This episode, introducing the new mayor, was produced following the death ten months earlier of Dick Elliott, who portrayed Mayberry's previous long-serving public servant, Mayor Pike.
As this is the first appearance of Mayor Stoner, this is the first of many incidents throughout his time on the show in which he tries to assert his authority over Andy about how to do his job as a sheriff and justice of the peace. Whenever Andy resists, the mayor often threatens to strip Andy of his badge. However, in real life, Mayor Stoner would have no authority over Andy since he's an elected County Sheriff and a County Justice of the Peace. In both capacities, Andy has full discretion to give Jess a temporary parole to work on his crops and the mayor, in real life, would have no say in the matter.
At the time this episode was filmed, Parley Baer was also appearing as 'Darby' in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952).
The first of eight appearances in the series by Roy Engel. He never played the same character twice.
When Andy and Barney are on top of the patrol car with the bear inside, Andy berates the mayor, telling him that if he (the mayor) let Andy run his own office, Jess wouldn't be up in the tree, he wouldn't be up there with him and they wouldn't have a bear in their car. This isn't entirely true. While the mayor being up in the tree and the bear in the car may be a result of the mayor's interference, Jess would still be up in the tree. In fact, if Andy *had* followed the mayor's orders, no one would've been in the tree and the bear wouldn't have been in the patrol car. Additionally, after the mayor was up in the tree, Jess tells him he "tried to tell him, but he wouldn't listen." This also isn't true. In fact, when asked/told to come down by Andy and the mayor, all he said was "no." At no time did Jess even try to explain/warn there was a bear at the bottom of the tree. All he said to the mayor was "I wouldn't do that if I were you" when the mayor said he was going up to get Jess.