>>>My biggest tearing up moment comes at the end of the episode when Barney
returned to Mayberry for a visit and falls for Tina Andrews. In the
epilogue Andy and Aunt Bea are on the porch and Andy is reading a letter
from Barney. Aunt Bee comments on how much she misses Barney and Andy
agrees that there is only one Barney Fife.<<<
I have always thought this epilogue to be one of the most *real* moments in the
entire series (which is saying a lot, I think). Rarely do the primary TAGS
actors appear to be "just acting," but in this epilogue especially, I get the
impression that their brief dialogue isn't really acting at all; that they are
simply verbalizing how they (and we) all have responded to Barney's departure
from Mayberry.
Ken, I appreciated your thoughts. I said once before on the digest a few years
ago that I see a difference in Barney's character after he leaves Mayberry and
moves to Raleigh. During his years in Mayberry, Barney was often the butt of
jokes ("Barney just tried to arrest Mr. Meldrim for breaking into this own
bank!"), but he always managed to redeem himself in the eyes of the
townspeople, usually with Andy's help. Though he didn't always earn the
respect and admiration he would have liked from the residents of Mayberry, he
always had their affection and support. When Barney (figuratively) went out on
a tightrope and made a misstep, his favorite girl Thelma Lou and his friends
Andy, Aunt Bee, Gomer, etc., were always there as his safety net. Barney had
security in Mayberry (unlike the Mayberry Security Bank, but that's a different
story). He was a big fish in a little pond, and it suited him quite nicely.
He was a comic figure, but a loveable one.
Barney's departure from Mayberry left him without the support system he so
desperately needed. He was a little fish in a big pond, always in danger of
being swallowed up by a bigger fish. Sometimes those bigger fish were the bad
guys (Ma Parker's family), and sometimes they were the good guys (the captain
of the Raleigh police force, the other detectives, even the secretaries!). In
Raleigh, Barney seemed to have no real allies. One feels that even the change
in the secretaries' attitude toward him at the end of "A Visit to Barney Fife"
was only temporary. His bravado had been diminished. Though he tried to put
up a front for Andy, we sense he was not even fooling himself now. There was a
sadness behind his eyes that we didn't see in the Mayberry Barney. He was more
vulnerable and without any protection. Thelma Lou was married. Teena Andrews
rejected him. His substitute family in Raleigh, the Parkers, were only using
him. His co-workers either treated him with disdain or simply ignored him.
His only successes were achieved with Andy's help. Obviously, the writers had
a lot to do with this, but I think Don Knotts himself realized that the
character of Barney Fife could not flourish outside the nurturing environment
of Mayberry, but only just survive, and so he played him as not merely a comic
figure but a tragic one as well.
That's why "Return to Mayberry" is so important -- it brings Barney's story
full circle. He is once more in his home town with his friends, including
Andy. He and Thelma Lou are finally married, and all is right with the world.
Barney is back where he belongs, which is how we will always remember him.
Thelma Lou
(Janet)
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