The Andy Griffith Show - The Complete Fourth Season

Amazon.com Goober fans, rejoice--the arrival of George Lindsay's popular character is just one of the homespun joys of The Andy Griffith Show's fourth season, which has been compiled on this five-disc set. Lindsay as Goober Pyle, cousin to Jim Nabors's Gomer, makes his debut in one of the season's funniest episodes, "Fun Girls," which is also the only time Gomer and Goober appeared together on screen. By season's end, Gomer would depart for his own series (season 4's final episode, "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.," would serve as the pilot for that program), but before then, he enjoyed some fine episodes, including "Andy Saves Gomer" (from a fire at the filing station) and "Citizen's Arrest" (a knockout showcase for Nabors and Don Knotts, who is topnotch, as always, as Barney Fife). Other supporting characters get a spotlight or two in season 4, including Howard Morris's Ernest T. Bass ("Hot Rod Otis, "Otis T. Bass Joins the Army") and Denver Pyle and Maggie Peterson's Briscoe and Charlene Darling ("Briscoe Declares for Aunt Bee"), but of course, the crux of the show remains Andy and son Opie (Ron Howard), who do stand-out work in the well-loved "Opie the Birdman," which addresses serious topics--death and responsibility--in the series' typically warm and humane manner. No supplemental features accompany the 32 black-and-white episodes, but that won't detract one bit from spending some quality time with the good people of Mayberry. --Paul Gaita