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The Andy Griffith Show: The Taylors in Hollywood (1965)
Very Funny- One of the Best Color Episodes!
The Andy Griffith Show "A.B." (After Barney) is generally accepted by fans of the show as a slow decline into sitcom mediocrity, with rather annoying (Warren the Deputy) and somewhat dull (Howard Sprague, Emmett Clark, and Sam Jones) characters simply unable to fill the enormous comedic shoes of the brilliant Don Knotts.
Thankfully, there are a handful of episodes during the 6th, 7th, and 8th Season that briefly rekindle the comic wackiness & unpredictability that made the early years of TAGS so much fun, and "The Taylor's in Hollywood" is such a show.
The "fish out of water" concept used in this episode (simple, unassuming, small town country folk traveling to California & being rather bewildered by the flashy & exaggerated Hollywood "version" of things) is not original to this episode; Paul Henning's "Beverly Hillbillies" had already been using this formula to great success for many years on American television.
What makes it fun here is the outrageous performances of the guest stars, including a campy, over-the-top, "pre-Love Boat" Gavin MaCleod portraying Andy, and bombshell blond June Vincent portraying a glamorous, rather aggressive, Winchester toting Aunt Bee in one of the funniest scenes in ANY season of TAGS, either B&W or color.
It's obvious from watching "The Taylor's in Hollywood" that one excellent way for TAGS to help compensate for the departure of the outrageous Barney Fife is to bring in equally outrageous guest stars, and let the regular cast members of TAGS play "straight man" to them; unfortunately, this doesn't happen nearly enough in the color seasons of the show.
I give "The Taylor's in Hollywood" a "8" (especially when it is compared to most of the other color episodes).
The Andy Griffith Show: Howard's New Life (1967)
One of the Oddest Episodes of the Entire Series...
The premise of this installment- "leaving it all behind to escape to a tropical paradise"- is certainly a popular one, and is as relevant to today's audiences as it was back then.
And, despite all the flack he gets from us TAGS fans for playing a "dull" character that can't match up to Barney Fife's level of comedy- which is, let's face it, a somewhat unreasonable expectation- actor Jack Dodson was very good at playing "quirky character" comedy when given the right material to work with (as he does in this episode), resulting in a fun performance for the audience.
Having established all this, a good lead performance by Jack Dodson & a few solid laughs (which "Howard's New Life" delivers) cannot totally save this episode from being overshadowed by two glaring (and major) issues:
First of all, can a 30 minute show that centers & revolves around Howard Sprague- all by himself & on his own, starting a new life thousands of miles away from Mayberry- really be considered "The Andy Griffith Show"? It certainly doesn't seem that way, and the episode feels more like the pilot episode of a separate spin off series than TAGS we've come to know & love. It's not bad, it's just...weird & unfamiliar. Maybe if Andy Griffith was the one "getting away from it all", things would have clicked better within the context of the entire series, but the Howard Sprague character didn't even arrive on TAGS scene until nearly the end of Season 6, so devoting an entire episode to his life away from Mayberry is strange, especially for a TAGS character that we haven't known all that long.
Second- and even more distracting for those fans that appreciate series continuity- it seems like the writers were in such a hurry to get Howard out of Mayberry & on that island inside of 30 minutes that they completely threw out/ignored the "playbook" on Howard Sprague that had been built up over the last two seasons, creating with this episode two huge plot holes:
1. What happened to Howard's extremely vocal, possessive, domineering mother, the one he lived with that used to freak out if Howard was 10 minutes late calling in/coming home? Howard's suddenly moving away forever- on the spur of the moment- and Mom is nowhere to been seen. Has she suddenly decided to keep quiet? Is she at home sulking? Has she mysteriously disappeared? Even more perplexing, Howard- in this episode- conveniently goes from being a mama's boy who is ALWAYS talking about "mother" to never mentioning her at all. This doesn't make any sense. with what we've learned about Howard up to this time.
2. And speaking of disappearing acts- what happened to Millie? After being in love & engaged just three episodes ago, now she has vanished off the face of the earth. OK, maybe they broke up off camera, but Howard's leaving Mayberry forever and she doesn't even come to the bus station to say good-bye and wish him well??? Here again is another unexplained break in established character plot lines.
The aforementioned blatant disregard of established character backgrounds & series continuity should result in this episode receiving a lower rating (shame on you, naughty writers), but I have to give it a 6 because of a strong (and funny) performance by Jack Dodson (perhaps his best outing in the series)- and for a very brief but funny appearance by legendary character actor Harry Dean Stanton ("Alien", "The Green Mile") as the nearly comatose proprietor of the island trading post.
The Andy Griffith Show: A Baby in the House (1966)
What's funny about a crying baby? Unfortunately, not much...
A sincere effort by the regular cast members can't overcome poor writing- and a weak, ill-conceived plot premise- in this clunker from Season 6.
Watching a 30 minute television show about a baby that won't stop crying is about as much fun as sitting next to one on a long flight from New York to Los Angeles. Enough said about that.
Unfortunately, this isn't the first- or the last- time during the series' color seasons that TAGS regulars are stuck with a bad script and have to struggle their way through it.
On a more positive note, "Green Acres" fans will enjoy seeing talented character actor Alvy Moore ("Hank Kimball") make a brief but funny appearance as a door-to-door salesman.
The Andy Griffith Show: The Darling Fortune (1966)
Has some funny moments, but, hey writers, we've seen this plot premise twice before!
Denver Pyle is a great character actor, with his usual terrific throwaway lines as Briscoe Darling, and is always fun to watch.
The music in this show (as is always the case when The Darlings come into town), is also a treat for Bluegrass fans (a great rendition of "Old Salty Dog Rag" is featured).
The main drawback is that we've seen this basic story premise four previous times already- the idea of The Darling's becoming romantically fixated on either Andy, a member of his family, or someone close to him- and this installment marks the third time (!) that, as a last resort, comic staging of a bad "omen" is used to make The Darling's go away:
1. "The Darlings Are Coming" (1963)- Charlene pursues Andy romantically; Omen used- None
2. "Briscoe Declares for Aunt Bee" (1963)- Mr. Darling pursues Aunt Bea romantically; Omen used- None
3."Divorce, Mountain Style" (1964)- Charlene pursues Andy romantically; Omen used- white horse with a black rider traveling east-west (ridden by Barney).
4."The Darling Baby" (1964)- The Darling Family pursues Opie as a husband for the Darling baby; Omen used- Opie's disappearing ink.
5."The Darling Fortune" (1966)- The Darling Family pursues Helen Crump romantically as a wife for one of the boys; Omen used- owl in the daylight.
The Darlings are fun characters but, hey, show writers, come up with some new show ideas already!
I give this installment an "A" for funny but have to give it a "D" for originality, which is why I rate it as a 6.