The Andy Griffith Show (TV Series) The Senior Play (1966) User Reviews

Actually like this episode, but...

[schmenga · 8/10 · 6 January 2022]

The fact that Mayberry High School in 1966 had about a dozen 25 year old professional dancers at the school is quite impressive.

Muscles, long legs, shaven faces, skilled movements, lady curves, dancing beyond what any HS kid could do. Kind of like the original West Side Story. Of course that was a movie version of a pure musical. This was a sitcom.

A common, though relevant, statement

[cynic2all · 5 April 2022]

While this episode does divert from the standard TAGS fare that has led so many fans to embrace the show, it was just following a trend in motion pictures at the time. Other shows, such as The Lucy Show and The Beverly Hillbillies, also bent over to have generation gap stories, all to conclude it was not really different than the older generation had known previously. I don't really oppose a show making a relevant statement, even if it does have to reach beyond its normal focus. Even Gunsmoke did so a couple or more times; like once when a 'mentally challenged' young man, who could not cope in the the adult world, faced being put away; or when a Jewish family from Russia settled near Dodge City, and refused to be run out.

GREAT LESSON

[JSGal · 9/10 · 19 May 2021]

I disagree with the negative criticisms here. I thought this was an enjoyable episode, with a valuable lesson taught by Helen, that every generation has their need for "their" way of expressing themselves, and as adults, we soon forget that fact! As far as the theme focusing more on Helen than Andy, there have been other times when that had occurred with other characters in the show as well.

Is this the worst Andy Griffith Episode?

[jonathanrspalding · 2/10 · 8 May 2020]

I generally will defend the color episodes of TAGS. Many if you actually watch them are better than you are led to believe. However, at times they seem to grapple with what to do or have we been there before.

On other review lists there is debate of what is the best TAGS episode. I would contend this is the worst. Beyond being not what the show is about anyway, it is a story told so many times. The kids just want to be kids and they are no different, stuffy old adults hate them for no real reason, but then see the light when reasoned with. With few redeeming qualities I rank this as the worst episode.

Mr Hampton was squaresville

[vitoscotti · 10/10 · 31 July 2022]

Wonderful performances by Leon Ames (Mr Hampton) & pretty Aneta Corsaut (Helen Crump). Some serious hot blooded acting when they slug it out. I wasn't looking forward to viewing this episode from what I remembered of it. But it's very good. Strong acting and some terrific dancing by some obviously professional ringers put in. Great Floyd scene him telling the story of his high school play of course he starred in that was Japanese. Funny rude exit by Andy. But Goober was mesmerized. Of course the whole Mayberry cares about the senior play. In reality only those with ties would care. It's never explained what Howard's involvement is to be so hands on. As usual Andy, Howard, and Goober are away from their jobs in the middle of the day. Some really amazing dancing especially the redone jitterbug version.

Is This the End of Andy Griffith?

[MichaelMartinDeSapio · 3/10 · 20 January 2015]

If you had to pinpoint a precise moment when THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW effectively stopped being THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, this might be it. Helen is directing the high school senior play - actually more of a revue or variety show - and decides to include in it a rock number whose bodily gyrations and sense of bacchic abandon are chaste by today's standards but possibly quite heady for 1966. At any rate they are enough to scandalize the older, conservative school principal (played by the distinguished character actor Leon Ames). He nixes the show and even threatens to fire Helen if she tries to go forward with it.

As soon as I had got to this point in the episode, I had it pretty well mapped out: hip young people open mind of conservative old fogey principal. Typical mid-Sixties generation-gap fare. Indeed, that's exactly what happens. In an attempt to change the principal's mind, Helen creates a new Twenties number for the show riffing on the Charleston and flappers. This, presumably, will catch the conscience of the king and make him see that young people of the present day are no different from young people of his generation.

There are many things wrong with the episode. Number one, Andy is on the sidelines, with the episode focusing on Helen and her teenage charges. Second, the musical numbers performed by the kids look like slick Broadway-esque productions, not the efforts of a bunch of kids from a small North Carolina town. Third, the resolution comes much too easily; one sight of those flappers causes the principal to turn on a dime and allow the show to proceed.

But more crucially and seriously, this episode doesn't belong in THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW. The writers of TAGS apparently decided that the small-town, old-time charm that had previously defined the show was passe'. And so TAGS abandoned its rural southern roots in favor of social relevance. I suppose Helen was at the vanguard of modern progressive education, emphasizing self-expression and constant self-affirmation. Fifty years later, the results of this educational approach are plain for all to see.

The one saving grace of the episode is the performance of Leon Ames. He brings dignity to his role and gives a good argument in favor of elevating students' taste rather than kowtowing to them. I found myself siding firmly with him, which I don't think was the writers' intention - but then I'm an incorrigible young fogey.

Terribly Dated

[Hitchcoc · 3/10 · 30 December 2019]

One of the positives of the Andy Griffith Show is its ability to stand the test of time. Helen and the students decide to change up the senior play from some of the stuffy material of the past. But things don't go as hoped. The plot is predictable and seems a hundred years old. The conclusion is way too hard to believe.