dodson), town drunk Otis (Hal Smith), and nutcase Ernest T. Bass (Howard Morris)—looked like in COLOR.

Here are the specifics on the episodes, which, played back-to-back, will give Mayberry addicts 12 hours and 47 minutes of homespun, front-porch entertainment:

1) "Opie's Job"—In the solid opener, Opie competes with another boy for a job at the local grocers after he trashes his new bike while riding no-handed to impress a girl. See what I mean about Opie getting older?

2) "Andy's Rival"—When a male member of the Raleigh school board visits Helen, Andy (and Aunt Bee) get jealous.

3) "Malcolm at the Crossroads"—Ernest T. Bass and Malcolm Merriweather (Bernard Fox) compete for the job of school crossing guard. Though a guard who throws rocks at cars that slow down isn't exactly a tough act to follow.

4) "Aunt Bee, the Swinger"—In an entertaining episode, Aunt Bee gets sore—feet, that is—when she has a fling with a retired congressman.

5) "The Bazaar"—New deputy Warren makes his debut and arrests the little old ladies in town for gambling at a charity bingo event.

6) "A Warning from Warren"—Warren tries to keep Andy and Helen from going on a picnic when he has a premonition that something bad will happen.

7) "Off the Hollywood"—The gang heads to Hollywood when a studio decides to make a story about the small-town sheriff.

8) "The Taylors in Hollywood"—Aunt Bee hates the way Andy's character is portrayed in "Sheriff Without a Gun," but loves the way she comes off. One of the more fun episodes.

9) "The Cannon"—Warren is so hell-bent on firing an old Civil War cannon for the town's big Founder's Day celebration that he doesn't realize he's letting crooks into the State Mobile Museum.

10) "A Man's Best Friend"—When Andy learns that Opie and his friend played a prank on Goober by convincing him his dog can talk, Andy turns the tables . . . and turns ventriloquist.

11) "Aunt Bee Takes a Job"—When Aunt Bee gets a job at a printing shop and counterfeit bills start turning up, Andy suspects the job ain't exactly legit.

12) "The Church Organ"—Clara Edwards needs a new organ, and Andy tries to get it for her in this show about values . . . and the relative value of money.

13) "Girl Shy"—Warren sleepwalks (big surprise) and makes a pass at Helen while he's in lala land, but it gets worse.

14) "Otis, the Artist"—Warren enrolls Otis in an art class to rehabilitate the town drunk, but it turns out Otis is a genius on canvas only when he is drunk.

15) "The Return of Barney Fife"—Barney comes to town for a high school reunion and sees Thelma Lou again . . . and her new husband?

16) "Lost and Found"—Warren and Goober complicate things further when Aunt Bee collects the insurance money on an antique brooch she later finds.

17) "Wyatt Earp Rides Again"—Andy gets challenged to an old-fashioned duel by a man claiming to be a descendant of Wyatt Earp.

18) "Aunt Bee Learns to Drive"—It's about time, you say? Not after you watch her in action.

19) "Look, Paw, I'm Dancing"—Helen suggests that she and Andy chaperone Opie's school dance to help Opie get over his fear of dancing, but it turns out to be a like-father-like-son situation.

20) "The Gypsies"—Well, the Darlings aren't around, so somebody goofy has to come to town. In this episode, a band of gypsies curses Andy after he busts them for selling junk.

21) "Eat Your Heart Out"—Goober likes the new waitress at the Diner, but it turns out she likes Andy.

22) "A Baby in the House"—Aunt Bee's niece has a baby, and she just won't stop crying when Aunt Bee picks her up. So how is she to take care of it?

23) "The County Clerk"—Andy and Helen set Howard up on a blind date, but his personality gets in the way.

24) "The Foster Lady"—Aunt Bee is excited to be asked to sell her favorite furniture polish in a commercial, but it turns out that she's going to be made fun of. An entertaining episode.

25) "Goober's Replacement"—And Gomer begat Goober, and Goober begets big trouble when he lets his girlfriend fill in for him at the filling station . . . and business booms.

26) "The Battle of Mayberry"—In another memorable episode, Opie discovers something about the town's history that nobody wants to hear.

27) "A Singer in Town"—Aunt Bee the songwriter? In this episode, a rock star wants to turn Aunt Bee's ballad into a rocker, but Aunt Bee isn't too thrilled about it.

Video: "The Andy Griffith Show" really looks great in color—with surprisingly less grain than I expected, and much more natural colors than in some of the other shows that went from B&W to color. The aspect ratio is, of course, 1.33:1.

Audio: The audio is nothing special—the usual Dolby Digital Mono you get from shows of this era. But the tonal quality is pretty good, with a deep timbre that isn't too full of bass—just enough to give it a round tone.

Extras: There are no extras.

Bottom Line: You can take the boy out of Mayberry, but you can't take Mayberry out of the boy. Don Knotts practically proved it when he left the show to develop and star in his own comedy-variety show for CBS's rival network, NBC. In "The Don Knotts Show," a single-season flop that finally aired in 1970, Knotts alluded to the show with his weekly segment, "The Front Porch," in which he and guest stars sat in rocking chairs and talked—the way many episodes of "The Andy Griffith Show" would end. And as if to give a hint of why he walked away from one of TV's most successful and beloved sitcoms, Knotts had a continuing skit that was built around the frustrations of filming a weekly TV show.

The sixth season of "The Andy Griffith Show" suffers without Knotts, but there are still plenty of entertaining episodes—especially the ones without Knotts' replacement. But of course, fans of the series will want to add this one to their collections, because the Hollywood segments and "The Foster Lady" are classics, and a handful of others are very, very good. Overall, this season merits somewhere between a 6 and a 7, but how can you go low when after five seasons there's finally color? It's positively Oz-like . . . and Mayberry isn't all that far from Oz, when you get right down to it.