I was watching the last 10 minutes of "The Andy Griffith Show" last night. It was the one where Aunt Bee is gone and Goober decides to fill in for her around the Taylor household. Howard Sprague called to say that the youth meeting had been changed to another night, and that Helen Crump had invited Andy to dinner. Goober, with no formal training to take phone messages, got confused and said that Howard had invited him to dinner after they had already eaten a big supper of spaghetti. Howard's mom, unaware that Howard had invited Andy to dinner, whipped up a spaghetti dinner. When he got home, Helen called to find out why Andy was so late coming to dinner. So with 2 spaghetti dinners down, he shows up at Helen's for some more spaghetti.
Helen's reaction to Andy was nothing short of hateful. She acted like he'd just kicked her in the shin and spit in her face. In fact, that was her reaction to Andy any time things weren't exactly peachy. I'm not sure why he put up with it. He dated several different women over the years before he met Helen, so one would figure he could find someone else pretty easily.
There was Miss Ellie. She ran the drugstore and they always got along well. There was Mary Simpson, the town nurse. She was my favorite, always nice, always
pleasant. Barney ended up ruining that relationship by being a third wheel. Even Charlene Darling would have been an improvement over Helen Crump.
Seems to me like Andy would have tried to date one of the Party Girls from Mount Pilot after being around the crabby Miss Crump for so long.....
3 comments:
So true! My daughter and I were watching an old Andy Griffin last night and marveling over Helen Crump's absolute nastiness. We wondered whether she was written that way or whether Aneta Corsaut played her that way. That's why I'm on-line searching it out today. Glad to find a confirming opinion.
I've had two wives and they were both more like Helen Crump than Miss Ellie or any of the other sweet ones. What were the names of the party girls from Mt. Pilot?
Wow, I'm glad someone else thinks so. I think the actress (Aneta whatever) played the role that way, as many of the lines could have been delivered in a more gentile or subtle way. I never understood what Andy saw in Helen. She wasn't even that attractive.
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