Lee J. Cobb and his daughter, Julie Cobb, are together in this episode. He plays an old drunken veteran. Julie does not acknowledge that he is her father because she is about to get married to Daniel Travanti (famous for Hill Street Blues), the town shop-owner.
Travanti regularly employs Lee J. Cobb as a stock-boy and constantly verbally abuses him because he is an old drunk. Cobb spends some nights in jail when he is drunk, and hears the plans of the local Higgins gang to break young brother Billy out of jail.
80% of this episode is just family drama between Julie Cobb, her real-life Dad, and her fiance Daniel Travanti. The next ten percent is Festus walking around giving people advice and being the town busybody.
Eventually, in the last three minutes there is some gunfighting, and Matt Dillon shows up. The end is kind of lame, as Daniel Travanti realizes that he has been abusing his father-in-law, but he still maintains his annoying attitude of superiority. I did not get the point of this episode. Lee J. Cobb got to be important one last time?
Considering that Festus is usually never actually guarding the jail, it should be as easy to get out of the Dodge jail as it is for Otis to check out of the Mayberry jail (Andy Griffith Show with Barney Fife). It always seemed to me that the character of Festus started as a cowboy / wolfer / hill person and gradually got some Barney Fife written into Festus.
Keeping track of the prisoners is usually an afterthought for Festus, after he gets done wandering all over town, gossiping, drinking beer, whistling tunes, and arguing with random characters.
Travanti regularly employs Lee J. Cobb as a stock-boy and constantly verbally abuses him because he is an old drunk. Cobb spends some nights in jail when he is drunk, and hears the plans of the local Higgins gang to break young brother Billy out of jail.
80% of this episode is just family drama between Julie Cobb, her real-life Dad, and her fiance Daniel Travanti. The next ten percent is Festus walking around giving people advice and being the town busybody.
Eventually, in the last three minutes there is some gunfighting, and Matt Dillon shows up. The end is kind of lame, as Daniel Travanti realizes that he has been abusing his father-in-law, but he still maintains his annoying attitude of superiority. I did not get the point of this episode. Lee J. Cobb got to be important one last time?
Considering that Festus is usually never actually guarding the jail, it should be as easy to get out of the Dodge jail as it is for Otis to check out of the Mayberry jail (Andy Griffith Show with Barney Fife). It always seemed to me that the character of Festus started as a cowboy / wolfer / hill person and gradually got some Barney Fife written into Festus.
Keeping track of the prisoners is usually an afterthought for Festus, after he gets done wandering all over town, gossiping, drinking beer, whistling tunes, and arguing with random characters.