The Pickle Story (The Andy Griffith Show episode)

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“The Pickle Story”

The Andy Griffith Show episode

Ron Howard as Opie Taylor.

Episode no.

Season 2
Episode 11

Written by

Harvey Bullock

Directed by

Bob Sweeney

Guest stars

Warren Parker
Lee Kreiger
Stanley Farrar

Production no.

Original airdate

Monday, December 18, 1961

Episode chronology
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"The Clubmen"	"Sheriff Barney"

List of The Andy Griffith Show episodes

"The Pickle Story" is an episode from the American television program The Andy Griffith Show broadcast Monday December 18, 1961 on CBS. Aunt Bee enters her pickles in the county fair. "The Pickle Story" is the eleventh episode in the second season and the forty-third episode in the complete series. The episode appears consistently on fans' and critics' "Top Ten Favorite TAGS Episodes" lists.

1 Plot summary
2 Cast and Crew
3 Notes
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Morning. The Taylor kitchen. Aunt Bee is canning pickles. Clara enters with a jar of her own and tells Bee she plans to enter them in the county fair. Clara samples Bee's pickles and grimaces. She offers Bee some advice and leaves. Aunt Bee goes back to work dismissing Clara's officiousness with a wave of her hand.

Hope Summers as Clara Johnson.

Noon. The courthouse. Bee enters with a lunch basket for the Andy and Barney. She offers her pickles. The men grimace. When Aunt Bee leaves, the men devise a plan to get rid of her eight quarts of pickles by replacing her concoctions with store bought pickles.

Evening. The Taylor kitchen. While Aunt Bee is out for the evening, Andy, Barney, and Opie empty Bee's pickle jars and fill them with store bought pickles. Barney puts Bee's pickles into a satchel. Aunt Bee suddenly enters but Barney manages to escape with the pickles. He gets rid of the pickles the next day by handing them out to motorists as safe driving awards.

Barney Fife, Andy Taylor, Opie Taylor and Aunt Bee await the judges' decision.

Evening the next day. The Taylor dining room. Barney is a guest. Aunt Bee passes a dish of what she believes are her pickles. The men gobble them up because they know they're the store pickles. Aunt Bee samples one and cries with delight. She tells the men she has decided to enter her pickles into the county fair contest.

The next day. The courthouse. Andy and Barney worry about Bee's decision to enter the contest. It would be unfair to enter store bought pickles. Clara enters with a jar of her pickles and asks the men to sample them. Andy tries the pickles and realizes they are very good. Clara has brought her scrapbook along and shows Andy the blue ribbons she's collected over the years for her pickles. She tells Andy she finds comfort in knowing there is one thing she can do and how much it means to her to win the pickle contest.

Later in the afternoon. The courthouse. Andy tells Barney about Clara's visit and how much it means to her to win the contest. In all fairness, Andy decides Bee cannot enter the store bought pickles. He decides the store pickles must be consumed and Bee must make another batch of her pickles to enter in the contest.

Recurring characters Ray Watson and Harlan Fergus.

Over the next few days, Andy, Barney, and Opie empty the kitchen shelves and consume quarts of pickles. When Bee discovers the pickles have been entirely consumed, she decides to make another batch of pickles to enter in the contest.

A few days later. The Pickle Contest at the county fair. Judges are sampling the entries. When they sample Bee's, they grimace. They place the blue ribbon on Clara's jar. Clara leaves amid the crowd's acclaim. Aunt Bee then tells Andy, Barney, and Opie she made a double batch of her pickles because they all like them so much. The men grimace. Aunt Bee sails happily away to congratulate Clara.

A day or two later. The Taylor kitchen. Andy and Barney discover Bee has made a batch of marmalade that, like her pickles, is inedible. They decide to get rid of the maramlade.

[edit] Cast and Crew

Cast

Andy Griffith as Andy Taylor
Don Knotts as Barney Fife
Frances Bavier as Aunt Bee
Hope Summers as Clara Johnson
Lee Kreiger as Out-of-State Motorist
Ron Howard as Opie Taylor
Stanley Farrar as Ray Watson, Pickle Judge
Warren Parker as Harlan Fergus, Pickle Judge

Crew

Aaron Ruben, producer
Bob Sweeney , director
Frank E. Myers, production manager
Harvey Bullock, writer

[edit] Notes

In the first season, Hope Summers plays 'Bertha Edwards' and becomes 'Clara Johnson' in the second season. In the fifth season, she becomes 'Clara Edwards'. In spite of the name changes, the character would remain the same – a gossiping widow and Aunt Bee's best friend.
"The Pickle Story" was reportedly Don Knotts' favorite episode.