The Best Episodes of The Andy Griffith Show

Andy and Barney are horrified when Aunt Bee decides to enter her prized pickles -- with a taste described as "kerosene cucumbers" -- in a county fair contest, hoping to claim first prize over the competition's perennial winner.

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: Harvey Bullock

Opie joins a secret club known as The Wildcats and is subsequently suspected of being the guilty party when the barn that the club meets in catches fire and burns to the ground.

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: Jack Elinson, Charles Stewart

Opie goes to the carnival to try and win a present for Andy's birthday but ends up spending all his money on a crooked shooting gallery. When Andy hears about it, he visits the gallery himself to teach the operators a lesson in straight shooting.

Director: Coby Ruskin

Writer: Fred Freeman, Lawrence J. Cohen

Aunt Bee is totally excited about her rose that she has been growing for over a year for the annual flower show. While Opie and Arnold are playing, however,they accidently destroy it.

Director: Lee Philips

Writer: Arnold Margolin, Jim Parker

Opie has a hard time finishing one of his homework assignments.

Director: Lee Philips

Writer: Seaman Jacobs, Michael Morris

Opie comes home talking about a "flower-making machine" owned by sisters Clarabelle and Jennifer Morrison, the spinsters who run the local flower shop. Andy and Barney do a little investigating -- and discover the contraption is actually a still and the kindly sisters are in the moonshine business!

Director: Gene Reynolds

Writer: Jack Elinson, Charles Stewart

Weaver's Department Store in Mayberry has some new competition -- in the form of Bert Miller, a traveling salesman who sets up shop in the town with a little help from Andy.

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: Ben Gershman, Leo Solomon

Barney learns that the car he's spent his life savings on is a lemon, and the little old lady he bought it from may have put one over on him. When Barney and Andy set out to return the car and arrest her, however, they find the hardest part may be just getting there.

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: James Fritzell, Everett Greenbaum

Barney is sent into a reputed "haunted" house to retrieve Opie's baseball and sees things that make even the skeptical Andy wonder if there really are ghosts, until Andy discovers who's really doing the haunting.

Director: Earl Bellamy

Writer: Harvey Bullock

Ed Sawyer, a mysterious stranger, arrives in Mayberry and disrupts the lives of the townspeople because he appears to know everyone's name, intimate details about their lives, and other startling facts about them.

Director: Don Weis

Writer: Arthur Stander

Aunt Bee, accused by Andy of being a hopeless gossip, sets out to prove that the men of Mayberry are even bigger rumormongers than the women.

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: Jack Elinson, Charles Stewart

When Andy has to leave Mayberry for the day to testify in a court case held in a neighboring town, Deputy Barney Fife is left in charge of the sheriff's department -- and he proceeds to arrest everyone in Mayberry!

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: Frank Tarloff

A notorious, nationally known con man dubbed "Gentleman Dan" becomes a hero of epic proportions to Aunt Bee, Opie and Barney when he is held for two days in the Mayberry jail.

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: Ben Gershman, Leo Solomon

Aunt Bee must leave Mayberry to care for a sick cousin, but not before scolding Andy and Opie for their messy housekeeping habits. The two are determined to clean house before she returns -- a project that suddenly accelerates when she phones to say she'll be coming home earlier than expected!

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: Frank Tarloff

The Women's Historical Society is all set to throw a celebration in honor of the last living descendant of a Revolutionary War hero named Nathan Tibbs, who has been traced to Mayberry. But their excitement turns to horror when they discover that the intended honoree is the town drunk, Otis Campbell.

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: Ben Gershman, Leo Solomon

Ellie Walker takes pity on a shy tomboy named Frankie Flint and is determined to give a "Cinderella" makeover to the young girl -- much to her gruff father's displeasure.

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: Frank Tarloff

Andy, faced with the unpleasant task of serving an eviction notice on a family who has fallen on hard times, tries desperately to come up with a way for the tenants to keep their home.

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: Ben Gershman, Leo Solomon

Barney's reputation as a deputy soars when he inadvertently helps capture Eddie Brooke, an escaped convict. But Brooke vows to escape again and head straight back to Mayberry to exact his revenge.

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: Ben Gershman, Leo Solomon

After being scolded by Aunt Bee, Opie decides to run away from home -- a plan that quickly turns into a series of eye-opening, and sometimes dangerous, adventures for Opie and a scare for both Aunt Bee and Andy.

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: Jack Elinson, Charles Stewart

Sheriff Andy Taylor must decide whether to intervene or let the problem work itself out when a bully harasses his son Opie at school.

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: Frank Tarloff

When a rookie policeman is sent to Mayberry for training, Barney mistakenly believes the man is his replacement and quits the police force to become a vacuum-cleaner salesman.

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: Jack Elinson, Charles Stewart

Will the town coffers run out of cash? It appears that way when Mayberry resident Frank Myers is stunned to discover that the township apparently owes him close to $350,000!

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: Jack Elinson, Charles Stewart

Andy is wary when Opie becomes fascinated by a wily hobo (Buddy Ebsen) who begins to influence the boy with his carefree, conniving ways.

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: Harvey Bullock

Two crooks masquerade as an FBI agent and a professional photographer in a scheme to honor the Mayberry Sheriff's Department for preserving the community's low crime rate -- but they actually have their eye on the town bank.

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: Paul Henning

Both Andy and Barney are offered membership in an exclusive men's club, but Barney manages to alienate the entire group by trying too hard to fit in -- an endeavor that threatens his chances at joining the elite organization.

Director: Bob Sweeney

Writer: Fred S. Fox, Iz Elinson