Reversed Scenes
A long-time reader, first-time poster here. This discussion of reversed scenes has finally cohersed me to post a message. There's another reversed scene that I can think of in addition to the two mentioned so far. In the Merchant of Mayberry, Andy and Barney are talking with Bert Miller on the sidewalk in front of the grocery store and Ben Weaver sees them from a distance and walks up to them. This is the first time that we see Ben in this episode. When Ben sees them from a distance and begins toward them, he is walking in front of the theater, but in the following shot he enters the scene from the opposite direction, coming from the direction of the courthouse. If I remember right, the shot where Ben is walking in front of the theatre is reversed, in order to make sense of the direction from which he enters the following shot. Only when you realize that he shouldn't have been walking in front of the theater do you start to question what's going on. The same shot in front of the theater appears again later in the episode when Ben discover's Bert's new stand, only this time the scene is not reversed. While we're talking about trained noticin', has anyone ever noticed that the quonset huts from Gomer Pyle, USMC are visible in the episode Goober's Contest? When the cars are lining up at the filling station, in the background there are those buildings, clear as day. Some vehicles are parked in front of them, but you can still identify the buildings. I try to read the digest every day, but I might have missed this being mentioned. My apologies if I'm pointing out something already discussed. Travis "No thanks, Leon." Travis K. Miller MA 139 Coordinator and Instructor, Dept. of Mathematics Doctoral Candidate, Dept. of Curriculum & Instruction Purdue University Office: MATH 445 - Office hours: W 1:30-2:30; F 12:30-2:20 ___ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://mail.wbmutbb.com/mailman/listinfo/wbmutbb_wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
Party Lines
On the topic of party lines...I'm 35 years old, and I've never met another person my age who knows what a party line is. My grandparents built their current home in 1964, and they continued to have a party line into the mid-1980s. I remember being told to ignore the phone because it wasn't the "right ring." My grandmother finally had her fill of a couple of old gossipin' women always tying up the line, and they changed over to a private line (no, she wasn't dealing with the Mendlebright sisters!). I remember that when they changed over, the phone company took the old rotary telephone because it was original phone company property. So maybe the issue withe the phones in Mayberry was that the local phone company didn't want to spring for new telephones. Of course, if the utilities were all managed together, the money probably went to paving around the gas works instead. Travis ___ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
In Honor of Andy
To honor Andy tonight, I made spaghetti for dinner. I used a secret ingredient in the sauce. And as we ate, we watched one of my wife's favorite episodes, Dinner at Eight. Thank you Andy, and God Bless. ___ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
Episodes without courthouse scenes
Hi all- I was recently watching the episode about Frank Meyers, and it occurred to me that there were no scenes in the courthouse in that episode. I wonder how many other episodes that took place in Mayberry (I'm excluding things like the trip to Hollywood) have no courthouse scenes? Travis P.S. Would you believe that I never saw this episode about Frank Meyers until I received the set of DVDs? All these years, I'd seen all the other episodes countless times on the TV, and somehow I always missed this episode and didn't know it. Seeing it for the first time was like seeing what the Mayberry citizens did the "rest" of the time! ___ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
Floyd's Hair
Last night I was thinking (without a bucket, maybe that's my problem) about who cuts Floyd's hair. Do you think he cuts it himself? Maybe our Allan has a thought on it - maybe the actor of the man has studied on it when preparing for his alter-ego. ___ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
Re: What did Opie say?
