Andy Griffith Season 4 --- November 22, 2005 (1 Viewer)

[David Von Pein]

Paramount Studios has announced a November 22nd, 2005, release date for "THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW: THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON". It'll be a 5-Disc DVD set and will encompass 32 black-and-white episodes, with the conclusion of this fourth season marking the halfway point in the show's eight-year TV network lifespan.

A 4th consecutive season of impeccable programs is on tap for Andy Season 4, including "Opie The Birdman" and Gomer Pyle's spin-off episode.

My hat is off to Paramount for dishing up many full-season editions of "TAGS" in a very short period of time. Heck, there's hardly enough time to get through the previously-released seasons before we're gettin' the next one -- but, hey, I'm not gonna complain about this brisk DVD release schedule......

Season 1 -- November 16, 2004.
Season 2 -- May 24, 2005.
Season 3 -- August 16, 2005.
Season 4 -- November 22, 2005.
Season 5 -- February 14, 2006.

I've been keeping an eye on Paramount's website for any info on possible news of edited episodes within the upcoming Season-Four Andy set (like with S.3). I'm hoping we won't see the same "Some Episodes May Be Edited" disclaimer for Season 4. The Paramount site is not listing Season Four as of yet, however.

When gazing upon the impressive roster of top-quality 4th-Season 'TAGS' episodes that will occupy space on this set, several episodes stand out as true "classics", including both the first and last programs during this 1963-1964 season, which provide a very fitting set of "bookend" episodes for this Andy Griffith campaign -- "Opie The Birdman" and "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.".

The "Birdman" episode kicked off the fourth season in fine fashion, in a show that gives us the best example yet of young Ronny Howard's tremendous acting abilities. A truly memorable TV program, worthy of being watched and enjoyed again and again.

The fourth year drew to a close with "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.", which served as the official spin-off (pilot) episode for the TV series of the same name, which debuted in the Fall of 1964, and ran for five complete seasons and 150 episodes, including several "T.A.G.S. crossover" episodes, with Andy, Opie, and even Aunt Bee popping up at Camp Henderson to visit Gomer (and to aggravate Sergeant Vincent Carter).

The popularity of the "Gomer Pyle" character (played to imbecilic perfection by Jim Nabors) can easily be determined by the fact that Gomer was able to garner his very own spin-off series after appearing in just two seasons of The Andy Griffith Show. (And Gomer didn't make his first guest appearance in Season #3 until very nearly halfway through that season.)

Some of the best and funniest episodes during the fourth Andy season revolve around Gomer, the simplistic Mayberry gas-station attendant. .... Episodes such as: "A Date For Gomer", "Gomer The House Guest", "Andy Saves Gomer", "The Song Festers", and the very funny "Citizen's Arrest". Plus, of course, the "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." season finale.

Other personal favorites of mine from this fourth Andy season include: "The Sermon For Today", "Fun Girls", "Barney's Sidecar", "The Haunted House", "Up In Barney's Room", and "A Black Day For Mayberry".


Here's a glance at all 32 episodes that will be included in the Season #4 Andy Griffith Show DVD collection (original CBS-TV airdates also provided, plus a few scattered comments and funny quotes thrown in, to boot):

96. "Opie The Birdman" (First Broadcast: September 30, 1963) -- "But don't the trees seem nice and full?"

97. "The Haunted House" (October 7, 1963) -- "It's probably just the light!"

98. "Ernest T. Bass Joins The Army" (October 14, 1963) -- "He's a nut!"

99. "The Sermon For Today" (October 21, 1963) -- "Mildew!"

100. "Briscoe Declares For Aunt Bee" (October 28, 1963)

101. "Gomer The House Guest" (November 4, 1963)

102. "A Black Day For Mayberry" (November 11, 1963) -- A secret shipment of gold bricks is coming through Mayberry. Can Barney keep his mouth shut about such big news? (Silly question, huh?)

103. "Opie's Ill-Gotten Gain" (November 18, 1963)

104. "A Date For Gomer" (November 25, 1963) -- Jim Nabors, as "Gomer", displays his considerable comedic talents in this hilarious show. This episode, btw, was aired the very same day as President John F. Kennedy's funeral. "A Date For Gomer" was one of the first CBS programs aired after four solid days of JFK assassination TV coverage.

