User Reviews

This was, I believe, the finest episode they ever had involving other police officers! The plot centers around a State Police detective named Horton, played by the raspy-voiced Ken Lynch who played cops on virtually every TV series in the 60s and 70s it seems, coming in to see the sheriff. Barney tells him Andy is gone and he isn't sure when he'll be back, but he and the sheriff work closely together and he'd be glad to help the state detective himself.

Horton says he'll wait. Then Barney goes to great lengths to make sure the man notices his picture in a framed newspaper headline complete with a big photo of Barney, about him cracking "The Walker" case—that came from an episode when Andy and Ellie schemed to make Barney think the drug store had been robbed and in the course of arresting the first tramp he found, Barney caught an actual crook. The detective says, "Maybe there is something you can do for me." An eager Barney says "Yes?" When the detective asks, "Tell me where Sheriff Taylor lives and I'll try to find him there." An exasperated Barney moans out, "24 Elm Street." Later, we see the detective telling Andy about a wanted man, called Doc Malloy, who is believed to be in the area. They don't want to move in on him now because they think he is meeting his partner and they want to catch them both. All he wanted from Andy is for him to make sure to stay out of the way, telling him that he should just stick to catching chicken thieves and whatnot.

Just after Andy tells Barney that they have to stay out of the whole thing, Horton shows up with Malloy (Allan Melvin), explaining that he saw the cops and they had to bust him. Horton wants to keep Malloy in the Mayberry jail for a few days while they continue to try to find his partner.

Since they brought Malloy in while Barney was away, when the deputy enters the courthouse and finds the prison asleep, he decides to go undercover. Dressed in his civilian suit, Barney slips into the cell and pretends to have been there for some time, telling Malloy that he has a plan to escape, claiming he can pick the lock to the cell.

Malloy is reluctant to tell this new prisoner anything but happy to get sprung with him until he notices that same framed picture of the deputy on the wall. When Barney uses his palmed key to open the cell, while he is playing his role, Malloy goes to the rack in the back room and grabs Barney's gun and locks him up before escaping.

Of course, Andy and the state trooper soon learn about Barney's blunder. While a discouraged Barney goes to the cleaners to clean up his suit that got covered with the hair of Floyd's dog that had recently visited the cell, Andy tries to cheer him up. At the cleaners, Mr. Goss mumbles something about Barney's being the 2nd suit today covered with dog hairs. He says a woman brought in the other one, a woman driving the car right outside. Andy notices the car has a trailer hitch and deduces that Malloy's partner is a woman and they are staying at the town's trailer park. So he and Barney go there.

Barney peeks in the window of one trailer, ignoring the "Just Married" sign to see a couple spooning. Of course they spot him, which leads to a comical epilogue scene involving the couple reporting a peeping Tom. Before that, Barney, after nearly being caught by Malloy, winds up doing a smart, and risky, maneuver that allows the crooks to be captured by Andy.

This episode had almost everything. Barney featured prominently, Allan Melvin (Sgt. Hacker from Gomer Pyle, Cpl. Henshaw from Bilko, and about 8,000 other roles in a long career), a condescending state cop getting put in his place by Andy, and even a funny bit with Barney, Opie and Floyd's dog. I particularly liked that although Barney did goof in his quest to break the big case, it wasn't because he did something stupid, it was just overlooking that photo of himself on the wall. And Barney himself came up with the bright idea that led to the crooks being caught. Andy didn't save him from his own stupidity, like he often did.

Warning do not read unless seen episode.

This episode is another honorable mention, once again we see both Andy and Barney do some police work. I really like how well done this episode is there are a lot of amusing moments but to me what drives this is the police plotline and Andy and Barney as usual doing things their way.

It's funny when Barney is practically bored out of his skull and is just itching for action which is understandable, he's a policeman it's his job to fight crime. He of course finally gets his action when both Andy and Barney must look after a prisoner whom has a partner yet unidentified. He does have a really good idea at drawing out the information, except there is just one really big problem with his plan as he forgot to account for his news article on display.

It's just funny how Barney is just playing the role of a crook like someone that has seen a few too many 20's gangster pics and is just imitating them. There is one moment when Barney breaks his cover in his performance, I remember thinking "stupid don't say that". Of course, we see Barney's scheme backfires on him, and the perpetrator gets away.

Despite this snafu it leads both Andy and Barney to do some detective work. Really liked seeing how both do their business almost makes me wonder why both actors never got to have a detective show of their own. Anyway, seeing how both approach things goes to show how simplicity and common sense are the way to go.

Really liked the trailer park bust at the end, really cracked up when Barney picked a bad place to hide which is in front of a car and just as it was turned on, Barney tries pushing it back, "yeah Barn that's really going to work." But this all leads to a scene where Barney has a plan that works, which goes to show no one gets away from Andy and Barney.

Rating: 4 stars