Mayberry RFD: New Couple in Town

(This is part of the 11th Annual Favourite TV Show Episode Blogathon hosted by A Shroud of Thoughts)

It’s a big deal when a new couple moves to Mayberry. And word gets around fast.

Howard Sprague (Jack Dodson) learns about it through a friend who works at the gas company. Goober (George Lindsey) gets the word from the milkman (they’ve ordered a daily quart of milk and half-pint of cottage cheese) and the local realtor (it’s a three-month rental).

Turns out Frank and Audrey Wylie (Richard Erdman and Emmaline Henry) have moved to Mayberry from New York City for the artistic inspiration a change of scenery may bring. Frank Wylie is a writer.

Making Mayberry to Frank Wylie what Walden Pond was to Thoreau.

The local literary club is atwitter about having a writer in their midst and Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier) suggests inviting Wylie to join them as a guest speaker, adding “I think we’ll call on him tomorrow, around five o’clock – I understand that’s when writers have cocktails.” Or in Wylie’s case, milk and cottage cheese.

Meet the Wylies

With a real author coming for a talk, the membership committee is bombarded with requests. “We still must remain selective; if we just take in anybody, it’ll threaten the foundation of the club,” sniffs one member. Of course, “anybody” means Goober, whose request is rejected.

“It’s nothing personal, but I don’t think Goober’s ever read anything but a comic book in his whole life,” says Howard. “And when somebody just reads comic books, well, then he just doesn’t belong with us!”

(Hey Howard, maybe if we call them graphic novels, you’d feel different?)

Aunt Bee invites Goober anyway. Her rationale: “Any kind of reading is elevating.”

An endorsement from America’s favorite aunt aside, movies and television usually ghettoized comic book reading to the realm of little kids, reprobates and village idiots. On behalf of all of us who read comic books behind closed bedroom doors throughout our high school years, right on, Aunt Bee.

Simpleton Satch of the Bowery Boys

Unbeknownst to the townsfolk, Frank Wylie is a comic book writer/artist. Here’s what he’s currently working on:

Based on what’s on his drawing board, he sure isn’t working for Marvel or DC. Maybe the cut-rate competition, like Dell. Or worse, MF Enterprises.

But Wylie isn’t pleased with this latest effort and goes out for a drive, winding up at Goober’s gas station.

GOOBER: How’re your stories coming?

WYLIE: Nothing.

GOOBER: I ain’t no writer but I think of a lot of stories while I’m sittin’ around here waitin’ for customers, mostly like the stuff I read in comic books; ever notice how they make the monster out to be a bad guy? Something I thought of, the monster would be a hero.

WYLIE (suddenly bathed in a golden light from heaven): The monster was a hero? The creature who saved a city.

The snobbier literary club members turn up their noses when Goober shows up for Wylie’s address, who says that sometimes new surroundings provide inspiration, praising the contributions of a new collaborator he’s discovered in Mayberry — Goober, who’s receiving a 50/50 cut in the action.

Goober?

Goober and Wylie were clearly ahead of the curve. When this episode of Mayberry RFD ran in January 1969, the only monster-as-hero comic book on the newsstands was The Incredible Hulk. Within the next few years, once the Comics Code lessened its stranglehold on four-color content, the monster/hero floodgates opened for Swamp Thing, The Tomb of Dracula, Man-Thing, Blade, Morbius and Frankenstein, among many others. Television series and movie franchises awaited.

Looking a little deeper, there are other underlying themes, like the dangers of making snap judgements about people and the value of diverse perspectives, but that’s for another day. And with Goober now a member in good standing of the Mayberry literary club, will they turn next to Huckleberry Finn or Moby Dick – the Classics Illustrated versions, of course.