105. "Up In Barney's Room" (December 2, 1963)

106. "Citizen's Arrest" (December 16, 1963) -- "Oh, he's just sore because I gave him a ticket for the same thing! ... Then this boob comes running up to me, yelling 'citizen's arrest, citizen's arrest!'"

107. "Opie And His Merry Men" (December 30, 1963)

108. "Barney And The Cave Rescue" (January 6, 1964)

109. "Andy & Opie's Pal" (January 13, 1964)

110. "Aunt Bee The Crusader" (January 20, 1964)

111. "Barney's Sidecar" (January 27, 1964) -- "Welcome to Checkpoint Chickie!"

112. "My Fair Ernest T. Bass" (February 3, 1964) -- "How do you doooooo, Mrs. Wiiiiiii-ley?!"

113. "Prisoner Of Love" (February 10, 1964)

114. "Hot Rod Otis" (February 17, 1964)

115. "The Song Festers" (February 24, 1964) -- In this episode, we learn that Gomer/Jim Nabors can sing like a dream. (I remember the first time I heard Jim burst out in song -- I actually thought someone else's voice was being dubbed in. I wonder how many other people who were caught by the same surprise thought the same thing?)

116. "The Shoplifters" (March 2, 1964)

117. "Andy's Vacation" (March 9, 1964)

118. "Andy Saves Gomer" (March 16, 1964)

119. "Bargain Day" (March 23, 1964) -- "Call the man!"

120. "Divorce, Mountain Style" (March 30, 1964)

121. "A Deal Is A Deal" (April 6, 1964)

122. "Fun Girls" (April 13, 1964) -- Gomer's cousin, Goober Pyle, makes his TAGS debut in this episode.

123. "The Return Of Malcolm Merriweather" (April 20,1964)

124. "The Rumor" (April 27, 1964)

125. "Barney And Thelma Lou, Phfftt" (May 4, 1964)

126. "Back To Nature" (May 11, 1964)

127. "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." (May 18, 1964) -- "Go ahead, Andy, put this {bucket} on and take a think under there!"

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Truly a praiseworthy assemblage of well-written and well-acted episodes in that list above. The first five (black-and-white) seasons of "The Andy Griffith Show" are among the best television episodes of all time, in my opinion. This will be a DVD set worth collecting -- that is a safe bet without doubt.

Oh, and by the way --- "Lots of luck to you and yours!"

 

[Greg_S_H]

"Citizen's arrayst! Citizen's arrayst!" There are some good episodes there. I love the Haunted House, and Gomer the House Guest is hilarious. Gomer really was a great character, and I hope and expect we'll get his own show in short order. Of course, I still haven't picked up any of Ange beyond season 1, so I have some catching up to do.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Just a few hours later, and TVShows has an item saying they've gotten the word that Gome's show is coming sometime soon!

 

[David Von Pein]

Season-Four artwork announced. It's very close to this other publicity still; but not identical. This is the best cover since Season 1 (IMHO). Although you'll notice a house in the background (plus a fence that's not really there either) inserted into the pic used for the DVD cover. I wonder why they just couldn't simply use the real (tree-lined) background for the DVD art? Why must everything go to the Photo-Crop-Shop? Oh well...looks pretty nice anyway. .........

 

[ElijahS]

Maybe the edits to the picture were made because so many of the PD releases used that picture for the cover, and it's the last chance to use a Gomer-included cover.

 

[Greg_S_H]

It's probably because the faces take up the entire photo, and they wouldn't have room to add the show title and other text. I don't mind the alterations. It looks pretty nice.

 

[David Von Pein]

Good point, Greg. Could be. They might have had to "pad" the north-side (top) of the pic. (Well, duh , they obviously DID "pad" the top of the pic. Similar to the S.3 box too, with its fake "schoolhouse" in the background.)

 

[David Von Pein]

Note the subtle differences. The left image comes from a "LaserLight" PD DVD release. Nice job of inserting an actual TAGS image at the top (instead of fake houses/fences). Of course, I don't think Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier) would be very pleased with the fact that LaserLight has changed her into "Uncle Bee" (via the misspelling of her first name, making it the male variant of Miss Bavier's first name). I hate errors like that. They've misspelled her name on the back of that box too -- plus the added odd error of claiming the disc contains six episodes, but only listing four. Curious, curious, curious.......

