Barney and the Choir (TAGS Episode)

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Episode Info

Barney and the Choir

  • S2.E20
  • Filmed: 52
  • Aired: 52
  • Original Air Date: 1962/02/19
  • Writer(s): Jack Elinson and Charles Stewart
  • Director: Bob Sweeney

Plot Summary

When the awful sound coming from the Mayberry choir is narrowed down to Barney, the members decide they must get rid of him. Since no one has the heart to do it, they set him up telling him he is singing into a supersensitive microphone, while someone else is actually singing the part backstage.

Summary

The episode begins when the Mayberry choir director, John Masters, is in need of a tenor. Without hearing him sing, he accepts Barney Fife into the choir. Barney is thrilled and extremely confident in his singing ability.

At rehearsal, it becomes painfully obvious that Barney is terribly off-key, disrupting the entire choir.

  • His loud, shrill singing throws everyone off
  • The choir members are frustrated
  • Barney is completely unaware of the problem

Both the choir and Andy Taylor realize they have a serious issue—especially with a performance coming up. Andy and John Masters try various ways to handle the situation without hurting Barney’s feelings:

  • Subtle hints
  • Avoiding rehearsals
  • Trying to redirect him

Nothing works—Barney remains enthusiastic and determined to sing. Andy devises a clever scheme:

  • Barney is told he will be a featured soloist
  • He is instructed to sing very softly into a “sensitive” microphone
  • In reality, the microphone is dead and not plugged into the sound system
  • A real singer (Glen Cripe) performs backstage into a live microphone

Barney believes the powerful, beautiful voice he hears is his own.

During the concert:

  • Barney “sings” quietly into the dead mic
  • The hidden singer provides the real vocals
  • The audience is impressed

Barney is thrilled, thinking he delivered a great performance.

Afterward, Andy tells Barney that because he won a prize for his singing, he is now considered a “professional” and therefore can’t sing with the amateur choir anymore.

Barney accepts this—and leaves the choir voluntarily.

Odd Facts Known by Few

  • Don Knotts sang off-key, on purpose. The evidence that he could correctly sing on key was shown in the episodes "The Guitar Player" and "Man in a Hurry.”
  • In The Manhunt, Otis says he is in a choir, but he doesn't appear to be in this episode.
  • This is the first appearance of John Masters, Mayberry Choir Director (and part-time hotel clerk).
  • The choir's selection, "Welcome, Sweet Springtime/"good ol' 14-A" is a real song. It was composed in 1884 by Michael Watson. Also known as "Voices in the Woods," the melody was later adapted into Anton Rubinstein's "Melody In F." It shows up twice in the film Rhapsody in Blue (1945), about the life of George Gershwin.
  • Actor Olan Soule made his first appearance as John Masters, Mayberry's Choir Director. He also was the voice-over narrator of several The Andy Griffith Show (1960) sponsor spots that aired after the end-credits during season 3 as well as the voice of Batman in the 1970's "Superfriends" cartoon among many.
  • John Masters stated (off camera) that "Ben Cripe is not a tenor". In reality, Delos Jewkes (who played Ben Cripe) had s singing range capable of going five full octaves below high C. This means that he could sing near the limits of human hearing, and could have handled the tenor assignment.
  • Delos Jewkes was the voice of God on Mt. Sinai (But not for the burning bush scene which Charlton Heston dubbed) in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments"; In "The Wizard of Oz" he performed as the Munchkin voices


More Information

Character List

  • Andy Griffith - Andy Taylor
  • Don Knotts - Barney Fife
  • Ronny Howard - Opie Taylor
  • Frances Bavier - Aunt Bee Taylor
  • Betty Lynn - Thelma Lou
  • Olan Soule - John Masters
  • Delos Jewkes - Glenn Cripe
  • Enrico Ricardo - choir member
  • Barry O'Hara - choir member
  • Tom Peters - choir member
  • William Parsons - choir member
  • Marjorie McKay - choir member
  • Jeanne Determan - choir member
  • Beatrice Fish - choir member
  • Reene Aubry - choir member
  • undetermined - Hazel
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