Man in a Hurry

We should all be thankful that Jim Nabors changed his Gomer voice after this because it just sounds so wrong. I know it's because we later heard the voice we came to know and love but this first version is quite strange to hear.

"Man In A Hurry" is without a doubt, one of the all time BEST episodes (if not The Very Best) ever written!... So real a presentation of a small town and their calm traditional world of daily habit and familarity... A Stand Out Comedy with incredibly funny scenes, like where two old women the up the entire city's party line talking about their feet falling asleep 😂 Everyone always acting so calm and serene while the outsider Man In A Hurry is hysterical with total non-belief... So much of this episode is Right On Target... A True Comedy Classic TV Masterpiece.

This episode works because the man in the title can't sit still. He has to be somewhere and nothing can deter him. It's Sunday, and nothing normally would be done. On Sunday, the whole town shuts down and people sit back and enjoy the silence. The guy needs his car repaired and the mechanic who could manage it doesn't work on Sunday. Great kindness and patience are shown to the man and he harumphs and complains over and over. While we don't meet Gomer for the first time, he is much more visible and critical to the plot. Eventually, silence takes a stance. Nice writing and a true philosophical episode.

Ironically, Robert Emhardt appeared in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock presents entitled "Road Hog" in December of 1959. In it he played a man who was NOT in a hurry, in fact he was an obnoxious road hog and so caused the death of a injured man. Later in the episode, he was now a man in a hurry as the tables were turned on him and he was desperately trying to get to a hospital before he died of poisoning. It makes you wonder if he was chosen on purpose for this episode of Andy Griffith as a tongue in cheek tribute to that episode.

Whenever I have trouble shutting my mind off in order to get get some sleep, I think of the final shot in this episode.

Nothing says "relax" any better, anywhere.

Should have won an award.