Mayberry Mondays #65: “The Bicycle Club” (12/07/70, prod. no. 0313)

Previously on Mayberry Mondays, I brought your attention to a change made by the vanilla pudding of television sitcoms in the episode “Community Spirit”: namely, that the closing credits of the show now feature poor-but-honest-dirt-farmer-turned-town-council-head Sam Jones (Ken Berry) fixing the shed window that’s broken in the opening credits by his idiot son Mike (Buddy Foster) during a game of catch.  In the episode following “Spirit,” last week’s “The Harp,” the show temporarily reverted back to the previous way of doing things…but with this episode, it schizophrenically flips back again with an even newer twist (that I’ll talk about at the end of our essay).

It also now superimposes the producer, director and writers credits over the action (previously, these credits were featured in a short “bridge” between the coda and the closing credits), as you can see in the below screen cap…

…which also features pedantic county clerk Howard Sprague (Jack Dodson) amusing himself with a little b-ball.  As Howard demonstrates that not only can’t white men jump they also can’t freakin’ shoot, Sam and the other two members of the Mayberry Quartet, village idiot Goober Pyle (George Lindsey) and fix-it savant Emmett Clark (Paul Hartman) come walking up the sidewalk to watch the ensuing hilarity whenever Howard has a basketball in his hands.

GOOBER: What are you doin’?

HOWARD: Well, what’s it look like I’m doing, Goober?

GOOBER: Well, it looks like you’re…tryin’ to sink baskets, ‘cept you ain’t sinkin’ none…

HOWARD (haughtily): That’s not my primary purpose…

EMMETT: Oh…well, they musta changed the rules since I used to play…

“Of course, I’m also the one who told Jimmy Naismith no one would ever play that game…”

HOWARD: No, the main reason for my little workout today is to develop muscle tone…

SAM: Ah…that’s why you have this…chart here, huh?

HOWARD: Yeah!  Yeah!  See…each different maneuver brings the different muscles into play, like…uh…well, like the trapezius here…the latissimus dorsi…the gluteus maximus…here, stand back and I’ll show you what I mean…

While Howard can impress folks with his knowledge of Latin body terms…he kind of stinks when it comes to basic basketball skills; his attempts to shoot a lay-up woefully miss the mark.  (Not that I’m claiming superiority in this area…but then, I don’t spend time on basketball courts demonstrating my inability to play the game.)  Goober finally figures out Howard’s demonstration: “Yeah, I get it—the muscles you don’t use sinkin’ baskets, you use chasin’ the ball…”

Sam informs Howard that the three of them are going over to the lodge to shoot some pool and wants to know if he’s up for a game.  But Howard is determined to stick it out (“I think I’ll just stick with the inflated spheroid,” he says) even if the neighborhood kids will soon be coming around to humiliate him, so Goober asks him for the basketball and does a little showing off by sinking one one-handed.

GOOBER: Didja see that, Emmett?

EMMETT: Yeah, I seen it…are we gonna shoot pool or ain’t we?

GOOBER: Nah, I think I’ll stay here for a while…you go ahead… (Sam takes the ball from Goober and fires one off…nothing but net) Hey hey! 

HOWARD: Pretty good…pretty good…

EMMETT: Sam?

SAM: Well…this is kind of fun…good exercise, too, as Howard says…

EMMETT: Well…suit yourself…I’m gonna go along…maybe I’ll bum into Elmo or Earl…

SAM: Okay, Emmett…

EMMETT: Don’t you guys overdo it…you’re gonna wind up lookin’ like that guy in the picture…

Yeah, another one of those Emmett jokes that no one in the audience seems to get but that amuses his idiot friends mostly out of politeness.  So Goober does a few “Globetrotters” moves, even joking that they ought to form “the Mayberry Globetrotters”…because nothing attracts single women more than white guys trying to play basketball.

SAM (as he sinks another shot): Hey, you know what we could altogether do that’d be fun, and… (The ball bounces back to him) …a lot of good exercise…take up bike riding…

GOOBER: On bicycles?

No, on horses.  (Schmuck.)

SAM: Yeah!  Yeah, I was reading an article about it the other day…it’s just as good for you as jogging—lot more fun, too…

HOWARD: That’s right…

GOOBER: I was a ridin’ fool when I was a kid…

There’s a startling revelation.

