Opie and the Carnival

Opie and the Carnival
< Season 5 > • < Episode 31 >
Air Date	April 26, 1965
Cast	Andy Griffith as Sheriff Andy Taylor Ron Howard as Opie Taylor Frances Bavier as Aunt Bee Taylor Howard McNear as Floyd Lawson Aneta Corsaut as Helen Crump George Lindsey as Goober Pyle Richard Keith as Johnny Paul Jason Lewis Charles as Pete the carny Billy Halop as Charlie
Director(s)	Coby Ruskin
Writer(s)	Lawrence J. Cohen Fred Freeman
Previous	Opie Flunks Arithmetic
Next	Banjo-Playing Deputy
Summary	Opie wants to win a prize at the shooting gallery at the local carnival.
Sequential Episode	158

Summary

Opie wants to win a prize at the shooting gallery at the local carnival.

Plot

There's a carnival in town and Opie is having a really good time. When two crooked carnies want to drum up more business for their shooting gallery, they pick Opie out of the crowd and give him a rifle that hasn't been tampered with. He soon wins a prize and they have plenty of customers, all using rifles with bent sights. Opie has also been wondering what to get his father for his birthday. He's been saving his allowance but doesn't have much money and wonders what he can him. He then gets a brilliant idea: seeing as he is such a great shot, why not try to win his Father an Electric Razor. Of course, he loses all of his money. Goober, who is a pretty good shot, decides to help him win the prize but he too spends way too much money, and all he has to show for it is a Kewpie doll. When Andy gets wind of all this, he & Helen pay the carnies a visit, Andy tries his hand at the Gallery. He discovers that the Carnies are using a Gun with crooked sites, and adjusts his aim and wins nearly all the prizes. Andy informs them that their next customer will be a little boy that will try to win the electric razor that they have on the shelf, and that he needs a rifle with Correct sites.

Notes/Trivia

• The carnival storyline will be continued in Banjo-Playing Deputy.
• Lewis Charles and Billy Halop, the two men who ran the gaffed (crooked) carnival booth, died on the same day of the year (November 9), three years apart.
• Don Knotts does not appear in this episode, despite being credited.
• Prizes at the shooting gallery include a Swiss watch, a pearl-handled carving set from the Orient genuine ceramic pelican, a razor, a napkin holder with a picture of a log cabin on it, a celluloid Cupid doll, a statue of a Siamese cat from the Orient, Hair Dryers, Fishing Rod, Toasters, Jackknifes, Coffee Percolators, Hunting Knives, Bookends, Pencil Sharpeners, Ashtray, Thermometers, and an Electric Can Opener.
• Rifles used in the shooting gallery, Winchester Model 61. Manufactured between 1932 and 1963. Approximately 342,000 guns were sold. https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/the-winchester-model-61-a-look-back/

Gallery