Original Airdate
February 26, 1968
Plot
Emmett tries to buy Martha a mink coat for thier 25th wedding anniversary from a friend of Flora's, but when Martha catches him in a lie and sees him getting in the car with Flora, she thinks they are having an affair.
Notes
- Ronnie Schell's ("Duke Slater" from Gomer Pyle: USMC) 2nd appearance on "tags" (the first being "The Foster Lady" as the director for shooting commercials). This time as the fur salesman in Mt. Pilot.
- Flora is supposed to be Goobers girlfriend but they barely acknowledge each other in this episode.
- If you think the plot sounds familiar, you're right. It was done 16 years earlier on "I Love Lucy", season 2 episode 3: "The Anniversary Present", where Ricky tries to buy Lucy a pearl necklace as an anniversary present. This plot version however, adds an extension and twist to the version done on "lucy".
Spoilers:
Similarities between these 2 plots are that both Emmett and Ricky lie about going somewhere else when they're really going to look at a present while being in the company of another female. Emmett says he's going bowling with Andy so he can go with Flora to look at furs, and Ricky said he was going somewhere with Fred Mertz so he could go upstairs and have Grace Foster show him some pearls. Both characters got caught in a lie, and both wives thought the husband was having an affair, as a result.
Differences between the 2 plots were that once Lucy found out about the lie, she used the painters outfit and scaffold to lower herself down the side of the apartment building to spy on Ricky and Grace through the window. Being Lucy, she naturally made a mess with the paint when she climbed through the window, and after finding out the whole truth she tracked paint into the apt. and got it all over Rickys suit when she hugged him.
With Emmett, the plot gets extended and twisted. He changed his mind after seeing how expensive they were, and never got the fur coat and got her a bathrobe instead. Not knowing he got caught in his lie he was about to let Martha open it a day early, but Andy tries stopping him once he found out Emmett only got a robe instead of a coat, so that he could warn Emmett that Martha knew about the lie and was expecting a fur. Emmett ignores Andy, not knowing he was trying to warn him, and "commites" to let her open it anyhow. Now that it's too late for Emmett to renege, Martha informs him she knows its a fur and Emmett starts to squirm as she starts opening it, but when Mrs. Pendleton makes a remark that makes Martha feel guilty about getting the fur when they really couldn't afford it, she decides that she cant accept it, and stops opening the package. Andy displays a look of "relief" but Emmett cant stop here. He procedes to "milk" it for everything he can get out of it by bragging on himself and how he was looking forward to seeing her opening and wearing the <quote> FUR <unquote>, and eventually he "flaps his mouth" enough for her to change her mind and now she decides to "accept it graciously". Before Martha can continue to open it, Andy steps in and convinces her to wait untill tomorrow to open it, knowing that Emmett is about to eat 9 or 10 inches of his own foot. This gives Emmett the rest of the night to go back out and buy the fur and save face by not getting caught in yet another lie.
Quotes
Andy to Emmett (in private): "You couldn't quit while you was ahead now could you? You blew it, you blew it. You stood right there and you blew it".
Cast
- Andy Griffith as Sheriff Andy Taylor
- Ron Howard as Opie Taylor
- George Lindsey as Goober Pyle
- Paul Hartman as Emmett Clark
- Mary Lansing as Martha Clark
- Alberta Nelson as Flora Malherbe
- Ruth McDevitt as Mrs. Pendleton
- Ronnie Schell as Bernie
Crew
- Directed by Lee Philips
- Written by Dick Bensfield and Perry Grant
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