In Defense of The Bazaar

[Mayberry'sBadBoy]

In honor of Jack Burns recent passing I watched the season 6 episode The Bazaar again. The Bazaar is the first appearance of Warren Ferguson and IMO it's the best episode Warren appeared and one of the best color episodes for TAGs. For one thing Warren is treated like a New Character. He's not given Barney Material like A Warning from Warren or Otis the Artist (Which were originally written for Don Knotts before he decided to leave the show) and while Goober does help him drive the ladies to the courthouse he's not paired with him like he is in episodes like A Warning from Warren and The Cannon. There's also the fact that Andy's anger in the episode is understandable and not as bad as A Warning from Warren. He doesn't really start getting super mad until the Ladies Auxiliary throw their tantrums and the episode really highlights at how good Andy Griffith could do deadpan comedy (I still laugh when he tells Aunt Bea the courthouse has a riot gun and when Andy says he's not sure he's old enough to hear what he's going to say).

IMO there are two reasons that The Bazaar is considered a bad episode is how the supporting cast acts. Aunt Bea's behavior can be a bit annoying and the scene where everybody in Mayberry comes over to Andy's house to eat scrambled eggs is beyond cartoonish (It would've been better if everyone went to the diner and forced Andy to shell out money for them to eat). The second reasons is that the next episode is the infamous A Warning from Warren where Andy spends most of the episode in a really bad mood and Warren and Goober act extremely annoying. Had Warren's second episode been something more along the lines of Andy on Trial or Andy's Rich Girlfriend he probably would've been better off.

[Duster76]

With respect to "The Bazaar", I couldn't disagree with you more.

You said:

"For one thing Warren is treated like a New Character".

No he's not treated like a new character and that's part of the problem. The audience doesn't know anything about him except he's related to Floyd. There's no establishing backstory to help the character and get the audience on his side. Andy is the gatekeeper of the Mayberry universe, if he doesn't like the someone then how can the viewers be expected to like him. I believe at one point in the episode Andy refers to Warren as his "stupid" deputy. That's an insult and a very personal one. This coming from a man that in the past watched his deputy accidently discharge his firearm in the office, allow two criminals to escape twice in a matter of a couple of minutes, gave away the secret route to a gold truck among other blunders and had to ask another deputy to remove a rifle from his mouth. His tolerance in those situations compared to his lack of tolerance of Warren right off the bat essentially leaves the character hung out to dry.

"Aunt Bea's behavior can be a bit annoying"

The audience loves Aunt Bea, who are they going to side with, it's a no-brainer. I mentioned in another post on this topic, the Barney version of this episode "Andy Saves Barney's Morale", in that episode Barney makes a fool of himself while Andy's away for a few hours by arresting the entire town. This is episode 20 of the series, the audience knew Barney and were already invested in the character. The second half of the episode is Andy rehabbing the character so it concludes on an uplifting supportive note. There's nothing like that going on in this episode. The feeling of goodwill towards others which is part of the fabric of Mayberry is completely lost.

Andy Griffith responded to a question on Larry King about the Warren character and he blamed himself for the failure of that character to bond with the audience.

[vitoscotti]

The "Bazaar" and "Warning From Warren" are silly, terrific episodes.

[Mayberry'sBadBoy]

Originally Posted by Duster76

With respect to "The Bazaar", I couldn't disagree with you more.

You said:

"For one thing Warren is treated like a New Character".

No he's not treated like a new character and that's part of the problem. The audience doesn't know anything about him except he's related to Floyd. There's no establishing backstory to help the character and get the audience on his side. Andy is the gatekeeper of the Mayberry universe, if he doesn't like the someone then how can the viewers be expected to like him. I believe at one point in the episode Andy refers to Warren as his "stupid" deputy. That's an insult and a very personal one. This coming from a man that in the past watched his deputy accidently discharge his firearm in the office, allow two criminals to escape twice in a matter of a couple of minutes, gave away the secret route to a gold truck among other blunders and had to ask another deputy to remove a rifle from his mouth. His tolerance in those situations compared to his lack of tolerance of Warren right off the bat essentially leaves the character hung out to dry.

"Aunt Bea's behavior can be a bit annoying"

The audience loves Aunt Bea, who are they going to side with, it's a no-brainer. I mentioned in another post on this topic, the Barney version of this episode "Andy Saves Barney's Morale", in that episode Barney makes a fool of himself while Andy's away for a few hours by arresting the entire town. This is episode 20 of the series, the audience knew Barney and were already invested in the character. The second half of the episode is Andy rehabbing the character so it concludes on an uplifting supportive note. There's nothing like that going on in this episode. The feeling of goodwill towards others which is part of the fabric of Mayberry is completely lost.

Andy Griffith responded to a question on Larry King about the Warren character and he blamed himself for the failure of that character to bond with the audience.