 

[FrancisP]

The producers must have loved Andy Saves Gomer. They took the plot and used it for Gomer Pyle USMC. Carter saves Gomer
and drives him crazy. Carter tries to get Gomer to save him. He even uses the same leaking gas trick that Andy uses with the same result.

 

[DanMel]

Can't wait to get my hands on S4 TAGS and S1 of Gomer Pyle.

 

[David Von Pein]

Upon watching the amazingly-talented little actor Ronny Howard in the first-season episodes of "TAGS", it got me to thinking about how difficult a task it probably is to get a very young child actor to read through his lines of dialogue just right. (Esp. if the youngster is too young to even read yet.)

How on Earth do the show execs even get the script's words into the mouths of such young ones?

Do the writers/directors have to literally feed Ron/Opie his lines by reading the lines to them, and then have the child repeat it back verbatim?

Just curious as to how children this small are "handled" when the camera rolls.

Opie's/Ron's performances are just so natural-sounding most of the time. It always amazes me how good a lil' actor Ron was in those early TAGS years. (And I doubt he could read fluently in the first years of the show; he was 6 when the series began.)

The episode which sparked this inquiry is the Season-One TAGS entry "Runaway Kid", with Opie in top-flight acting form, and (naturally) in full-blooming state of "incredible cuteness" as well.

 

[JeffWld]

My favorite is the final scene in "Keeper Of The Flame", where Andy explains to Opie that being "keeper of the flashlight" is a better alternative to handling real fire. After Andy leaves, Opie shrugs and muses "he ain't so dumb". Howard delivers that line in such a natural and humorous manner, that it also makes me appreciate what a great kid actor Ron Howard was.

 

[ScottLloyd]

Less than a week for season 4. They going with every three months on the last few.

Any word on if they'll put out the color years without Don Knotts (save a few episodes)?

 

[David Von Pein]

Back-of-the-box artwork now visible at DVD Empire for TAGS S.4. And the good news here is something we don't see on the back of the S.4 box that we did find for S.3 -- i.e., there's no "Some Episodes May Be Edited" notation in tiny letters.

Hopefully that NON-blurb bodes well for all S.4 eps. being uncut. ~crosses phalanges tightly~

 

[ScottLloyd]

Thanks for that photo and good luck to you and yours.

 

[David Von Pein]

I ran across something kind of interesting re. "TAGS". An artist has immortalized the Andy Griffith Show cast via "Etch-A-Sketch" format! This is absolutely remarkable.......



This fellow has done many other "Etch-A-Sketch" drawings of famous people. Here's a link:

http://www.gvetchedintime.com/Person...utpersonal.htm

Another good example is below. (Hope he doesn't live in California....a major earthquake just might "shake" all those lovely screens into nothingness -- if my memorory of the Etch-A-Sketch thing-a-ma-bob is accurate. I remember having one many moons ago, but could never begin to create something like this guy has done. Amazing. And nice to see that George, the artist, is an Andy Griffith Show fan, too.)

 

[ScottLloyd]

Yep. I saw those sketches awhile back.

 

[John Madia]

Any word if Paramount is going to fix the missing laugh tracks or does it have something to do with the source material rather than the transfer?

 

[David Von Pein]

Haven't heard any word on "fixing" anything with regard to Season 4 .... but I'm now noticing the continuation of the weirdness associated with the marketing and release of Andy #4 -- it's now totally unavailable from Amazon, marking the second or third time it's had "Unavailable" status from this top e-tailer. Very odd.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...3554297/sr=8-2

Edit -- Oops...just noticed my error. Amazon a few months ago decided to confuse Andy buyers by putting up a second link to the identical S.4 product (but at a much-higher price); it's the duplicate one that's now "Unavail."; although it's the Unavail. one that's still linked to their "See All Titles In This Series" link for TAGS, to add further confusion to those looking at that page. ~shrug~ ....

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/se...riffith+fourth

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...869852-5319368