George Lindsey Movies

Inspired by the success of previous TV sitcom "reunion" films, Return to Mayberry debuted on April 13, 1986. Eleven of the original cast members of the classic Andy Griffith Show were reunited in this marvelous blast from the past. The plot finds former sheriff Andy Taylor (Griffith, of course), returning to Mayberry, North Carolina to visit his grown son Opie (Ron Howard, taking a break from his busy directorial career), who is now an expectant father. Andy's onetime deputy Barney Fife (Don Knotts) is running for the sheriff's post, so Andy decides to stick around to help out. Barney thinks he's found an excellent publicity ploy when he discovers what seems to be a bigfoot-style monster roaming around the Carolina hills. Actually, he's the victim of a cruel hoax, compelling Andy once more to come to Barn's rescue. Also in the cast is George Lindsay as Goober, Jim Nabors as Gomer, Aneta Corsaut as Helen, Betty Lynn as Thelma Lou, and Howard Morris as Ernest T. Bass. Conspicuous by her absence was Frances "Aunt Bee" Bavier, who was too ill to make a comeback. The highest-rated TV movie of 1986, Return to Mayberry might have resulted in a series, but Andy Griffith decided to switch professional gears and star as an attorney in Matlock. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Inspired by Johnny Paycheck's song of the same name, Take This Job and Shove It is a comedy/drama of big business vs. little guys. His corporate employers put Frank Maclin in charge of a project to shape up a newly acquired brewery. It just so happens that this places him back in his Iowa hometown after ten years of being away. He soon is faced with a dilemma and he must consider both his position with the company and the interests of the blue-collar employees. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

Two fantasy novels by Margery Sharp were combined for in the Disney animated feature The Rescuers. The title characters are a pair of mice, Bernard and Miss Bianca. A little girl named Penny has been kidnapped by Miss Medusa. When the human law enforcement officials fail to locate the child, Bernard and Miss Bianca take over with the help of several colorful animal companions. In classic Disney tradition, the comedy element is offset by moments of genuine terror. Voices are provided by Bob Newhart (Bernard), Eva Gabor (Miss Bianca), Geraldine Page (Madame Medusa), Jim "Fibber McGee" Jordan, John McIntire, George "Goober" Lindsay, Joe Flynn (who died in 1974, not long into the four-year production), and a host of others. It scored at the box office, more than compensating for the $8 million investment and the half-decade of work it took to complete the film. In fact, The Rescuers remains one of the most popular of the Disney cartoon films produced after the death of Uncle Walt. A heavily-computerized sequel, The Rescuers Down Under, appeared in 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Finding that he hasn't much time left to live, a man makes needed changes in his life with the help of an angel in this Disney feature. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

This episode stars David Wayne as a reclusive, ill-tempered tycoon. While he doesn't suffer fools (or anyone else) very well, Wayne is devoted to his collection of valuable books. When one of his rarest volumes disappears from a supposedly impervious glass-enclosed case, troubleshooting detective Banacek (George Peppard) is called onto the case. George Lindsey, best known as Goober on The Andy Griffith Show, co-stars as the local constabulary. The Greatest Collection of Them All was the January 10, 1973, installment of the TV series Banacek. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Aristocats was the first Disney Studios animated feature to be produced after Walt Disney's death. A wealthy woman leaves her vast fortune to her four cats: the well-bred Duchess and her kittens, Berlioz, Toulouse, and Marie. Jealous butler Edgar, eager to get his mitts on the cats' legacy, abandons the felines in the French countryside. The four lost kitties are aided in their efforts to return home by the raffish country pussycats Thomas O'Malley and Scat Cat. In keeping with a tradition launched by The Jungle Book (1967), The Aristocats is top-heavy with celebrity voices, including Phil Harris, Eva Gabor, Scatman Crothers, Hermione Baddeley, and the ineluctable Sterling Holloway. Assembled by the "nine old men" then in charge of animation, The Aristocats was a commercial success, essentially proving that Disney animated features could succeed without the involvement of the company's founder. