Andy the Matchmaker (TAGS Episode)

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Episode Info

Andy the Matchmaker

  • S1.E7
  • Filmed: 9
  • Aired: 7
  • Original Air Date: 1960/11/14
  • Writer(s): Arthur Stander
  • Director: Don Weis

Plot Summary

In the show's first try at finding a girl for Barney, the deputy is brought together with Miss Rosemary after Andy tricks him by deciding to declare for her himself.

Summary

After being humiliated by a piece of humorous graffiti, Barney decides to turn in his badge because of Mayberry's lack of any real crime. He saw Opie with the piece of chalk in his hand but Opie said that some bigger kids wrote it. Opie claims that he wasn't the one who wrote it and Andy believes him. Not because Opie is his child but because Opie can't write yet.

Unable to change Barney's mind about resigning, Andy decides to stage a robbery at Walker's Drugstore. Andy believe it will give Barney back his confidence. Andy also encourages Barney to ask out Miss Rosemary to help brighten his mood but he won't do it because he's feeling too low.

Barney ends up messing up Andy's plan by making an actual arrest in the fake robbery. While stalling for time and trying to figure out what to do, Andy runs a background check on the suspect Barney arrested and finds out he's actually a wanted man. Having captured a real crook, and with a little tricking by Andy, Barney works up the confidence to ask Miss Rosemary out.

Odd Facts Known by Few

  • Barney tenders his resignation for the first time on film in this episode.
  • Miss Rosemary (Amzie Strickland) makes her one and only appearance in this episode. However, the Amzie Strickland would appear later in the series as various characters.
  • Miss Rosemary was Barney's first love interest on the series. Barney would move on to court Hilda Mae a few episodes later. By the end of the first season, he was keeping steady company with Thelma Lou and would sometimes go out with Juanita. Despite being pretty green with girls in this episode, Barney would soon transform into quite the ladies man.
  • Aunt Bee does not appear in this episode. It is the first episode in which she was absent.
  • Only episode in which The Snappy Lunch is mentioned by name (at 22:02 into the episode). The Snappy Lunch was and is still actual resturant in Andy Griffith's hometown of Mt. Airy, North Carolina and is the only Mt. Airy business to be mentioned on the show. They are famous for their porkchop sandwiches.
  • Actor Jack Mann (Tracy Crawford) started his career as a stand up comic. He appeared with Andy and Don in the movie "No Time For Sergeants" (1958).
  • After Barney reads his poem Andy can be seen trying not to laugh.
  • In this episode we learn Andy's favorite kind of pie is Blueberry.
  • Inside one of the cells hangs a calendar where the 1st of the month falls on a Sunday. The best guess would be that it is on December 1957 because in the backroom we see a calendar from January 1957 on the wall. That calendar displays to the right of the main month, a small version of the month of December 1956 and below that February 1957.

Quotes

"There once was a deputy called Fife,
Who carried a gun and a knife,
The gun was all dusty,
The knife was all rusty,
Cause he never caught a crook in his life."

Character List

  • Andy Griffith - Andy Taylor
  • Ronny Howard - Opie Taylor
  • Don Knotts - Barney Fife
  • Frances Bavier - Aunt Bee Taylor
  • Elinor Donahue - Ellie Walker
  • Jack Mann - Tracy Crawford
  • Amzie Strickland - Miss Rosemary