GOOBER: …fox-tails on the handlebars and everything…

HOWARD: Hey, you know what we could do…form a bicycle club!  You know, get together and go on regular weekend outings in the country!

GOOBER: Well, sure!  Right off the bat we got me, you, Howard, Emmett…

SAM: Yeah!  Yeah, that’d be a lot of fun!  (Stopping to think) Mm…wait a minute, Goob…

GOOBER: What?

SAM: I don’t think we ought to count on Emmett…

GOOBER: Well, why not?

HOWARD: Oh, yeah…I think I see what you mean…

“He’s referring to the sometimes strenuous nature of bicycle riding, Goob,” Howard tries to explain to his empty-headed chum…but because that has way too many big words, he’d be better off telling him “he’s too goddam old.”  It’s not that they wouldn’t welcome Emmett, you understand—it’s just that a man of his vintage might not be able to keep up with these three speed demons, and no one wants to be in the uncomfortable position of having to put Emmett in their bike basket should the old coot kick it during a weekend excursion.  So the three of them decide not to mention the genesis of the club…and this will present a problem, because this means that someone in the group is going to have to accidentally spill the beans to Emmett if we expect to have a plot this week.  The smart money would be on Goober, because he observes: “Well, you don’t have to worry about me—if he happens to ask if we’re formin’ a bicycle club I’ll just play dumb.”

But no…it’s not Goober.  The peace and tranquility of TV’s favorite sleepy little Southern city will be inadvertently rocked by bakery counter girl Millie Swanson (Arlene Golonka), who has innocently stopped by Emmett’s shop to ask about the state of her toaster.

EMMETT: Sure… (He walks over to a shelf) Here it is right here…just a wire pulled loose… (As Millie pulls out some money from her purse) Ah, there’s no charge…

Right now, Chris Vosburg is seated in front of his computer saying “I don’t believe it!  That sonuvabitch fixed something for the second week in a row!”

MILLIE: Oh!  Oh, well…thank you, Emmett!

EMMETT (laughing): That’s okay…

MILLIE: By the way—when is your club going on its first outing?

“Warning!  Warning!  Danger, Millie Swanson!”

EMMETT: What?

MILLIE: Your bicycle club!

EMMETT: Bicycle club?  Whaddya talkin’ about?

MILLIE: The one that Sam and Goober and Howard… (Her voice trails off)

Millie’s only response to this little fox paw is “oh, dear.”  Personally, she would have been better off faking a seizure.

EMMETT: Whaddya mean “oh dear”?

MILLIE: Uh…n-n-nothing…n-n-nothing…I’m sorry, Emmett…I must have been mistaken…well—thanks again for the toaster!

(Millie grabs the box but Emmett hangs onto it)

EMMETT: Wait a minute, Millie…I don’t think anybody’s mistaken…it seems pretty plain to me—Sam and Howard and Goober are startin’ some kind of a club…

MILLIE: Well…

EMMETT: Without me!

MILLIE: Oh…w-w-well, it’s very new, Emmett…I-I’m sure they just haven’t gotten around to asking you to join yet!

EMMETT: My three best friends in the whole world…freezin’ me out!

“If the world was gonna end at four-thirty in the afternoon, I wouldn’t even ask them the time of day!” screeches Emmett, as he removes his fix-it apron.  “And to top it off, if they think I’m gonna rush right out and try to find out why they don’t want to include me in, they got another think comin’!”  Emmett then makes a dramatic exit out of the fix-it shop, because he’s rushing right out to the council office to try and find out why they don’t want to include him in.

HOWARD: The truth of the matter is…we just haven’t seen you for a couple of days…naturally, the subject…just never…came up in the course of normal conversation, that’s all…

SAM: Yeah!

GOOBER: Okay…who spilled the beans?

As much as it pains me to say this…Goober is sort of a necessity in situations like this, even though this screen cap featuring an exasperated Howard would seem to contradict me.

EMMETT: I found out, that’s all!

SAM: Look…Emmett…uh…I…you got this thing all wrong…but I’ll admit, you’re entitled to an explanation!

EMMETT: I don’t want no explanation!  I ain’t interested in your club!  (He pulls a shirt off of Sam’s desk) What’s this thing?

HOWARD: Well, that’s our new jersey with our club emblem…the Red Devils…

EMMETT: Well, that ain’t the name I’d-a given ya…but it’s in the right direction…

Slightly off-topic…but during the years that I matriculated at Ravenswood Penitentiary High School, the “Red Devil” was our official mascot.  (The reason for this is because life in Ravenswood can be hell.)

