The Haunted House

Plot

Barney and Gomer try to retrieve a baseball from a supposedly haunted house and find some strange goings on inside.

Summary

Opie loses his baseball in the old Rimshaw House and is scared off by what he thinks are ghosts. Andy sends Barney out to fetch the ball. Barney forces Gomer to come with him, and they are both scared away by what they, too, believe are ghosts. Andy takes the two of them to the house and after they see and hear peculiar things, Andy discovers the true spook is two moonshiners who have rigged up the house to keep people away.

Trivia/Notes

This episode reportedly inspired the movie, "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken," starring Don Knotts and a few of his "Andy Griffith Show" co-stars.
Opie's friend Arnold was formerly a rival, when he came to town as the Spoiled Kid.
Barney refers to the Twilight Zone in this episode.
The Rimshaw house is actually the home directly to the right of the Taylors. Crew added bushes and shrubbery to give a more dilapidated look.

Quotes

Otis: (chanting but not in the jump rope) SLOW IT DOWN, AND LET ME IN, OR I'LL GO OUT, AND GET SOME GIN!

Barney: We'll give him a sobriety test...I know, we'll have him jump rope.
Otis: Me, jump rope? If anybody saw me doing that they'd KNOW I was drunk.

Barney: All I'm saying is that there are some things beyond the ken of mortal man that shouldn't be tampered with. We don't know everything, Andy. There's plenty going on right now in the Twilight Zone that we don't know anything about and I think we aught to stay clear.
Andy: Wasn't it you that said we got nothing to fear but fear itself?
Barney: Well that's exactly what I've got - fear itself.