Goober's Contest

"Gosh would I like to see Goober and Floyd and Andy and everybody again"---Howard Sprague quoting Ol' Sam
I like season 7; it was the final TAGS season, in my opinion, which offers stellar episodes. It also offers the final appearances of Otis, the Darlings, and Floyd (Howard McNear would die within a couple years of this season) and, as with season 6, two episodes with Barney Fife. Howard Sprague develops into a key character this season and some of my favorite color season episodes feature him. My favorite episodes include "The Lodge," "Big Fish in a Small Town," "Politics Begin at Home," "Don't Miss a Good Bet," and the very funny "Dinner at Eight." There are only a few episodes here that I really don't care for, one of which is "Opie Finds a Baby," which is just a little odd. Here's what Season 7 has to offer:

"Opie's Girlfriend": Opie hangs out with Helen's niece and gets a black eye in the process.

"The Lodge": My favorite of season 7 and one of my favorite color episodes. Howard wants to join the lodge but, thanks to his piece-of-work mother, one member...

Easily the Best of the 'Color' Seasons....
While season six (the first color season) of TAGS was obviously a transition period (the addition of color, the loss of Don Knotts), the show regains a bit of stride with season seven.

Some of my personal favorites include:

'The Ball Game' - Andy agrees to umpire a local youth baseball game and lives to regret it...

'Goober Makes History' - Goob forgets his razor while on a hunting trip and returns to town with a freshly grown beard and a colossal ego....(Favorite scene: When Andy 'sprints' from the courthouse to avoid another of 'Professor' Goober's long-winded speeches, all the while throwing poor Howard to the wolves!)

'Mind Over Matter' - Goober once again; this time afflicted with a 'psychosomatic illness' after a minor traffic accident...

'Otis the Deputy' - Otis and Howard form a pretty pathetic posse when tasked to save Andy from a pair of ruthless criminals. This was Hal Smith's final appearance as Otis...

Season 7 - great picture, excellent packaging - no extras
Got my season 7 yesterday (way to go Amazon) and am thrilled with it so far. Seeing these episodes uncut and restored is amazing - most of my old color episodes were taped from cable 20+ years ago and the clarity of the picture is amazing.

Example - In the episode "A visit to Raleigh" when Andy and Barney are staking out a grocery store, you can clearly see the products (even their labels) on the shelves. It's a beautiful thing. Also, in this episode the opening shows a busy downtown picture of Raleigh that was surely cut for syndication many years ago

So many good episodes - The Ball Game (written by Opie's real life Dad Rance Howard), The Lodge (where Howard tries to join the The Regal Order of the Door to Good Fellowship), Dinner at 8 (where Andy must eat 3 spaghetti dinners in 1 night), Big Fish in a Small Town (where Howard catches Old Sam, the legendary silver carp from Myers Lake), it's all good

Yes, there is no Barney, except for the 2 guest...

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