HOWARD: Emmett…w-w-we were merely discussing exercise the other day at my house, and somebody mentioned bicycling…

SAM: Yeah, and then somebody said why don’t we form a little bicycle club and ride together on the weekends…now the fact that we didn’t mention it to you is nothing against you personally…

EMMETT: Oh, no! (He throws the jersey at Goober)

HOWARD: No!  I mean…we thought you wouldn’t want to give up your weekly pool games for bicycling, that’s all…

SAM: Sure!  That’s it!  And we thought you might think that bicycling was more for kids than for grown-ups!

HOWARD: Yeah!

GOOBER: Especially with them tired ol’ bones of yours…

The gift that keeps on giving.

EMMETT: Oh, so that’s it!  Now it comes out!  You were trying to keep me out of your bicycle club because you think I’m too old?

HOWARD: Emmett…

SAM: No…no…look, Emmett…bicycling can be very strenuous…especially if you haven’t done it in a long time…and we thought…

EMMETT: Me?  Too old?  (Scoffing) Ha ha…just because a man’s over…over forty you think he can’t ride a silly little kid bike?

I know a man who’s over forty and he can’t even fix a silly little kid bike.  Well, Emmett goes on an extended rant about how he has the stamina of “guys half my age,” pointing out that he’s up and down the stairs at Casa del Emmett all the time and lifting heavy appliances in the fix-it shop.  Finally he sits down and pouts.

SAM: Okay, Emmett…okay…we’re sorry…I mean, we didn’t know you’d be that interested, and…we didn’t have any right to make up your mind for you…

HOWARD: Sam’s right, Emmett…we apologize…

SAM: Yeah…

HOWARD (extending for a handshake): Welcome to the Red Devils!

So Emmett forgives his thoughtless friends, and there’s much celebratory backslapping until we dissolve to a shot of Howard riding a bike down Mayberry’s main thoroughfare and shouting out “Hey guys!” to Sam and Goober, who are waiting outside the council office with their bikes.  Also in attendance: Mike the Idiot Boy and Millie…who you would have thought would have been excluded seeing as how she couldn’t keep her big bazoo shut in the first place.

HOWARD: Well, it’s eight o’clock on the dot—where’s Emmett?

SAM: Aw, he’ll be here…

HOWARD: Boy, I can’t wait for the first hill we come to…when we stand right up on our pedals and put our entire gluteus maximi into play… (Laughs)

GOOBER: Hey!  Here comes Daredevil Clark now!

And indeed it is!  Emmett pulls up on a brand new bicycle—“hand brakes…ten-speed shift”—that he purchased at the drugstore run by resident Mayberry curmudgeon and lech Elmo Halpert (Vince Barnett).  Emmett looks down at Goober’s bicycle:

EMMETT: What’s that—a girl’s bike?

GOOBER: Well, no it ain’t no girl’s bike…well, it was, but my sister give it to me…I put this broom handle across the top, now it’s a man’s bicycle…

This is the guy who’s checking under your automobile’s hood, fellow Mayberrians.  Try getting a good night’s sleep after that.  Well, there’s a wide, wonderful world to be biked out there, friends and neighbors…so let’s saddle up!

MILLIE: Oh!  Sam!  I almost forgot…

SAM: What?  What?  (Millie hands him a box) What’s that?

MILLIE: Cream puffs!

HOWARD: Oh!

MILLIE: Now make sure you hold them by the string so they won’t get smashed…

SAM: By the…oh, Millie—this is a cross country trip!  I can’t ride with one hand…

MILLIE: Oh!  But I just got them fresh from the bakery this morning…

SAM: Oh, Millie…look…I…can’t…

GOOBER: Sam!  Hang ‘em on your handle bars!  (Gritting his teeth) Cream puffs!

Every episode…one laugh-out-loud moment.  Well, our Red Devils are soon off and racing around the countryside.  (For which I am grateful, because a lot of the stuff in this episode is visual and doesn’t require reams of dialogue or commentary.)

SAM (as the four of them are riding): How’s that new bike, Emmett?

EMMETT: Oh, great!  With these new gears there’s no effort at all…

HOWARD: It certainly is exhilarating!  Nothing like a bracing day in the country!

