A Visit to Barney Fife is the eighteenth episode of the seventh season and the 207th episode total of The Andy Griffith Show. It is the first episode of the seventh season to feature Don Knotts reprising his role as Deputy Barney Fife and the first time in a year since the season 6 episode The Return of Barney Fife. It is also the third episode guest-starring Knots since his departure from the show as the main character near the end of season 5, as well as in color.
Summary[]
Andy takes a trip to Raleigh to visit Barney and ends up making him a hero by solving a series of robberies.
Plot[]
Andy drops in on Barney at his new job at the Raleigh Police Department due to a phone call received. Once arriving, he is told by the secretary that Barney is in the Detective Bureau. Andy is initially elated that Barney has apparently moved up! However, when he enters the police chief's office, he finds Barney painting the walls. Barney and Andy exchange pleasantries and Barney shows Andy around the office, erstwhile playing himself up as an important person to the chagrin of his co-workers. Barney takes Andy to his "desk,” which is merely a stand-up writing podium unlike the desks of the other officers.
Barney shares with Andy that there is to be a job opening at the Raleigh Police. Andy says he is not interested but promises to meet with the chief, Capt. Dewhurst (Richard Slattery). Barney also tells Andy about the most recent case that has the police baffled: a string of supermarket robberies that each appear to happen in alternate locations just as the department gets a lead on one. Barney surmises to Andy that there must be someone leaking information to the robbers.
Afterward, Andy goes to lunch with Barney to his living quarters, a boarding house run by Ma Parker and her two sons and attractive daughter Agnes Jean. They give the appearance that Barney is "just like family.” However, when Barney talks about the supermarket robberies to them during lunch, while giving away confidential police information such as stakeout locations, Andy concludes that Barney may be the actual "leak" that is setting off the robberies by the Parkers. That afternoon, Andy learns the harsh truth from Capt. Dewhurst: Barney has proven himself incapable of big-city police work and the job that will soon be open is actually his.
Later that evening, Andy and Barney are sitting on the porch listening to a radio and Andy suggests that Barney come back to Mayberry to work. Barney replies that he has it good in Raleigh and cannot leave. While they are talking, the Parkers return home from "shopping,” as Barney puts it. Andy wonders why they all go together and why they only have a couple of small bags. A radio report comes on that an eleventh supermarket robbery has taken place, and Andy surmises that the Parkers indeed are taking Barney's "tips" and robbing supermarkets in other locations than where the police have staked out. Barney and Andy go to the market and Barney immediately shows his incompetence by trying to accost and arrest the store manager in full view of Capt. Dewhurst and his detectives.
The next day at lunch, the Parkers try to extract more information from Barney, but Andy decides to chime in by saying that the thieves won't hit the same place twice. That night, Andy and Barney go to the market that was robbed the night before and catch the Parkers red-handed.
Thanks to Andy, Barney is rewarded with an actual desk of his own and his job apparently saved.
Trivia/Notes[]
- In the credits, Jenkins and Peterson are mixed up as to who played who. Peter Madsen played Jenkins, while Charles Horvath is Peterson. Horvath played Peterson as well in "Barney Hosts a Summit Meeting" and Madsen played clerk of court in "Aunt Bee the Juror.”
- Richard Chambers, who played the Parker son Henny, would appear again in "Aunt Bee the Juror.”
- In Barney's room on the wall between the bed and sink hangs the newspaper that has Barney's cave rescue from season 4's Barney and the Cave Rescue.
- Andy asks Barney if he would ever be interested in coming back to Mayberry, mentioning that the deputy position was still open. That would mean there is no deputy and no mention of what happened to Warren Ferguson.
Goofs[]
Music[]
Quotes[]
Peterson: Fife! We're out of paper towels in the mens room!
"We were just relaxing before lunch"-Ma Parker
Gallery[]
