History YMMV / TheAndyGriffithShow

* HarsherInHindsight: The mid Season 3 episode "Convicts At Large" is actor Howard [=McNear's=] final appearance as Floyd Lawson before the actor suffered a debilitating stroke that sidelined him until near the end of Season 4, and subsequently limited him to almost always sitting down. In said episode, Floyd comically gets a vase smashed over his head by one of the titular convicts.

* AwardSnub: Not only did Andy Griffith never win an UsefulNotes/EmmyAward for the show, he was never even nominated.

** 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 UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror dropping such a scene in so casually.

** The episode with Rafe Hollister refusing his tetanus shot probably wouldn’t be received quite as well in today’s world. He’s eventually convinced to take it but today, people would be angry about them not respecting his right not to take it.

* The episode with Rafe Hollister refusing his tetanus shot probably wouldn’t be received quite as well in today’s world. He’s eventually convinced to take it but today, people would be angry about them not respecting his right not to take it.

* HarsherInHindsight: 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 refusing to get a COVID shot into the movement.
** The mid Season 3 episode "Convicts At Large" is actor Howard [=McNear's=] final appearance as Floyd Lawson before the actor suffered a debilitating stroke that sidelined him until near the end of Season 4, and subsequently limited him to almost always sitting down. In said episode, Floyd comically gets a vase smashed over his head by one of the titular convicts.

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

** The uproar over Opie having a quarter in "Mr. McBeevee" strikes modern viewers as just plain weird today. But in the sixties, large pockets of rural America of the sort Mayberry is supposed to represent were still recovering from the Great Depression. With the national economy shifting to manufacture and industry during/after World War II, agricultural communities took decades longer for their local economies to recover (some still haven't even today). Thus, in a time and place where every penny means a lot to its bearer, Opie having a quarter he can't adequately account for and Andy and Aunt Bee's suspicions of its origins make a lot more sense.

** The mid Season 3 episode "Convicts At Large" is actor Howard McNear's final appearance as Floyd Lawson before the actor suffered a debilitating stroke that sidelined him until near the end of Season 4, and subsequently limited him to almost always sitting down. In said episode, Floyd comically gets a vase smashed over his head by one of the titular convicts.

* AwardSnub: Not only did Andy Griffith never win an UsefulNotes/{{Emmy Award}} for the show, he was never even nominated.

* IdiotPlot: Numerous episodes would have been resolved in under a minute had someone decided to tell a slightly uncomfortable truth rather than try to spare someone's feelings. "Dinner at Eight" is probably the worst offender, when Andy was 'forced' to eat three spaghetti dinners in one night and be blamed for being late to one of them, when all he had to do was admit he didn't get a telephone message. Or call when he did get the message and say he was going to be late. Or if the host had called and made sure he had gotten the message. Or the host called when he didn't arrive and ask what had delayed him.

** Creator/JamesLBrooks also wrote two episodes.
** Ben Starr also wrote an episode. Starr is best known for co-creating ''Series/SilverSpoons'' and co-developing ''Series/TheFactsOfLife''.

* 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 refusing to get a COVID shot into the movement.

** [[Series/TheWaltons Grandma Walton]] played the head of a fraud and car theft ring in "Barney's Car".

** Pre-''Series/{{MASH}}'' Jamie Farr and William Christopher had made memorable guest appearances; Farr as part of a band of gypsies in "The Gypsies", and Christopher in two episodes: as a tax collector in "Aunt Bee on TV", and as Mayberry's new town doctor, Doc Peterson, in "A New Doctor in Town".

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