Another scene shift finds Sam, Goober and Howard still pedaling along…

HOWARD: There’s a good place to stop right up here…anybody for lunch?

GOOBER: Yeah—me!

SAM: How ‘bout you, Emmett?  (Looking over his shoulder) Emmett?!!

The three of them stop bicycling and take a glance down the road.  No sign of the fourth Red Devil.

HOWARD: We must have gone too fast for him…

SAM: Well…he’ll catch up…

Unless he was devoured by wolves or something…but as is so often the case, we simply aren’t that lucky.  So the others find a table to sit down and scarf down their cream puffs (the healthy choice for bicyclists everywhere!), then begin to tidy up.

HOWARD (to Sam): You think maybe we ought to go look for Emmett?

No!!!

SAM: Well, I don’t know…I… (He looks off into the distance) Oh…we won’t have to…look!

Emmett slowly but surely pedals into view.  “I don’t see how he can go so slow and keep that bicycle up at the same time,” observes Goober. 

EMMETT (pulling up to the others): Hi, guys!  Hope I didn’t hold you up!  Uh…I had a little bike trouble…the…uh…the chain was slippin’…

GOOBER: Well, I brought some tools…you want me to take a look at it?

EMMETT: No no no no…it…uh…it sorta cures itself when it sits for a while…

SAM: How are you feeling?

EMMETT (trying to hide the fact that he’s out of breath): Oh, great!  Great…I…I could have gone on for another six miles or so before lunch…but…as long as you guys conked out here, I…well…that’s…uh…great country out this road!  It gets even better up ahead there…

HOWARD: Uh…yeah…well, we didn’t figure on going any further, Emmett… (He gives Sam a wink) We thought we’d start heading back…

GOOBER: Whaddya mean?  We’re gonna… (Howard smacks him in the arm) Oh…yeah…yeah!

EMMETT: Uh…a little too much for you fellas, huh?

Sam tells Emmett that they’ll be happy to stick around and wait until he’s ready, but Emmett waves him and the others off.  “You guys could probably use a head start…I’ll just sit here and have my lunch and then I’ll follow you…I’ll catch up to you in no time at all.”

“Yeah, I’ll catch up to you after this power nap,” the screen cap would suggest here.  There is another scene shift, and we find Sam, Goober and Howard seated on the bench outside the council office.  “The moon’s come up,” observes Howard, which would indicate that Emmett the Bicyclist is a bit behind in his return to Mayberry.  Goober then spots Emmett slowly pedaling into town, and he starts to get up to greet Emmett but Sam stops him short…Emmett is never to know that he arrived back in town ten years later.  (Okay, I’m joking about that.)  The three men have a sad as the scene fades to black for a commercial.

Back from shilling Sanka and Jell-O, we find Emmett walking up to his fix-it shop to start another day of bidness…and he accidentally drops his keys on the sidewalk.  It is extremely painful for Emmett to reach down for the keys, but he makes the effort just as Elmo is walking by.

ELMO: Hi, Emmett!  Whatcha lookin’ at?

EMMETT (straining): I ain’t lookin’ at nothin’…I dropped my keys…

ELMO: Well, pick it up!

EMMETT (grabbing the keys): Whaddya think I’m doin’? (He sits down in one of the chairs outside the shop)

ELMO: Stiff, huh?

EMMETT: No, I ain’t stiff…maybe I caught a little cold in my joints…

ELMO (skeptical): Yeah…well, the reason why I come over is because you’ve been badmouthin’ my bike!  Tellin’ people the chain was no good!

EMMETT: I said it was slippin’!

ELMO: It was no such thing!  I checked it out before I sold it to ya!  If…if anybody’s chain is slippin’, it’s yours!

Oh, snap!

EMMETT: Oh, is that so?

ELMO: Look at ya…you’re so sore and stiff you can barely stand it!

EMMETT: Look…it’s only natural the first time out is a time to loosen up!  But you watch…I’ll be in perfect shape for that ride next Saturday!

Emmett struggles to get up out of the chair, and Elmo walks off with a “whatcha gonna do” look on his face.  The scene then shifts to the following Saturday, as Sam helps Emmett adjust his accoutrements (his backpack)…

SAM: Uh…you’re sure you’re gonna be okay now, huh Emmett?

GOOBER: You ain’t gonna hang back today, are ya?

