The Legend Of Barney Fife

"Mayberry Founders' Day: May Mayberry Never Founder"---Warren Ferguson
Season 6 saw major changes to The Andy Griffith Show. The main changes were that the shows were aired for the first time in color, Barney Fife was no longer a regular character, and characters Warren Ferguson (briefly) and Howard Sprague (`til the end of series and Mayberry RFD) would make their entrance. Many fans do not prefer the color seasons (some even refuse to watch them). I want to use this review and the reviews for seasons 7 and 8, to stick up for these seasons. For this review, I want to particularly defend a character who is often maligned: Deputy Warren Ferguson. He replaced Barney Fife for 11 episodes in season six until he was written out of the series (with no explanation) and never replaced. He was played by a very underrated actor, Jack Burns, who went on to be a variety show staple through the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of the comedy duo Burns and Schreiber (having their own show in 1973), and later was head writer for The Muppet Show and script...

Mayberry in color is still a great place to visit....
I have to disagree, at least somewhat, with all the reviewers and fans of TAGS who constantly criticize the color episodes (seasons 6-8, episodes 160-249). Though I have to agree the consistency of the scripts wasn't as good as seasons 1-5, there are some hidden 'gems' in each season, beginning with season 6.

Some of my personal favorites include:

ANDY'S RIVAL (EPISODE 163) - Great performance by veteran character actor Charles 'Wild Wild West' Aidman as a school teacher sent to Mayberry to teach Helen about a new grading system. Andy does a classic slow burn in several scenes as the seeds of jealousy are gradually planted, and Goober spats the classic line 'if you've seen one monster, you've seen them all' when reviewing the film 'The Monster From Mars'...

A WARNING FROM WARREN (EPISODE 169) - No, Jack Burns was no Don Knotts...not even close. But as Andy would say 'let's be fair about this thing'...the man was put in an IMPOSSIBLE situation. Firt...

No Barney but worth the watching
Unlike lots of folks, I hadn't seen TAGS since it originally aired, and hadn't thought much about it. My Michele got me seasons 1-5 as a gift and I sat down alone to watch them because the show went off the air the year before she was born and she has other interests. Just seeing these old shows and their respective commercials really brought back the memories of the Sixties to me.

I would have been content with this alone but after a time I notice my 8-yr-old was watching all the episodes with me and he became a huge fan and knew all the characters and, of course, his favorite was Barney. The fact they were B&W made no difference to him, he never mentioned it. Not soon after he started watching, Don Knotts passed away. Dad, why did Barney have to die, he asked me. And he was very upset. I brought up a current picture of Don Knotts on the PC and he was shocked to see he was old. Opie bald and past fifty shocked him even more! I was finally able to make him understand the...

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