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The sixth season of The Andy Griffith Show was the first season to be filmed in color -- and the first to do without the services of longtime co-star Don Knotts, who had abandoned his Emmy-winning role of Mayberry deputy Barney Fife to pursue a film career. For a while, it looked as though star Andy Griffith would follow Knotts' lead, thereby voluntarily ending one of CBS's most popular sitcoms. At the last moment, however, Griffith opted to remain with the show, though reports still persist that he was never entirely happy with this decision. With the exception of Knotts, the series' familiar supporting cast remained intact: Ronny Howard as Opie Taylor, son of widowed sheriff Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith); Frances Bavier as the Taylors' housekeeper, Aunt Bee; Aneta Corsaut as Andy's schoolteacher sweetheart Helen Crump; Howard McNear as jittery town barber Floyd Lawson; George Lindsey as gas station attendant Goober Pyle; and Hal Smith as town drunk Otis Campbell. New to the series is Jack Burns as Andy's new deputy, the over-conscientious Warren Ferguson; and Jack Dodson as mother-dominated town clerk Howard Sprague. This season marked the first time that The Andy Griffith Show relied upon story arcs, with a single storyline spread throughout several consecutive episodes. The first of these found Andy, Opie, Aunt Bee, and Helen heading to Hollywood to oversee production of "The Sheriff Without a Gun," a film based on Andy's law career. The second arc, consuming two episodes, finds Barney Fife Don Knotts returning to Mayberry to attend his high school reunion. Ironically, these two installments proved to be the highlights of the season, and also earned Don Knotts his fourth Emmy award for his portrayal of Barney Fife! Although some aficionados feel that The Andy Griffith Show lost momentum during its post-Barney "color years," the series remained an audience favorite throughout its sixth season, ranking as America's sixth highest-rated program. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The crew of the USS Reluctant is at it again in this comedy sequel to Mister Roberts. The story opens toward the end of WWII as the great ship drops her cargo at various island bases. Their captain is an unbending tyrant. Young Pulver aspires to become a doctor just like his hero and mentor, the ship's physician. A terrible storm erupts and the ruthless captain is knocked overboard by a rogue wave. Brave Pulver dives over to save the commander and together the two end up stranded on a deserted island. When the captain suddenly doubles over with appendicitis it is up to Pulver to save him via a radio and the ship's doctor's instructions. Fortunately, it all comes out well in the end. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

With The Andy Griffith Show as hilarious and highly rated as ever during its fifth season on the air, one would never suspect that there was trouble brewing in Mayberry, NC. The source of the difficulty was Don Knotts, who had won three Emmy awards for his performance as Barney Fife, the high-strung deputy to laid-back Mayberry sheriff Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith). Although the friendship and rapport between Knotts and Griffith remained strong, Knotts was upset that he was not being groomed for his own series, as former Andy Griffith Show regular Jim Nabors had been before being spun off into Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Thus, when an offer to star in theatrical feature films came his way, Knotts jumped at it -- and, of course, this meant that his fifth season as Barney Fife would be his last. Reportedly concerned that Knotts' defection would lessen the quality of his series, star Andy Griffith himself considered voluntarily ending the show at the end of season five and looking for movie work of his own. Banking on the possibility that Griffith would change his mind, the series' writers cast about for a character that could adequately replace Don Knotts. Eventually they came up with Don Rickles, who plays the title role in the final episode of the season, "The Luck of Newton Monroe." Cast as a perennial loser who fails at every job he tries, Rickles is amusing, but the character is too insubstantial to be made a permanent Mayberry resident. Even so, "The Luck of Newton Monroe" upholds the high standards of The Andy Griffith Show, as do most of the series' fifth season episodes.