EMMETT: Look—as long as this chain holds out, you don’t have to worry about me!  Come on, Red Devils—let’s go!

Wow!  It was just like being back in high school for a second there.  “Well…all we can do is keep our fingers crossed,” laments Howard as the four of them race off for another excursion.  Another dissolve finds Howard, Sam and Goober riding along a country road, the three of them looking behind their shoulders periodically to see if Emmett is still behind them.  And as it turns out, he is…far behind them.  He’s parked by the side of the road with one shoe off when a truck carrying several bales of hay rides by and honks the horn in recognition.  Then Emmett gets an idea—he hollers after the truck, and when it stops…

…I believe this is how Rosie Ruiz won the female category in the Boston Marathon in 1980.  The scene then shifts to Howard, Goober and Sam still pedaling down that same road…only they’re passed by the very same truck that now can claim Emmett as a passenger!  So when the three of them decide to take a lunch break…

EMMETT: I expected you guys a lot sooner than this!  What took you so long?  (Holds up a sandwich) Martha made chicken salad this week!

GOOBER (as he, Sam and Howard walk their bikes over): Well, how did you get here?

EMMETT: Same as you…

HOWARD: But we were ahead of you!

EMMETT: Oh…well…uh…you know that…uh…little side road about a mile out of town?  I took that…it ain’t any shorter, but it’s a better road, I guess…I really made time!

SAM: You sure did…

EMMETT: Well, are you guys just gonna stand there, or are you gonna sit down and have some lunch?

So the four them have their nosh, and after they’re finished it’s time to get back on the road.  But Emmett won’t be joining them, because he has a feeling that darn chain is going to start slipping again.  “If I don’t catch up with ya, I’ll see ya back in town,” he tells his chums.

SAM: Uh…you…uh…planning on taking that side road again?

EMMETT: Yeah…I might just do that…I can concentrate better on my ridin’ when I’m alone…

“…and in the back of someone’s truck.”  Because as you may have already guessed, Emmett resorts to the same chicanery on the way back…only this time, Sam, Howard and Goober spot Emmett’s bike in the back of another vehicle.

Busted, Paul Ryan!

HOWARD: Well…it’s obvious by now that Emmett isn’t up to our weekly rides…it’s too strenuous for him…

GOOBER: Yeah, I guess it is hard for him passing that bike of his in and out of them trucks…

Another laugh-out-loud moment.

HOWARD: Come on, Goober—you know what I mean…I mean when he actually rides…

SAM: Yeah…his pride got him into this thing and now his pride won’t let him back out…

MILLIE: Well, i-i-it is a club…I mean, maybe you could find a rule so that he could get out of the…club gracefully…

GOOBER: Yeah!  Yeah!  Maybe we could tell him that we passed some new bylaws…like an “Old Goat” amendment or somethin’…

And it’s Goober with the LOL hat trick!

HOWARD: Come on, Goober—this is serious…

SAM: We can’t pass any new laws…but we are gonna have to be firm…now he can’t go on any more of these outings and we’re gonna have to tell him so tomorrow…

HOWARD: Yeah, you’re right, Sam…we’re gonna have to tell him the truth…put it on the basis that it isn’t good for him!

SAM: Of course it isn’t!  If only Emmett had the good sense to realize that for himself…

Well, fortunately for the other Red Devils, an embarrassing intervention is going to be avoided because in the next scene, Emmett is observed carrying out his newly-purchased bike (under cover, as you can see) to his trusty DeSoto, parked at the curb.  Another scene shift finds Goober talking with Sam at his gas station (Goober’s, of course, not Sam’s), with the Goob asking Sam if he’s “kicked Emmett out of the Red Devils yet.”  As Sam patiently explains to his friend that they’re not “kicking him out” Howard breathlessly runs up to where the two of them are seated (I guess Mike the Idiot Boy is in charge of the farm today).

HOWARD: I’ve been looking for you over at the council office…guess what?

SAM: What?  What?

HOWARD: A strange thing just happened…I got a call from the bicycle shop over at Mt. Pilot…you know, I-I-I issue all the bike licenses in the county…well, they called to verify the registration on a second-hand bike they bought…and when I checked the files…guess who they purchased it from?  None other than Emmett Clark!

Dun dun DUN!!!

GOOBER: No foolin’…?

HOWARD: Yeah…they bought it about four-thirty yesterday afternoon!

