History Series / TheAndyGriffithShow

* DrunkOnMilk: In the episode where Barney returns to Mayberry and finds out Thelma Lou got married to another man, he attempts to [[DrowningMySorrows get drunk on fruit punch]]. Andy tells him it won't work since the punch doesn't contain alcohol.

The series also focuses on the widowed Andy's relationship with his young son Opie, with Andy trying to strike a balance between being a fun [[TheConfidant confidant]] and instilling a strong sense of right and wrong. Andy dated a few women over the course of the series, but Opie's mother figure was Aunt Bea, who lived in the Taylor home and took care of the housework. Andy was also alternately amused and exasperated by the eccentricities of the various townsfolk, including gossipy barber Floyd Lawson, affable drunkard Otis Campbell, highly repressed bureaucrat Howard Sprague, and totally moronic hayseed Gomer Pyle, who was [[Series/GomerPyleUSMC spun off into his own series]] and replaced with his even more idiotic cousin Goober.

Supporting actors included Creator/DonKnotts as Deputy Barney Fife; [[Creator/RonHoward Ronny Howard]] (pre-''Series/HappyDays'') as Andy's son, Opie; Creator/FrancesBavier as Andy's Aunt Bea Taylor, and George Lindsey and Jim Nabors as the Pyle cousins, Goober and Gomer Pyle.

* FauxAffablyEvil: [[GentlemanThief Gentleman Dan Caldwell]] acts every bit as gentlemanly as his name suggests. He's polite and appreciative to everyone and acts apologetic and submissive to law enforcement. He comes off as such a nice guy that Andy's attempts to explain that Dan is actually in jail for a reason are scoffed at by everyone around him. Then comes the episode's climax. Dan steals Barney's gun, uses it to threaten Aunt Bea and Opie, and even makes an attempt at shooting Andy with it, only failing because Barney only had one bullet chambered.

*** This nearly comes back to bite Andy in one episode when he faces down and disarms a gunman who is threatening Opie and Aunt Bea with Barney's gun, and then smugly explains that the gun is Barney's and therefore doesn't have a bullet in. He demonstrates this by pointing and shooting— and it turns out the gun had been loaded after all, leaving Andy badly shaken.

* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: Whenever Barney tries to deceive someone, he usually ends up saying something along the lines of "So there's absolutely no reason to be suspicious!" In one episode, he actually starts following Aunt Bea into another room, yelling reasons why she shouldn't be suspicious.

Supporting actors included Creator/DonKnotts as Deputy Barney Fife; [[Creator/RonHoward Ronny Howard]] (pre-''Series/HappyDays'') as Andy's son, Opie; Frances Bavier as Andy's Aunt Bea Taylor, and George Lindsey and Jim Nabors as the Pyle cousins, Goober and Gomer Pyle.

** A very young boy named Leon (played by star Ron Howard's brother, Clint Howard) appearing to silently offer a bite of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich to whoever was around. Invariably, the response would be: "No thanks, Leon."

** A very young boy named Leon (played by star Ron Howard's brother, Clint Howard) appearing to silently offer someone a bite of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Invariably, the response would be: "No thanks, Leon."

** A very young boy named Leon (played by star Ron Howard's brother, Clint Howard) appearing to silently offer someone his peanut-butter and jelly sandwich.

** A very young boy named Leon (played by star Ron Howard's brother, Clint Howard) appearing to offer someone his peanut-butter and jelly sandwich.

** In one episode a stranger comes in with a portable (at least for that time) tape recorder asking to record local music groups to market to a record company with royalties coming back to the artists. When he disappears, Andy smells a rat, with the Aesop of not falling for con artists[[spoiler:, except that it turns out he was completely legit and returns almost immediately bearing a contract with a major record company and a certified check for $5,000 payable to the artists as an advance with more money forthcoming as the reccord gains popularity turning the aesop around to not being overly suspicious off strangers]]

* WinHerAPrize: Played with and possibly {{Invoked|Trope}} in one episode. Opie complains to Andy (who is both Opie's father and the local sheriff) that the carnival shooting gallery is rigged, so Andy goes in undercover with Helen, pretending to be a local yokel trying to win a prize for his gal.

** Barney is a ''terrible'' actor, and not a great choir voice either. This, of course, is the writers lampshading that Don Knotts was considered a very talented actor [[SocietyMarchesOn at the time.]] (he won 3 Emmys in the show's first 5 years), and was at least a decent singer.

* MovingTheGoalposts: One episode involves Barney trying to find a woman that Andy wants to marry. After coming across the very pretty and sweet Mrs. Krump (Opie's school teacher) he sets her up with Andy for a double-date with him and Thelma Lou...only to "decide" that she's ''not'' the right pick for Andy because not only does she plan to not stop working after she's married, but she also can't cook, which in ''[[ValuesDissonance Barney's]]'' eyes invalidates her as wife material.

