Andy and the New Mayor

Okay, at least where I live the Mayor is an elected official of the CITY and the Sheriff is an elected official of the COUNTY. The Mayor has absolutely zero authority over the Sheriff. This episode annoys me on other levels besides this. The cute small town feel is very much lacking in this episode. The main reason I like to watch The Andy Griffith Show is to forget about political things that is shoved on us from almost every television channel. I want the peaceful, innocent feel of Mayberry. It is very lacking in this lackluster offering from Season Three. And while on I am on the topic of Season Three, I cannot stand Andy's girlfriend Peggy. She is very annoying in my opinion.

N Andy and the New Mayor the balance of Mayberry is being upset. But first we must discuss Barney's new French perfume he is set to unleash on Juanita.. Everyone thinks it smells like paint. And this joke will be inserted several times...getting funnier and building to a great payoff line by Barney explaining to the new Mayor the smell is because he's been painting.

The new Mayor is made to be much the opposite of the former one. He's all about running a town rigidly and machine-like. The nature of Andy running his department in an easy-going way runs counter to the new Mayor's non-bending rules. Barney , caught in the middle, is at his nervous best as the Mayor's threats escalate. Barney's attempts in getting the Mayor not to give the department a bad report resulting in some all-time classic Barney dialogue - and, fantastic Barney physical comedy.

The new Mayor is not endearing and looses the charm of our previous lovable Mayor played by Dick Elliot. No longer will the Mayor of Mayberry be a beloved character in the cannon after this. That said the new Mayor's insolence and intolerance, played too well by Parley Baer, does work well in this one episode. Plus, the new Mayor gets a good end lesson himself with some help by another aggressive type, a bear!

Would it have been too much to see Andy Punch the blowhard in the mouth and knock him on his keester?

I wanted to punch him in the mouth and I'm not usually a violent person.

I didn't like this episode because it just ticked me off knowing that there are people like this that get away with this kind of behavior all the time.

...go down to the corner where you see the three dogs laying in the road, turn right... then, go a little ways where you see a big rock that looks like a bear and turn left. Go down the crooked road, crookidy, crookidy, crookidy and look for the big oak tree that fell over. If you get to the creek, you went too far.

The new mayor walks in and decides everything being done at the Sheriff's office is wrong. To rule followers, he has a point. But there is more to it than that. We have seen Andy run his office by the seat of his pants and upstaged several who were on his case (including his own deputy). This episode lacks much fun, but it has a message.

This is the first episode to feature Parley Baer as Mayor Roy Stoner, an antagonistic character in the mold of local businessman Ben Weaver. This mayor is pushy, bossy, condescending and he makes you want to see how Andy will eventually put him in his place. This episode starts with Andy getting ready to release a prisoner early so he can get his crops in. Andy's common sense approach clashes with the Mayor's "by the book" approach when Stoner forbids Andy to release the man before his sentence is up. Of course Andy lets the man go with the understanding that he return in a few days once he finishes with his crops. In the meantime the Mayor discovers Andy has gone against his instructions and decides to wait in the Sheriff's office with Andy and Barney for the mans return. When he doesn't return at 3pm as promised, the three of them take a ride out to the prisoner's farm to see what happened. In between all this there are funny scenes with Barney who is so intimidated by the new mayor, he reacts nervously every times he comes in contact with him. It has been said that Andy Griffith never liked the character of the Mayor which is probably why he only appears in a half dozen or so episodes. Regardless, this a funny episode that marks the debut of a colorful new recurring character.