SAM: Well, I’ll be darned…good ol’ Emmett; he finally came to his senses, eh?

HOWARD: I guess he was too ashamed to sell it back to Elmo…

Well, let’s see…he’s no sooner sold the bike when you go blabbing about it to everyone in Mayberry…gosh, I can’t possibly grasp the reason why he didn’t sell the bike to someone in town!  Goober spots Emmett shambling up to the gas station, and so everyone immediately pretends they know nothing about the bike (which in Goober’s case, won’t be too hard to do).

EMMETT: Men…you’re never gonna believe the kind of bad luck that’s come to Emmett Clark…

SAM: Bad luck?

EMMETT: The worst…my beautiful racing bike was stolen…

Unpossible!!!  Yes, Emmett eases out of his commitment to the Red Devils Bicycle Club by spinning a tale of pure bullsh*t, tragically relating how his precious bike was stolen in the dark of night by two desperate bike-thieving desperadoes.

EMMETT: I heard a noise about three o’clock…it was pitch-black outside…I quietly raised my bedroom window…

“…after dismounting my good lady wife…”

EMMETT: …and looked out…but before I could make an outcry, my beautiful racing bike was stolen by two armed desperadoes…

GOOBER: Well, if it was pitch-black how do you know it was two desperadoes?

(Howard nudges him in the ribs)

EMMETT: Oh, they usually work in pairs…

SAM: Yeah, that’s true…that’s true…

HOWARD: Yeah…

Emmett pleads poverty, and complains that he can’t afford another bike…so he’s dropping out of the bicycle club and will return the jersey at the first opportune moment.  Howard’s philosophical “Que sera, sera and all that” prompts a “What?” from Goober…and of course, Howard never quite learns that Goober needs to master the English language before moving on to others.  (Actually, I thought this was kind of funny considering that it can be interpreted as an in-joke: The Doris Day Show, whose theme song was Que Sera, Sera, followed R.F.D. on Monday nights during the 1970-71 TV season.)  He says his proper goodbyes to his bicycling compadres, and wistfully remarks: “The thing that really gets me down is that next Saturday I was gonna suggest we take a fifty-mile ride.”

With his friends allowing him to save face, Goober suddenly remembers once Emmett has left that he’s what passes for law enforcement in that town.  “Maybe I’d better get on the ball and put out a bulletin for those two desperadoes.”  Oh, my aching sides.

Well, things don’t improve with the coda—Goober and Howard are revved up for another Saturday of championship bicycling, but are discussing between the two of them the fact that Sam has begged out because he’s taking Millie up to Myers’ Lake for a picnic.  It seems that the day marks the anniversary of the day he first met Millie (the number isn’t specified, and probably because that “anniversary” seems a bit suspect) but Goob and Howard have no time for such frivolities—they have to search for America, and touch Indians.  And then they see Sam and Millie ride by…

…on a tandem bike.  Sam is holding another box of cream puffs by the string because as Millie says, “We don’t want those cream puffs to get smashed.”  Honestly, I don’t know how they keep it so fresh (and I don’t mean the cream puffs).

No sign of Cousin Alice (Alice Ghostley) this week, so Thrilling Days of Yesteryear’s patented Alice-o-Meter™ stalls at four appearances for the sitcom’s final season.  You may recall that when the character was introduced in “The New Housekeeper,” I mused as to whether or not those members of the cast not mentioned in the opening credits (the only actors afforded that honor besides Ghostley were Ken Berry, George Lindsey and the departed Frances Bavier) were kind of pissed about Ghostley’s credits coup.  I suspect there had to be some blowback about this because with “The Bicycle Club” we get this before the closing credits:

I noticed that Buddy Foster is depicted in his bedroom—his participation was kind of minimal in this one, which would hint to me that an extended scene featuring him might have been snipped for syndication.

Also, too: with “The Bicycle Club,” we bid drugstore proprietor Elmo Halpert a fare-thee-well; the episode marks his seventh and final appearance on Mayberry R.F.D.  Though he may have only been a minor presence in Mayberry (actor Vince Barnett also played “Elmo” in three TAGS episodes) he was one of my favorites; veteran character actor Barnett appeared in three more movies—including the Jonathan Demme-directed Crazy Mama (1975)—before his death in 1977.  Next week on Mayberry Mondays: disturbing revelations about our beloved “Fishface” in an episode entitled “Mike’s Project.”