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Reviews & Ratings for
 "Make Room for Daddy" Danny Meets Andy Griffith (1960)


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12 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Springboard to the Andy Griffith Show, 13 August 2006
Author: Ron-65 from United States

I only saw this episode once on its original airing in 1960.

Danny Thomas and his family are driving through a small town and are arrested by the sheriff, Andy Griffith. I believe the charge was speeding and Andy throws Danny and the family behind bars. They get out of jail then back in jail a number of times for different charges. The episode was done in a comic way, poking fun at small town sheriffs and speed traps.

The next year, the Andy Griffith show was born. Because Ron Howard is also in this episode may be evidence that the Andy Griffith Show was already in the planning stages at the time of this airing.

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6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
An innovated pilot, 2 September 2006
7/10
Author: theowinthrop from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY was a highly successful television series in the 1950s and 1960s starring Danny Thomas, detailing his career and family problems. It became so successful that it made Thomas a successful television producer (as it did for his show's director - producer Sheldon Leonard).

One of the reasons for the success of Thomas' series was he was able to get some really good surprise guests stars. In one episode, he had Lucille Ball as her television persona "Lucy Ricardo". But in 1960, he actually did something a little unusual. He and Sheldon Lewis were about to do a new series, starring Andy Griffith, about a sheriff in a small North Carolina town. It would eventually be called THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, but before it appeared in the fall 1960 line-up, there was this episode of MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY.

While it is pointed out in the other review on this thread that the episodes makes fun of speed traps, in reality it was the so-called city slicker Thomas who was the butt of the jokes here. Thomas is taking his family back north from a vacation by car. Marjorie Lord, Angela Cartwright, and Rusty Hamer are with him. He has been speeding, but he is too arrogant in the episode to do the simple thing and pay the speeding ticket. Instead, he keeps thinking he can overawe Griffith and force him to drop the whole matter. Instead, every attempt to show his contempt or his superiority to the "hick" Sheriff is met by Griffith at his friendliest and most devastatingly charming - and legally correct - reaction. From being able to pay a $50.00 fine, Thomas manages to boost himself into a prison cell by his conduct. I think the episode ended with a general apology to Griffith, and a reduction of the charges to time served and the fine, but the tail end of the story involved another disaster to Thomas' car that caused him to be stuck in Mayberry for some more time.

On of the running jokes in the episode is that various public officials might be of assistance to Danny in overcoming the initial ticket. Unfortunately, Andy happens to be all these public officials (like the local justice of the peace). Interestingly this aspect of his work as Sheriff of Mayberry was not kept in the series.

It was an amusing pilot, and I believe it was the first pilot for a spin-off series that ever appeared as an episode of the mother series on television.

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5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Different characters....., 19 March 2008
8/10
Author: Kenneth Bates from United States

It's also interesting to note that a couple things in this "pilot" did not translate to The Andy Griffith Show as they first appeared here.

The town drunk (who, of course, is Otis Campbell (Hal Smith) in the Andy Griffith show is called Will Hoople in this Make Room for Daddy episode, Danny Meets Andy Griffith, and is played by actor Frank Cady (Sam Drucker on Green Acres).

Also, Frances Bavier (Aunt Bee on The Andy Griffith Show) appears as Henrietta Perkins, a poor widow whose deceased husband was buried in a rented suit that she's still paying 50 cents per day for...

Also: Rance Howard (Ron's father) and character actor Will Wright are listed on the show's credits-------but do NOT appear in the episode.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Danny Meets Andy, 4 November 2010
Author: hitemp from United States

You know how you will remember some things and not others? I remembered this episode for some reason. The ticket was for running a stop sign. When confronted, Danny responds, "But there was no cross street." Andy replies, "Well we were going to build a road there. We put in the sign first." Danny refuses to pay the ticket. When offered the choice of fine or jail, he chooses jail. He feels he is in the right and is determined to find satisfaction for this injustice. This is why Danny did not feel he should not have gotten the ticket.

Andy's portrayal of the friendly sheriff, doing his job, touched a note with the viewers.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Edited Version, 5 July 2012
8/10
Author: mack-29 from Texas, USA

Will Wright is credited in this episode and he does appear in the original. I have a copy of this episode and there is a 3 minute scene with Wright. He is Mr. Johnson, the store owner who rented the suit for Henrietta Perkins' husband to be buried in. Andy calls him in and threatens to arrest him on numerous charges, including defrauding a widow, if he doesn't return the money to Mrs. Perkins.

This scene was missing from more recent airings, such as on MEtv.

I think the copy I have was an extra on a VHS tape of No Time For Sergents.

As far as I can tell, Rance Howard is not in my copy, so there may be an even longer version out there.

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