Brenda- I haven't seen the episode lately, but if memory serves, Opie says something to the effect that he doesn't know what the make "maroon" looks like. In other words, he thinks it's the name of a type of car instead of a color. Travis ___ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
Thelma Lou's Church
We were watching "Man in a Hurry" last night, and it occurred to me that Thelma Lou wasn't at church when Barney was telling Andy his plans with her for the afternoon. Now it could be that she had already attended and headed home, but then I got to thinking: does Thelma Lou appear at the All Soul's Church in any episode? It seems to me that all the other regular characters appear there at one point or another. There must be another church across town. ___ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
Phosphates
Now I'm only 36 years young, but I've had phosphates. They're still served around Indiana at old drive-ins and diners. They're basically flavored sodas that result from mixing a flavor with soda water. My favorite is cherry. One diner that I've been to actually sells "cola phosphates" that are cola flavored. I'm not sure that there is much medicinal value any more than Coke and Pepsi claimed when they first came on the scene. One popular flavor of phosphate (especially in the midwest) is the "Green River." It's actually a trade-marked soda that's bright green with a strong lime flavor, but shops call their own mixes by the same name. There ought to be an ordinance against that. Travis ___ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
Back to Nature
I was watching the episode "Back to Nature" the other night, and I noticed something curious in the scene that starts just after we learn that Opie has gone off by himself into the wilderness. When coming back from the commercial break, while Andy is talking to the boys Barney and Gomer are both getting ready to go hunt for Opie. Both of them seem to tie their left shoes four times while Andy is talking, but then they both quickly tie their right shoes only once. Must be some survival skill that Barney had already taught to Gomer. Travis ___ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
Mayberry Moment
We had a family get-together over a fish fry this week. My great uncle was telling a story about a man in town that my great-grandfather didn't have much appreciation for. A guy who fell into money and liked to flaunt it around town. He said, "I mean this guy, he would go to the barber shop, and he would tell them that he wanted a haircut, but he didn't want it to look new! Can you imagine that?!" Yes, yes I could! Travi ___ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
John Masters & Clara Edwards: Related??
I've had a bucket on my head a lot lately, and I've started wondering something: do you suppose that John Masters and Clara Edwards were related, maybe even siblings? Let's look at the facts: A- Both take an awful lot of pride in what they do, working to maintain their reputations (John Masters with the choirs and dramas, Clara Edwards with pickles and roses) 2- Both tend to take issue with what others are doing, causing a big moulage and then leaving it for others to deal with the effects C- They share an appreciation of music, with Clara playing the church organ They even tend to resemble each other, I think. While it's true that John refers to Clara by both her first and last name "Clara Edwards," don't you suppose this is a result of the strict and formal environment in which they were raised? Maybe someone should do some research on that ancestry.com website. I hear that they have god machines, almost as good as down at the bank. Travis ___ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
What Calvin Coolidge Said
Around here we have a home improvement store called Menards and they put quotes and the like at the bottom of each page of their weekly advertisement. This week they had "Patriotism is easy to understand in America; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country." They attributed it to Calvin Coolidge. There weren't any quotes from Mark Twain. Travis ___ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
Alumni Sighting
I was watching an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati on Antenna TV this week, and in the opening scene Jennifer was on a date in a French restaurant. I had the feeling that I'd been there before, and then I realized that the waiter was the same French waiter from the time Andy and Barney went to the big city. Sure enough, the same guy Roger Til played both parts. A visit to imdb shows that he played the part quite a bit in a lot of tv shows during his 92-year life. He was actually born in Paris in 1902. Travis ___ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
ME TV Friday
If you get ME-TV in your area, this Friday night they are showing "Return to Mayberry." Just saw the commercial for it this morning. Travis ___ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
Mayberry Cafe on Patrol
The Indianapolis TV news just ran a story of the Danville, Indiana police department using the Mayberry Cafe's squad car to pull people over this week. But in the holiday/Mayberry spirit, it's to reward folks for good driving. Here's a link to the story: http://www.theindychannel.com/news/local-news/drivers-get-big-surprise-after-getting-pulled-over Travis ___ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
Favorite Musical Score Moment
Here's a question for everyone. Sometimes the music that accompanies the story in episodes of TAGS almost becomes an additional character in a scene. What is your favorite scene where the music adds to the moment? Now, to be clear, I'm not talking about someone playing music or singing in a scene (so that rules out good 'ol 14A, Ange's guitar, and Barn's harmonica), but the accompanying score by Earle Hagan and others. For me, it's in Aunt Bee the Warden. That boogie playing when Otis descends the ladder gets me every time. Travis ___ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
Piano benches, stools and what not
This mention of the Taylors having a piano bench one time and a piano stool the next reminded me of something else I've previously noticed. In one episode, the Taylors' dining room table, which is usually rectangular, is instead round. Maybe they switched it with the kitchen table. Anybody know what episode that was, or if it happens more than once? (Don't wait on me to give the correct answer. I don't remember. But I think it was a color episode where I noticed it). Travis ___ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/