** Andy frequently says "You beat everything, you know that?!" when he's frustrated with someone (usually Barney)

* DrunkOnMilk: In the episode where Barney returns to Mayberry and finds out Thelma Lou got married, he attempts to [[DrowningMySorrows get drunk on fruit punch]]. Andy tells him it won't work since the punch doesn't contain alcohol.

* DrunkOnMilk: In the episode where Barney returns to Mayberry and finds out Thelma Lou got married, he tries to get drunk on fruit punch. Andy tells him it won't work since the punch doesn't contain alcohol.

** Also in the first episode, a minor plot point involves Opie's pet bird. Later, in "Opie the Birdman", Opie mention that he's never taken care of birds before.

* FauxAffablyEvil: [[GentlemanThief Gentleman Dan Caldwell]] acts every bit as gentlemanly as his name suggests. He's polite and appreciative to everyone, and acts apologetic and submissive to law enforcement. He comes off as such a nice guy that Andy's attempts to explain that Dan is actually in jail for a reason are scoffed at by everyone around him. Then comes the episode's climax. Dan steals Barney's gun, uses it to threaten Aunt Bea and Opie, and even makes an attempt at shooting Andy with it, only failing because Barney only had one bullet chambered.

* HolidayPardon: There is an episode wherein a grumpy older dude, feeling lonely at Christmas and wanting to be able to spend it somewhere with people, attempts to steal a bench. Andy (possibly only ostensibly) lets him go because it's Christmas.

* GodwinsLaw: Directed at ''Andy'', amazingly enough. In the pilot seen on ''Make Room for Daddy'' (aka ''The Danny Thomas Show'') when Danny is put in jail by Andy for going through a stop sign[[note]]the fine is $100 or 10 days in jail, and Danny takes the jail time on principle[[/note]], he goes on a national TV show and calls Andy a "one man Gestapo."

** In one notable instance, Barney was in danger of being deemed physically unfit for duty for being underweight (an extended case of the hiccups had ruined an attempt to pack on a couple extra pounds). The new regulation said he had to meet the weight requirement wearing uniform, shoes, and ID tag and chain. It didn't say he couldn't hang the ID tag on a three foot long piece of towing chain.
** In one of the color episodes, Andy briefly hires Ernest T. Bass as a crossing guard- and naturally, Ernest starts heaving rocks at cars that don't stop. Andy tells him not to do that, and Ernest agrees- but he pulls out a brick after Andy leaves. Andy then catches him hurling the brick, and Ernest protests "You said rock! You didn't say anything about no brick!" Andy fires him.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: In "Three Wishes for Opie", [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Opie gets three wishes]] from a gypsy lamp that Barney brought from a police auction that all comes true. It's left ambiguous on whether it was the lamp's power or it just pure coincidence.

* QuittingToGetMarried: In the first episode their beloved housekeeper Rose gets married and leaves their service, so Aunt Bee comes in to help raise Opie.

** In "Andy and the Woman Speeder," when a woman from the title gets a speeding citation, she shifts from trying to smooth her way out of it to outright calling Andy a crook and a prejudiced Justice of the Peace; however...

** In the episode where Otis' brother visits, he had convinced Andy and Barney to let him serve as a deputy, as Otis had mistakenly led his brother to believe he was, all because he has always believed his brother was such an upstanding guy. Turns out, he wasn't -- after vanishing for the day, the brother wanders into the jail and locks himself up, completely drunk, and admits to Otis that he's the town drunk back home. Otis rightfully lays into him with this speech -- while Otis could tolerate himself being a worthless drunk, the fact his brother had always been made out to be such a better person only to turn out to be so useless was a huge letdown to him.

** A very young boy named Leon appearing to offer someone his peanut-butter and jelly sandwich.

* CantGetInTroubleForNuthin: In the first season ChristmasEpisode, after discovering that Andy is throwing a small Christmas celebration in the courthouse for a prisoner and his family a lonely Ben Weaver tries to get arrested so he can join them, but his attempts keep getting undermined by well-meaning citizens who don't want him to spend Christmas in jail.

* ShoutOut: Music/KurtCobain named one of his songs "Floyd the Barber", after the character from this show. It appears as on Music/{{Nirvana}}'s debut album ''Music/{{Bleach}}''.

* GentlemanThief: One episode involved a criminal like this being held in Mayberry for a while before actual police could come and take him to prison. He charms himself into Aunt Bee and Opie's good graces by telling Opie stories and complimenting Aunt Bee, only to reveal his true colors when he manages to coerce them into letting him out and giving him a gun.

It also had an AfterShow, ''Series/MayberryRFD'', a {{Spinoff}}, ''Series/GomerPyleUSMC'', and a ReunionShow in the 1986 made-for-TV movie ''Film/ReturnToMayberry''.

It also had an AfterShow, ''Series/MayberryRFD'', and a ReunionShow in the 1986 made-for-TV movie ''Film/ReturnToMayberry''.