Andy Griffith Show (DVD)

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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.