Modified On August 8, 2012
We signed up for the streaming-only version of Netflix shortly after setting up our home in Vegas. In the four or five months since, we’ve watched a ton of documentaries and some movies when we get the chance (which isn’t often, as we’re so damned busy).
The Female Half was working out on the treadmill at the gym the other day when she noticed that the plasma screen was showing an old Andy Griffith Show episode. She had her headphones on, but she could tell that something funny was going on… Howard Sprague (Mayberry’s county clerk, played by Jack Dodson) was doing standup comedy. She caught the second half of the episode.
Turns out that Netflix offers all its streaming customers every damn episode of The Andy Griffith Show ever aired. We found it rather quickly… first off, it was in color, so we worked backward from the newer episodes.
It was Episode 27, Season 07, “Howard The Comedian.” (And it turns out you can watch the entire episode on Youtube! See below.)
Howard tears up the room while emceeing a recent “lodge meeting” and becomes the toast of the town for his deadpan delivery of old jokes and other drollery. Eventually, he’s encouraged by others to pursue this comedy thing further… and Opie suggests that Howard might represent Mayberry by appearing on regional television show “Colonel Tim’s Talent Time” as a comedian.
Howard agrees.
Later on, Opie, in the county clerk’s office to pay his annual “bicycle license fee” (WTF?) sees Howard sweating over his upcoming TV spot and suggests that he personalize his material and twist the old jokes (from his “Jokes For All Occasions” book) to be about the colorful characters that inhabit his hometown of Mayberry. He enthusiastically embraces this approach.
This proves to be his undoing.
His customized jokes cause trouble. All the subjects of his gentle ribbing– Goober, Aunt Bee, Miss Clara Edmonds, Floyd the Barber– take offense at being held up to ridicule. All except for Sheriff Andy Taylor.
When Howard triumphantly returns to Mayberry, he’s stunned to find that he’s shunned by all. Andy is puzzled by the reaction and their lack of a sense of humor. Howard is sickened by it and regretful.
The big twist is that all the subjects of his gibes quickly drop their objections when they become nearly as famous as Howard himself.
They then refuse to accept Howard’s apology and disingenuously insist that he honor his commitment to a second appearance on “Talent Time”– never explaining the reason for their change of heart. Indeed, they dream up all sorts of excuses while studiously avoiding the truth.
Not a fine moment for the citizens of Mayberry.
We were expecting to see the comedian shamed and humbled. Instead, we’re treated to rather shallow behavior by the comedian’s friends. Quite a different treatment of a situation that’s been dealt with on countless sitcoms through the past few decades. Maybe the reason that everything turned in favor of the comedian in this case is that the episode aired in 1967 and the star of the show was a comedian himself (as was executive producer Danny Thomas).
At the end, Andy can’t really explain to Opie exactly why everyone’s attitude changed so abruptly. He tries to couch it in terms of ego and pride, but he abandons the attempt.
And we suppose it would be hard to explain. The episode says far more about the audience members than about the comic.
It is also notable because it depicts a comedian in semi-rural North Carolina in 1967. He wows the lodge meeting by telling old jokes, he instantly garners the admiration of his friends for his bravado performance and he is immediately encouraged to pursue further opportunities– says Goober, “There’s no limit to how far a good comedian can go!” And he preps for his upcoming television debut by poring over a compendium of old jokes.
Strangely enough, in the next episode, he is depicted in a brief scene at the opening as working for Chuck Johnson! (Just how old is Chuck Johnson, anyway? We kid because we LOVE! If you object, we’ll change it to Tom Sobell!)