The Andy Griffith Show Episode Review: “Gomer the House Guest”

I had an opportunity to watch this episode a couple days ago while my daughters were getting themselves ready for bed and, as I figured it would be, it turned out to be somewhat predictable. However, despite that, it was actually a funnier episode than I expected it to be.

Jim Nabors always managed to steal scenes with his Gomer Pyle character (one of the main reasons he ended up with his own spin-off show, I think) and this episode was no exception. On one hand, he was keeping his hosts awake at all hours doing everything from sawing to vacuuming. But, at the same time, it was also a bit hard to fault him because losing his job did disrupt his routine considerably and, as he mentioned, the lack of work was preventing him from sleeping. Not to mention, Wally (Trevor Bardette) did overreact considerably when he fired Gomer, especially (as the episode proves) since Gomer was such a big reason for his success.

Another thing I found I liked about this episode was the way the writers had Andy’s stress/lack of sleep carry over into his day. I don’t think this episode would have been as entertaining had Andy acted completely normal (other than maybe being sleepy) and it was nice that the writers realized that and had him be much more short tempered as a result of his problems. If nothing else, it showed he was human.

As I said before, this episode is somewhat predictable and it isn’t too hard to figure out how, exactly, it is going to end, especially when Gomer starts fixing cars in Andy’s driveway. However, despite that, the episode proved to be much funnier than expected and was very entertaining. As a result, even though there were no surprises as far as the ending is concerned, it is an episode I would recommend taking the time to watch.

My Grade: A