History YMMV / TheAndyGriffithShow

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: The episode "The County Nurse", in which Andy needed to convince a farmer to get his tetanus shot, said farmer was convinced that he didn't need it because he was already healthy and knew how to avoid cutting himself on metal. It was a silly plotline until the rise of the anti-vax movement in TheNewTens, moreso when the COVID-19 pandemic pulled people unwilling to get a COVID shot into the movement.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: The episode "The County Nurse", in which Andy needed to convince a farmer to get his tetanus shot, said farmer was convinced that he didn't need it because he was already healthy and knew how to avoid cutting himself on metal. It was a silly plotline until the rise of the anti-vax movement in TheNewTens.

** All the times the male characters wished they could be as good with the ladies as Creator/RockHudson...who was later revealed as a homosexual. In one episode, Barney says that he learned how to sweet talk ladies by watching "all those Rock Hudson movies".

* SeasonalRot: A pretty serious case. After Creator/DonKnotts dropped out of the show after the fifth season to pursue a film career, the series went on without him for three more years. Most fans dislike these episodes (easily recognized because they were shot in color) for being unfunny and moralistic. Without Barney to play off of, Andy loses much of what made his own character funny, and he becomes a rather solemn grump.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: The episode "The County Nurse", in which Andy needed to convince a farmer to get his tetanus shot, said farmer was convinced that he didn't need it because he was already healthy and knew how to avoid cutting himself on metal. It was a silly plotline until the rise of the anti-vax movement.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Mr. Sawyer, the eponymous "Stranger in Town" from the episode of the same name. While Andy scolds the whole town for being overly suspicious and unfriendly to him, the thing is that they have every right to be. From the moment he steps off the bus in Mayberry, he makes a show of how well he knows specific details of everyone's lives without explaining why, and keeps trying to court a young woman who makes it clear she isn't interested while insisting he's in love with her. His sad backstory of having no close family and friends and wishing he could have lived in Mayberry after hearing about it from an army buddy doesn't help since he could have told everyone that from the beginning and they would have been a lot more accommodating.
* ValuesDissonance:

* AdoredByTheNetwork: TV Land adores the show, airing ''month-long'' marathons of the show. As of 2021, it's the only ''classic'' sitcom still on its line-up.

** All the times the male characters wished they could be as good with the ladies as Rock Hudson... Rock Hudson was later revealed as a homosexual. In one episode, Barney says that he learned how to sweet talk ladies by watching "all those Rock Hudson movies".

* SeasonalRot: A pretty serious case. After Don Knotts dropped out of the show after the fifth season to pursue a film career, the series went on without him for three more years. Most fans dislike these episodes (easily recognized because they were shot in color) for being unfunny and moralistic. Without Barney to play off of, Andy loses much of what made his own character funny, and he becomes a rather solemn grump.

* CriticalResearchFailure: A case where it is difficult to tell whether or not it is an in-universe example. In "Alcohol and Old Lace," a man successfully obtains alcohol from moonshiners who only sell it for "special occasions" by claiming to be a Muslim celebrating Mohammed's birthday. The Koran strictly prohibits alcohol consumption.

** There's a clip from the end of "Opie and the Spoiled Kid" involving the titular spoiled kid raising a fuss after Andy confiscated his bike for riding on the sidewalk. His temper tantrum gets more and more out of control, culminating in the boy's father promising to sell the bike and the boy being taken out to the woodshed for an implied spanking. The clip gets passed around YouTube and social media among proponents of spanking, but these days, the prevailing opinion is that you can't make up for your poor parenting by beating it out of your child.

* There's a clip from the end of "Opie and the Spoiled Kid" involving the titular spoiled kid raising a fuss after Andy confiscated his bike for riding on the sidewalk. His temper tantrum gets more and more out of control, culminating in the boy's father promising to sell the bike and the boy being taken out to the woodshed for an implied spanking. The clip gets passed around YouTube and social media among proponents of spanking, but these days, the prevailing opinion is that you can't make up for your poor parenting by beating it out of your child.

** There's also a clip from the end of "Opie and the Spoiled Kid" involving the titular spoiled kid raising a fuss after Andy confiscated his bike for riding on the sidewalk. His temper tantrum gets more and more out of control, culminating in the boy's father promising to sell the bike and implying the boy is going to get a spanking. This clip has also been passed around a lot on Website/YouTube and social media among proponents of spanking.