With all due respect Andy's tolerance towards Warren in the episode was similar to his tolerance of Barney in Season 5. One only has to compare The Bazaar to Season 5s The Case of the Punch In the Nose or If I had a Quarter Million. Andy's tolerance towards Barney's antics were on the same level as The Bazaar which means that had Barney been in the role Andy probably would've acted the same way. Also, as for your stupid deputy comment in the Bazaar Andy made a comment in the episode that referenced the Perry Mason books (telling Warren he should have read The Case of the Pigheaded Deputy who was killed by a berserk Sheriff). However if we're going to go by insults Andy didn't hesitate to call Barney a Nut in several episodes and also threatened to kill him in one of the Fun Girls episodes.

[PracTz]

I'm with Duster here. Yes, there were times Andy could get very annoyed and angry at Barney's stunts and antics and he was NOT shy about it. However; the audience had had enough evidence that their friendship bond was too strong for Andy to never not have brotherly love for Barney even when he was chastising him. Before the audience had gotten any idea of whether there could have been any positive merits of the bond between Andy and Warren, Warren infuriated the whole of Mayberry and Andy was just as livid as the rest of the town with nothing to indicate that he had more than a grudging tolerance for Warren from that point on.

Just as 'Gilligan's Island' had to have the Skipper ALWAYS have an underlying warmth for Gilligan even when he was yelling and whacking Gilligan with his cap after Gilligan's latest lame stunt, 'TAGS' needed to have that with Andy and his deputy. So no surprise Warren was tossed out before the Season was over. Oh,and though the friendships never approached the close bond between Ange and Barn, Andy DID have an underlying warmth with nerdy Howard Sprague and even goofy Goober despite often being annoyed by their stunts.

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by Mayberry'sBadBoy

With all due respect Andy's tolerance towards Warren in the episode was similar to his tolerance of Barney in Season 5. One only has to compare The Bazaar to Season 5s The Case of the Punch In the Nose or If I had a Quarter Million. Andy's tolerance towards Barney's antics were on the same level as The Bazaar which means that had Barney been in the role Andy probably would've acted the same way. Also, as for your stupid deputy comment in the Bazaar Andy made a comment in the episode that referenced the Perry Mason books (telling Warren he should have read The Case of the Pigheaded Deputy who was killed by a berserk Sheriff). However if we're going to go by insults Andy didn't hesitate to call Barney a Nut in several episodes and also threatened to kill him in one of the Fun Girls episodes.

First let's look at two statements:

"For one thing Warren is treated like a New Character".

"Andy's tolerance towards Warren in the episode was similar to his tolerance of Barney in Season 5".

These two statements conflict. Warren is not Barney, the audience is just meeting him, they have no relationship with him. The viewer has no context to judge Andy's rage. As far as the audience knows Warren is a new hire who has screwed up in a major way right off the bat. On top of that his social skills need some work.

[Schmo]

Originally Posted by Duster76

Andy Griffith responded to a question on Larry King about the Warren character and he blamed himself for the failure of that character to bond with the audience.

How was that Andy’s fault? Did he tell Jack Burns how to play Warren? Or tell the writers how to write for him? Just how much influence did Griffith have over the the series?

[Mayberry'sBadBoy]

Originally Posted by Schmo

How was that Andy’s fault? Did he tell Jack Burns how to play Warren? Or tell the writers how to write for him? Just how much influence did Griffith have over the the series?

Andy and his agent Sheldon Leonard owned a significant stake in TAGS as a way to make sure the show had quality. This was largely done due to Griffith's fear of CBS trying to make TAGS a Beverly Hillbillies Clone. As such he had significant control over writing, casting and other aspects of the show in addition to being actor.

When Jack Burns was hired to play Warren he was worried that he would be given Don Knotts material. Andy assured him that this would not be the case; unfortunately Andy's assurance was a lie as most of the episodes Warren appeared in had been written with the understanding that Knotts would be coming back in Season 6. When that didn't happen they were slightly modified for the Warren character but it was still primarily written for Don Knotts. The only original episodes that weren't Knotts material were The Legend of Barney Fife and Wyatt Earp Rides Again and those didn't sell Warren on their own.

Not helping with the above was Andy being a man who would make it known if something was bothering him. He let his exasperation at Warren not working out and Don not being there bleed into his performance, which was made worse by him repeatedly getting into fights with George Lindsey (Goober Pyle) and Francis Bavier (Aunt Bee) and his marriage falling apart due to him and Aneta Corsaut (Helen Crump) having an affair (The two would frequently "watch quote TV" on set, particularly if there was a bed in the episode). As such when it came time for him to be angry with Warren he used as an excuse to vent which meant his anger had a strong nastiness behind it.

As a coda to the above, unlike Eleanor Donahue, Griffith didn't hold a grudge against Burns for Warren failing and had even considered inviting him back for Return to Mayberry before being talked out of it by Sheldon Leonard.