The Andy Griffith Show (TV Series) Barney and the Cave Rescue (1964) User Reviews

Yet another time when Andy does what he can to help Barney save face.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 24 October 2010]

One of the most common themes in "The Andy Griffith Show" is Andy bending over backwards to save Barney---helping to make him seem and feel a lot more competent than he really was. Some of this was understandable, sometimes you just wondered why Andy bothered! However, most of these shows are quite good and lots of fun to watch.

In this episode, Andy and Helen are on an outing together and are accidentally trapped in a cave. Barney, rising to the occasion, mobilizes the town and set out to save the two. Unknown to him and the citizens is that Andy and Helen happened to find their way out of their own and they don't need rescuing. However, Andy is aware that telling everyone this might make Barney look foolish--and he has a good heart in trying to save Andy and Helen. So, the two decide to sneak back into the cave and wait to be rescued! This is a good one, as Barney seemed to deserved to have Andy's assistance--he was trying to do the right thing and just overreacted a bit. It did a good job in solidifying Andy's commitment and care about his friend and was well written and worth seeing.

Barney Is So Impulsive

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 9 December 2019]

In this episode, I think we need to put aside judgment just a bit. Andy and Helen do go into that cave, and they could easily have been killed. So Barney saving face is really a non-issue. This is an ongoing theme where Barney doesn't look before he leaps. He pulls a gun on the local banker and incurs the putdowns of the townspeople. But the cave is another thing.

The Building Outside The Door

[chashans · 10/10 · 16 January 2024]

A truly wonderful episode highlighting the brotherly love (should that be "cousinly love"?!) which Andy and Barney have for one another.

What I really want to do here though is disspell the incorrect "trivia" mentioned in a few places on these pages pertaining to this episode.

In the final scene, where Andy and Barney discuss the newspaper headline, the Courthouse door does remain open. There is a painted backdrop seen out the door. The incorrect trivia says that the Courthouse itself can be seen on that backdrop. This is not the case!

The building seen on that backdrop is in fact the building that is opposite the Courthouse building on the 40 Acres Lot itself. That building also has pillars out front of it just like the Courthouse.

This building is seldom seen on the show but gets great use in the 1st season episode, "Ellie For Council". It appears toward the end of that episode where an "Ellie Walker for Council" ralley is being held. A short extended canopy over the two pillars has a sign on it reading "Hotel", under which is the ralley sign. Up above the second floor of the building, which features a balconey, are huge numbers, "1878". An address? Or the year the building was built?

This building and it's pillars can also be seen in "Aunt Bee's Medicine Man". It is in the background behind Colonel Harvey's Sales Pitch wagon. In the episode, "The Mayberry Band", Mayor Stoner parks his car in front of this building then sits on a bench out front of it. In the same episode, the building can be seen behind the Mayor as he waves to the departing bus upon which the band play their instruments terribly.

In the 7th season episode, "The Statue", Aunt Bee gives her speech right in front of this building. While the Seth Taylor statue is positioned in front of this building, supposedly permanently, the citizens of Mayberry apparently realized how awful it was because it is never seen there again in further TAGS or Mayberry RFD episodes.

A view of the actual building which matches the perspective of it seen on the backdrop, comes in the 2nd season episode, "The Manicurist". This occurs early in the story when actress Barbara Eden's manicurist character gets off the bus from Nashville. The building and it's pillars can be seen outside Floyd's Barbershop window to the extreme right of the shot. Again, this perspective of the building matches what is seen on the backdrop outside the Courthouse doors in "Barney and the Cave Rescue".

Regardless of all that, "Barney and the Cave Rescue" is one of the absolute finest of all TAGS episodes!

Andy's horrible judgment. Barney's emotional rollercoaster.

[vitoscotti · 10/10 · 12 May 2022]

Been done many times. Andy baling out Barney. Works well here. Andy has extremely poor judgement throughout. To not go back when hearing the first signs of a slide. Then, not to inform Barney they're out right at the time before a massive rescue effort.

Funny scene Barney worrying about bats & moths laying eggs in hair. One of my favorite TAGS lines from Gomer. "My cousin Goober's ugly, but he's not stupid". The many times silent town loafers get pretty significant speaking parts

Episode not loaded with a lot of laughs. But, Barney's emotional ups & downs are really in the spotlight from rock bottom, to on top of the world. Don Knotts seemed to have a low voice in this episode abandoning his high tone he used with the Barney character.

Great trivia during the flat epilogue. The courthouse is seen in a background painting looking out the door as Opie brings in the newspapers.