Bargain Day (23 Mar. 1964)

To save money, Aunt Bee buys a side of beef from a discount butcher shop. When she gets it home, the freezer doesn't work right but she won't pay 'the man' from Mount Pilot to come and fix it.

Director:

Jeffrey Hayden

Writer:

John Whedon

Stars:

Andy Griffith, Ron Howard, Frances Bavier

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Andy Griffith	...	Sheriff Andy Taylor
Ron Howard	...	Opie Taylor (as Ronny Howard)
Frances Bavier	...	Aunt Bee Taylor
Frank Ferguson	...	Mr. Foley
Hope Summers	...	Clara Johnson
Jim Nabors	...	Gomer Pyle

Storyline

Aunt Bee has been on a cost-cutting binge of late including buying Opie some too large shoes and sugar in bulk, all to save a few dollars. When she hears that the new butcher shop in town is selling beef at a saving of 10 cents a pound, she's immediately interested. The only catch is that to get the saving, you have to buy a whole side of beef - 150 lbs or so. That's fine with Bee since she has a freezer - mind you she hasn't used it for years and when it breaks down, she refuses to call the repairman from Mount Pilot because of the cost. She left with the embarrassing choice of going back to her old butcher, Mr. Foley, for help. It also leaves Andy with only one choice.

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Genres:

Comedy | Family

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 March 1964 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Desilu Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mayberry Enterprises

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

When they are on the porch with the freezer in the evening and it starts sparking, it is sparking directly behind and above the freezer. On the next shot of the porch in the morning, there is no electric plug or for that matter anything in the area where the sparking occurring. The outlet it is plugged into is on the right side of where the freezer sits on the porch.

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Quotes

Sheriff Andy Taylor: Call the man!

User Reviews

"Aunt Bee - CALL the man!"

This is a classic episode from the Andy Griffith show and one of my favorites. It features the infamous line "Call the man" that Andy repeats numerous times to his Aunt Bee.

This episode is from season 4 and originally aired March of 1964 (one month before I was born). Aunt Bee learns from Clara that the new discount butcher in town is running a sale on a half a cow. Clara laments that she doesn't have a large freezer, but Bee realizes she does. So she buys the meat and stores it in a freeze (that she bought used for a bargain) on the back porch. When she plugs it in, it moans and shakes but eventually begins to run. Temporarily. It begins giving them problems and Andy tells Bee to call the repairman in Mount Pilot. Instead she calls Gomer. He is no help at all, except for finding Opie's old ball and a mouse trap underneath. Andy finds out and emphatically tells Bee again "Just CALL the man!" Meanwhile, the freezer completely quits and her meat is going to spoil. In desperation, Bee goes to her usual grocer and confesses what she has done. She has pulled all her meat to his store in a little red wagon, with every dog in Mayberry following, to see if she can store it in his freezer until something can be done about her freezer.

This is a charming story and has some good life lessons on getting what you pay for. It's also, about true friendship and how Bee's original butcher is kind and generous enough to store meat in his freezer that she bought from his competitor. The discounted meat, by the way, ends up being tough as shoe leather. You have to see this episode to hear a frustrated Andy repeatedly tell his Aunt to "CALL the man!"