Having received "The Andy Griffith Show" 50th Anniversary DVD, I've enjoyed
watching it and (for the first time in years) watching "Return to
Mayberry." I was lucky to watch it with a fresh set of eyes, as my fiancee
Allison had never seen it and loved it, especially Opie becoming a father and
Barney finally going down the aisle with Thelma Lou. Some things I noticed:
*It was nice to see some characters who rarely or never worked together in
the original series, spend so much time together. We got to see Howard and
Barney together a lot, and Gomer and Goober may have actually spent more
time together in the movie than they did in "TAGS" and "Gomer Pyle"
combined. It's a shame we never saw the Pyle cousins together more often in
the
series, as they seemed to have a lot of chemistry.
*Gomer and Goober, in fact, seemed to have some of the very best lines.
My favorite: Goober insists on having his picture made with a small fish,
saying "It's more for him than it is for me."
*Gomer says "Surprise, surprise, surprise !" when Andy first drives up.
That was a "Gomer Pyle, USMC" catchphrase, and I'm not sure (I know I'll be
corrected if I'm wrong) that he ever said it at all on "The Andy Griffith
Show."
*The G&G Garage is surprisingly, a new business at the time of the movie.
So what did Gomer and Goober do during all those years from 1971 to 1986?
Was Gomer just discharged from the Marines?
*The set designer did an especially convincing job re-creating the Mayberry
courthouse and the row of shops next to it, even if the rest of the town
didn't quite lay out the same (the hotel, the drug store, the street that
runs past the courthouse, etc). It was wise to set a lot of the action
around the lake since the Franklin Reservoir is still very much there (unlike
the original town set).
*The interior of the courthouse is convincingly re-created, yet we never
see the jail cells. The often-changing map that hung behind the desk in the
original series, is, in the movie, a map of both North and South Carolina.
*Barney is still using a candlestick phone in the courthouse (in the 911
era!), but I don't remember anyone mentioning Sarah. At one point Barney
refers to a TV reporter by accident as "Floyd" (the reporter's name is Lloyd),
the only time Mr. Lawson's name is ever mentioned.
I wonder who was living the old 1960s era Taylor home in 1986? It wasn't
Opie, he lived way out in the country in a house with a long driveway.
*Come to think of it, we never see the inside of Opie's house. But a lot
of action takes place on the porch and in the driveway. And either Opie or
his next door neighbor, has horses in a pasture.
*I love how the only original series clip we ever see is the open with Andy
and Opie going to the fishing hole and Opie throwing his rock. I loved
hearing the characters describe the memories from the episodes, it worked a
lot better than just injecting the clips and allowed us to spend more time
with the modern-day incarnations of the characters.
*I lost count of all the previous episodes mentioned in the movie. They
include "Opie the Birdman," "The Fun Girls," "Barney and the Choir" (they
even mention good ol' 14A), "Quiet Sam" and "The Return of Barney Fife."
Andy invoking Opie's releasing of the baby birds pretty much caused a flood (of
tears) as my girlfriend and I watched.
*I was surprised Sam and Millie didn't at least put in a cameo. It's not
like Ken Berry wasn't available.
*For us gearheads: Barney's 1981 Chevrolet Malibu squad car is the only
Mayberry squad car not to be a Ford (or a full size, for that matter). In
fact, Mayberry has evolved from a Ford town to a Chevy town (or at least
General Motors; Opie's car, and the one driven by the restaurant owner, are
both
Oldsmobiles). The Darlings have the distinction of being the only
characters who are actually seen driving the same make and model vehicle (1920s
Ford Model AA truck) as the original series.
*Is it just me, or was the scene where Opie crashes his car into a tree, a
shot-by-shot re-creation of when he crashes his bike into a tree at the
beginning of "Opie's Job"?
A great last, lingering look at our beloved town, in some ways changed, in
some ways not, in 20 years. It's been said that anything that shatters the
illusion of non-change in Mayberry can be jarring, but the movie ends up
doing it in a gentle and natural "circle of life" way. Well done.
Dixon
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