Keeper of the Flame (TAGS Episode)

Episode Info

Keeper of the Flame

• Filmed: 46
• Aired: 46
• Original Air Date: 1962/01/08
• Writer(s): Jack Elinson and Charles Stewart
• Director: Bob Sweeney

Plot Summary

Opie is accepted as a member of a secret society called The Wildcats after he takes a sacred oath never to reveal the club secrets. Given the job of Keeper of the Flame, Opie is fingered as the guilty party when the barn that the club meets in burns to the ground. The fire was actually started by the barn's owner, farmer and moonshiner Jubal Foster. Not knowing this, Andy takes responsibility for the fire and is about to pay Foster for the value of the barn when Barney, having stumbled upon and unknowingly consumed some of Foster's moonshine, staggers out drunk.

Odd Facts Known by Few

• Actor Everett Sloane (Jubal) wrote the words to "The Fishin' Hole", the opening and closing music to The Andy Griffith Show. He also appeared in the movie "Citizen Kane".
• Actor Mark Rodney was in the movies "Con Air" and "The Hunt For Red October"

Character List

• Andy Griffith - Andy Taylor
• Don Knotts - Barney Fife
• Ronny Howard - Opie Taylor
• Frances Bavier - Aunt Bee Taylor
• Everett Sloane - Jubal Foster
• Flip Mark - leader of wildcats
• Grace Lenard - Celia (voice-over)
• Robert Gallagher - John (voice-over)
• Terry Dickinson - wildcat
• Mark Rodney - wildcat