* TooGoodToLast: CBS/Paramount's efforts to release the show on UsefulNotes/BluRay stopped at season one, due to low sales of the expensive set.

* AcceptableTargets: Anti-vaxxers, apparently, in "The County Nurse".

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Andy and his family were meant to be the focus, but Barney stole the show.

* ReplacementScrappy: Warren Ferguson, Barney's SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute.

* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop:
** One episode has Opie, attempting to emulate Robin Hood, stealing food to give to a homeless man faking a bad leg. To teach Opie a lesson Andy goes up to the man and offers to assist him in finding a series of jobs he believes the man could do in spite of his leg. The man keeps making excuses for why he can't do each one, until he runs off, revealing himself to be a fraud. In short, "never help the homeless, they're just lazy." Bizarrely, the finale scene has Opie point out that none of the jobs Andy offered were actually available, so if the man had been telling the truth and accepted one of them, Andy would have looked like a complete jerk.
** Just three episodes after that we get "Aunt Bee the Crusader" in which Aunt Bee tries to stop Andy from evicting a man because of a highway project. Both sides make some really good points, but in the end it all turns out to be moot because the man was a moonshiner. As a result the message comes across as "never fight for someone else's rights, because they're probably criminals anyway."

** The episode "Alcohol and Old Lace" involves two sisters selling moonshine and justifying their crime because "we're not like those other moonshiners, they sell liquor for drinking purposes; our elixir is for special occasions." Naturally, the town's drinkers are making up excuses to take a nip. One particular scene involves a man pretending to be a Muslim celebrating Mohammed's birthday. It's not necessarily a scene that couldn't work today, but it's hard to imagine any show after TheWarOnTerror dropping such a scene in so casually.

** George Lindsey would later play another similar character named "Goober" on ''Series/HeeHaw''.

** Howard Morris directed eight episodes. Morris is best known for being in ''front'' of the camera on the show as Ernest T. Bass, and would go on to greater fame for voicing Gopher in ''WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'', Hamburglar and Mayor [=McCheese=] for UsefulNotes/McDonalds, Carl Sweetchuck and The Professor in ''WesternAnimation/PoliceAcademyTheAnimatedSeries'', and Wade Duck in ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends''.

** Aaron Ruben directed two episodes, wrote seven episodes, and served as a producer. Ruben served as creator and executive producer of ''Series/GomerPyleUSMC''.

** Howard Merrill wrote two episodes. Merrill is best known for co-creating ''Series/IveGotASecret''.

** Paul Henning wrote an episode. Henning is best known as creator and producer of ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies'' and ''Series/PetticoatJunction''.

** Howard Morris directed eight episodes. Morris is best known for being in ''front'' of the camera on the show as Ernest T. Bass, and would go on to greater fame for voicing Gopher in ''Disney/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'', Hamburglar and Mayor [=McCheese=] for UsefulNotes/McDonalds, Carl Sweetchuck and The Professor in ''WesternAnimation/PoliceAcademyTheAnimatedSeries'', and Wade Duck in ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends''.

** As a counterpoint to Barney's clumsiness, Andy rarely ever carries a gun on duty, wanting to be respected by the citizens of Mayberry more than feared. As such, it synchronizes surprisingly well with today's issues with police shootings and subsequent calls for police to be better trained in conflict resolution.
* WretchedHive: Raleigh. Bit-part bad guys hail from there more often than not, and it is often used as the foil to Mayberry's wholesomeness. Nonetheless, the show is as beloved in Raleigh as it is anywhere else in North Carolina.

** One episode involved Opie being bullied. When Andy found out about this, he refused to contact the bullies' parents or school about it because he wanted Opie to learn to stand up for himself, later telling Opie a story about how he was bullied as a child and how when he stood up for himself the bully ended up backing down. The episode ends with Opie apparently beating the bully up. While back then this may have been seen as a valid way to deal with a bully, these days as many experts and bully-victims can attest, this usually ''never'' works; if anything, it'll end up making the bullying situation ''even worse'' since bullies frequently go after people they ''know'' aren't strong enough to stand up/beat them in a fight, and attempting to stand up to them usually results in the bully forcefully showing them ''why'' they shouldn't. In addition, even if the bully backs down, the bully victim, more often than not, is usually the one who's going to end up being disciplined by the school, especially in schools with zero tolerance policies. If the episode was made today, contacting the school/parents would usually be the first thing the parents of the bully victim would do.

* Acceptable Targets: Anti-vaxxers, apparently, in "The County Nurse".