CD Giveaway - Sam Shrieve, "Bittersweet Lullabies"
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The current student at Berklee College of Music has a rock 'n' roll pedigree, but delivers a pleasing and diverse collection of soft pop on his debut record. Enter our contest for your chance to win!
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Rating: Country: USA Release Date: February 14, 2006 Distributor: Paramount Home Video Cast: · Andy Griffith · Don Knotts · Ron Howard · Frances Bavier · George Lindsey · Howard McNear · Aneta Corsaut · Betty Lynn Related Sites: ·IMDb: The Andy Griffith Show
Grade: A-
There are places in North Carolina that are still very much like Mayberry. Like Olivia, where the mail goes out when they collect enough for the truck to come. Or Mount Airy, the town which was the basis for Mayberry, and where the classically trained actress Frances Bavier chose to live out the remainder of her days living the simple life of her character, Aunt Bee, after the Mayberry shows had run their course. But, if you can't travel to those places, you can always take a virtual trip, courtesy of this DVD collection from Paramount Home Video.
Season Five of the perennial favorite Andy Griffith Show opens with Opie developing a crush on his teacher when his dance class partner is out one day and he ends up with Helen as a partner. Even though Andy never really commits to Helen, the competition between a father and son for the same woman isn't a comfortable one -- particularly when Opie's gift for his new girlfriend is a pair of 80-cent stockings!
Not that Andy doesn't put stress on his relationship with Helen -- especially when he gets her to undertake the education of Ernest T. Bass (Howard Morris) who comes back into town with a sackful of rocks, leaving a string of broken windows in his wake. The result? Ernest falls in love with her. Some teachers just can't afford to give a student special attention.
Ernest T. isn't the only Mayberry regular who wants to turn himself into someone better. The town drunk, Otis Campbell (Hal Smith), wants to straighten out his act. Okay, it's not exactly his idea -- it's Barney's, who decides Otis needs help. An intervention, before the word became the basis for reality television. Of course, the help is also going to come from Barney, who knows all his psychology from a twenty-five cent trivia magazine.
Don Knotts leaves the show late in the season -- no explanation, he's just gone. Maybe he got upset when he lost his run for sheriff. (Of course, running Andy as a write-in candidate was Barney's idea in the first place.)
There are a good deal of guest-stars this season, as well. Don Rickles plays Newton Montroe, a stranger in town selling cheap goods from his car. Barney buys a fur stole for Thelma's birthday, but Andy get suspicious that the man is selling stolen goods. Soon, the other townspeople find that the items they've bought are all cheap junk that falls apart quickly. But is Newton a crook, or just a guy with truly horrible luck? Later, Jerry Van Dyke brings his nervous banjo-picking personality to this season in the final episode, "Banjo Playing Deputy". When Andy feels responsible for Jerry's unemployment, he hires him (at Aunt Bee's urging) to help around the courthouse. But when purse-snatchings start occurring at the carnival in Andy's absence, Jerry takes it upon himself to put on Barney's discarded uniform and do a little patrolling of his own.
These black and white masterpieces of wholesome comedy are presented in crystal clarity. Collected on five discs in three slimline cases, the only thing this set is missing is a few special features. A couple of commentary tracks would have been nice, either by a cast member or a television historian. Then again, the addition of any of that fancy stuff might detract from the simplicity inherent in the spirit of The Andy Griffith Show.
Previews on this set include MacGyver Season 4, Charmed Season 3, and The Brady Bunch Season 4.
The Andy Griffith Show The Complete Fifth Season
Disc 1
Disc 2
01. Opie Loves Helen
02. Barney's Physical
03. Family Visit
04. The Education of Ernest T. Bass
05. Aunt Bee's Romance
06. Barney's Bloodhound
07. Man in the Middle
08. Barney's Uniform
09. Opie's Fortune
10. Goodbye Sheriff Taylor
11. The Pageant
12. The Darling Baby
13. Andy and Helen Have Their Day
14. Three Wishes for Opie
Disc 3
Disc 4
15. Otis Sues the County
16. Barney Fife, Realtor
17. Goober Takes a Car Apart
18. The Rehabilitation of Otis
19. The Lucky Letter
20. Goober and the Art of Love
21. Barney Runs for Sheriff
22. If I Had a 1/4 Million
23. TV or Not TV
24. Guest in the House
25. The Case of the Punch in the Nose
26. Opie's Newspaper
Disc 5
"Nip it in the bud!"
27. Aunt Bee's Invisible Beau
28. The Arrest of the Fun Girls
29. The Luck of Newton Monroe
30. Opie Flunks Arithmetic
31. Opie and the Carnival
32. Banjo Playing Deputy
Just another day in the old sheriff's office.
L-R: Don Knotts, Andy Griffith
