Irresistible Andy (TAGS Episode)

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Episode Info

Irresistible Andy

  • Filmed: 7
  • Aired: 5
  • Original Air Date: 1960/10/31
  • Writer(s): David Adler
  • Director: Don Weis

Plot Summary

Andy gets himself in his first jam with the opposite sex when he wrongly assumes Ellie is out to trap herself a husband. Andy tries to foil her plot when he sends three eligible Mayberry bachelors her way, but Opie helps Ellie uncover Andy's scheme.

Plot

Ellie accepts an invitation from Andy to the Church picnic and dance. Andy becomes convinced that Ellie and her uncle Fred are out to trap him into marriage. Aunt Bee asks him how he asked Ellie to the dance and he becomes convinced that Ellie is trying to set him up for marriage. Andy believes that the best way to thwart this desperate female hunter is to put her on the scent of other game. He even tells Opie that as well.

Andy convinces some of the young bachelors in town that Ellie is interested in them and sends them to court her in the hope of shifting her affections to someone else. Opie accidentally reveals the scheme to Ellie. Ellie confronts Andy by puttin castor Oil, mustard powder and milk of magnesia in his drink and tells Andy off. She insists she will go to the picnic with the first eligible bachelor to walk through her door. In walks Barney.

Andy realizes the error in his thinking and strives to make things right with Ellie.

Odd Facts Known by Few

  • This is the only episode where both Ellie and her uncle Fred appear together.
  • Ellie appears in most episodes without him and Fred appeared in one episode without Ellie: Those Gossipin' Men.
  • Mayberry has at least four different kinds of dances: Legion, Chamber of Commerce, Uplifters, and Church.
  • Andy calls Barney "The Adolphe Menjou of Mayberry" after he sees him all dressed up for the church picnic and dance. Menjou was voted Best Dressed Man in America nine times.
  • Barney mentions that he has been a deputy for a year and a half, but when he gets his watch on Barney's Physical (season 5,episode 2), it was engraved with five years. Then, on the episode Goodbye, Sheriff Taylor (season 5,episode 10), Andy says that he's been Sheriff of Mayberry for twelve years. The only real continuity problem was on the episode Citizen's Arrest (Season 4, epsiode 11) when Barney says that he's been in for ten years. Perhaps the line was somehow meant for Andy.
  • Since Barney is going to the dance with Ellie, Andy mentions swearing-in Mayberrian Jeff Pritchett as a temporary deputy to help Andy with directing traffic and keeping law and order at the event.
  • Andy says that Jim Summers always wins the sack race at the church picnic and dance. Jim runs the meat market, but is never seen in the series.
  • Ellie lives in the first house on Andy's street (known as house façade #1 on the 40 Acres backlot).
  • Actor Robert Easton (who played Pete Johnson - the eyelashes guy) was a dialect/accent coach early in his career.
  • This is the first time Barney is seen in his dapper Salt 'n' Pepper suit.

Notes

  • A painting is seen on the wall to the left of the Taylor's dining table. It is titled, "The Angelus, 1859" by French artist Jean Francois Millet. This artwork will eventually occupy the space above the fireplace in the living room. For now, a deer head holds that position.

Character List

  • Andy Griffith - Andy Taylor
  • Ronny Howard - Opie Taylor
  • Don Knotts - Barney Fife
  • Frances Bavier - Aunt Bee Taylor
  • Elinor Donahue - Ellie Walker
  • Harry Antrim - Fred Walker
  • Bill Mulliken - Franklin Pomeroy
  • Ray Lanier - Charlie Beasley
  • Robert Easton - Pete Johnson