Andy Griffith Show (DVD)
Paramount : The Complete 3rd Season
APPROX. 0 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 1962 - MPA RATING: NR
" The escaped female convict episode is perhaps the best in the show's eight-year run!
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17) "High Noon in Mayberry"—Another classic episode. Andy gets a letter from a man he wounded telling him he's coming to Mayberry. And Barney recruits Gomer and Otis to help him secretly protect Andy. But who'll protect Mayberry from them?
18) "The Loaded Goat"—Otis butts heads with a cell mate—a goat that ingested dynamite which was being held in protective custody until the danger "passed."
19) "Class Reunion"—Sometimes the best ideas turn out to be the worst, something proven when Andy and Barney decide to hold a class reunion.
20) "Rafe Hollister Sings"—Andy goes the Pygmalion route to try to clean up pig-farmer Hollister, who turns out to have the voice of an angel and the appearance of a devil. A classic because of the rivalry with Barney.
21) "Opie and the Spoiled Kid"—Opie's new friend, Arnold, teaches him to throw tantrums to get his way, which, of course, backfires in a big way.
22) "The Great Filling Station Robbery"—When the cleanest-cut "delinquent" you'd ever find is given a job at the filling station, Jimmy has to prove he's not a thief when things start disappearing.
23) "Andy Discovers America"—Helen Crump is introduced in this episode where Opie describes his teacher as a dragon lady, and Andy has to work overtime to keep her from quitting when he gives Opie the idea that history doesn't matter.
24) "Aunt Bee's Medicine Man"—Another very funny, classic episode finds Aunt Bee and her Ladies Aid Church Committee getting "Toot toot, Tootsie" schlockered on medicine sold by a slick traveling salesman-gigolo named Colonel Harvey.
25) "The Darlings Are Coming"—The classics keep coming this season, with the bluegrass-playing Darling family coming to Mayberry to await the arrival of only daughter Charlene's fiancée. Things go from wild to wilder when Charlene sets her sights on Andy instead.
26) "Andy's English Valet"—A tourist from England (Bernard Fox as Malcolm Merriweather) causes a traffic accident but can't pay damages, so Andy makes a decision he comes to regret: he lets the man work it off by being his valet.
27) "Barney's First Car"—Another classic episode, where Barney buys a lemon—a car so bad that the steering wheel even does strange things.
28) "The Rivals"—When Opie experiences unrequited puppy love, Barney lets him hang out with him and Thelma Lou (Betty Lynn), thinking it will raise his spirits. Instead, it raises his tiny libido . . . for Thelma Lou.
29) "A Wife for Andy"—Barney gathers all the single women in Mayberry together for a pick-out-a-wife party, but the guest of honor wants nothing to do with it.
30) "Dogs, Dogs, Dogs"—A state investigator's timing couldn't be worse. He's there at a time when Andy and Barney have gathered up a stray, marauding pack of hunting dogs and, not knowing what else to do with them during a storm, bring them back to the jail.
31) "Mountain Wedding"—Another classic episode. The popular Darlings make a repeat appearance, with Andy asked to help marry off Charlene to Dud Walsh before hillbilly lunatic Ernest T. Bass can kidnap her and marry her himself. Barney poses as a decoy bride, with hilarious results.
32) "The Big House"—A near-classic episode finds Barney messing up again when he mistakenly jails detectives from Tennessee with two big-time bandits, thinking they're the gang that had come to spring them.
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 features the usual TV 1.33:1 aspect ratio.
Audio: The soundtrack appears to be Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, and since it's mostly dialogue, I have no complaints.
Extras: This five-disc set, as with the first two seasons, comes in slim, clear keep-cases with a cardboard slip-case. It's unfortunate, though, that Paramount insists on two not-terribly-user-friendly practices. The full annotated descriptions of the episodes are printed underneath the discs, so you have to remove them in order to decide which episode to watch. And when you do pop the DVD in, a simple press of "menu" isn't enough to by-pass six promos. You have to keep pressing "next" to get to the menu. When will studios realize that this is okay for a single play or rental, but for repeat play, or for people who probably have the other TV-on-DVD sets, it's incredibly annoying and ineffective as a marketing strategy?
That said, the only extras on the set are original sponsor ads featuring the "players" doing commercials on the set, plugging products like Sanka coffee and Post cereals. But there are commercials on every disc, and they're full commercials, not just clips. As such, they have great, cultural value.
Bottom Line: This is classic television that both documents an innocent period in American life we'll never see again, and also illustrates how good writing and strong acting are timeless. And the escaped female convict episode is perhaps the best in the show's eight-year run!
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