Highlights this year include "The Education of Ernest T. Bass," in which Mayberry's resident rock-throwing village idiot (played by frequent Griffith Show director Howard Morris) decides to re-enroll in the fifth grade -- and promptly falls for Andy Taylor's sweetheart, schoolteacher Helen Crump (Aneta Corsaut); "Barney's Bloodhound," wherein Barney purchases a phlegmatic "police dog" in his efforts to capture a desperate criminal; "Barney's Uniform," pitting the hapless deputy against a boorish bully (played by perennial sitcom guest star Allan Melvin); "Goodbye, Sheriff Taylor," in which Andy considers taking an out-of-town job, obliging Barney to try out a number of unworthy candidates for deputy; "Goober Takes a Car Apart," built around the talents of George Lindsey as Goober Pyle, Gomer's cousin and erstwhile replacement on the series; and "The Case of the Punch in the Nose," illustrating the perils of not letting sleeping dogs lie. Rumors of imminent cancellation notwithstanding, The Andy Griffith Show continued to be a viewer magnet, ending its fifth season as America's fourth most popular series. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Pat Buttram (he was Mr. Haney on Green Acres) brings a macabre twist to his standard country-bumpkin characterization in this bone-chilling episode. Visiting a traveling carnival, farmer Charlie Hill (Buttram) is fascinated by one of the exhibits: a huge jar, filled with water and mysterious floating objects. Convinced that the jar possesses magical qualities, Charlie purchases the object and brings it home, putting it on display for his friends and neighbors -- who are equally fascinated, even mesmerized, by the jar's eerie "properties." All of this brouhaha annoys Charlie's promiscuous young wife, Thedy Sue (Collin Wilcox), who plans to expose the jar as a fake and humiliate Charlie in public just before running off with her current boyfriend. James Bridges earned an Emmy nomination for his adaptation of Ray Bradbury's short story The Jar, which also boasts an appropriately eerie minimalist musical score by frequent Alfred Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The pilot for the long-running CBS sitcom The Andy Griffith Show was seen on February 15, 1960, as an episode of The Danny Thomas Show, "Danny Meets Andy Griffith." As originally conceived, Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith) was not only the sheriff of the sleepy North Carolina town of Mayberry, but he was also the mayor, justice of the peace, and newspaper editor. Child actor Ronny Howard (who, as Ron Howard, would in adulthood enjoy a spectacularly successful career as a film director) was seen in the pilot as the widowed Andy's son Opie, but Frances Bavier played an entirely different role than she would in the actual series, while Frank Cady rather than Hal Smith was cast as town drunk Otis Campbell. While there would be changes in concept and casting, the laid-back character of Andy Taylor "clicked" with TV audiences, ensuring that The Andy Griffith Show would join the Monday night CBS lineup come October 3, 1960. Introduced as regulars during season one were of course Andy Griffith, Ronny Howard, and Frances Bavier (now as Aunt Bee, housekeeper for Andy and Opie Taylor), with the significant and salutary addition of Don Knotts as Andy's tightly wound deputy Barney Fife. The rapport between Andy and Barney contributed mightily to the series' success during its shakedown season, with nominal leading character Andy often voluntarily taking a back seat to Barney's overzealous antics. Subsequent additions to the cast included Jim Nabors as bucolic gas station attendant Gomer Pyle (later spun off into his own series, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.); George Lindsey as Gomer's cousin, Goober Pyle; Howard McNear as dithery barber Floyd Lawson; and Hal Smith as the aforementioned Otis Campbell. Taking advantage of Andy Taylor's widower status, the series' writers tried to pair the character off with a number of eligible young ladies, beginning in the first season with Elinor Donahue as drugstore sales clerk Ellie Walker. But only when Aneta Corsaut joined the cast as Opie's schoolteacher Helen Crump did Andy find the "right" girl. Indeed, Andy and Helen would become engaged during the series' final season. Conversely, Barney Fife had but one steady girlfriend, Thelma Lou, played by Betty Lynn.
Don Knotts left the series at the outset of its sixth season (the show switched from black-and-white to color at the same time); it was explained that Barney had accepted a deputy position in Raleigh, permitting Knotts to make a handful of memorable return guest appearances. Barney was briefly replaced by Deputy Warren Ferguson, played by Jack Burns; later on, Goober Pyle became Andy's unofficial deputy. The post-Don Knotts episodes brought forth several other new recurring characters: Jack Dodson as town clerk Howard Sprague, Paul Hartman as handyman Emmet Clark, and Hope Summers as Aunt Bee's best friend, Clara. During the Emmy-winning series' eighth season, Andy Griffith decided to leave the show. At this point, Ken Berry was added to the cast as widowed farmer and later town councilman Sam Jones, with Buddy Foster as Sam's son Mike and Arlene Golonka as Sam's girlfriend, Millie Hutchins. After the final telecast of The Andy Griffith Show on September 16, 1968, the series continued for three additional seasons under the title Mayberry RFD, with Ken Berry taking over as star and with most of the familiar Andy Griffith Show supporting characters still in attendance. One of the most consistently popular sitcoms of all time, The Andy Griffith Show lasted 249 half-hour episodes, and also spawned the high-rated 1986 TV movie Return to Mayberry. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi