Andy Saves Barney's Morale

If you had any doubt up to this point that Barney should never be left with absolute authority over anything, this early episode closes the case.

Andy is reticent to leave Barney as acting sheriff while he leaves for the day to testify in a criminal case being tried out of town. But he'll be home before sundown, so what could actually go wrong? When Andy returns he's happy to see the streets of Mayberry so quiet. But then he goes inside the courthouse and sees why. Virtually the entire town is in jail!

It turns out that Barney was enforcing the law by the book. As a result the mayor is in jail for vagrancy, Aunt Bea in jail for inciting a riot, and "old Judd" (the marvelous Burt Mustin) is incarcerated for disorderly conduct. After Andy adjudicates all of these cases the jail is empty. And Barney was right on this one point - Andy made him sheriff for the day, not justice of the peace, so he couldn't try any of the cases himself.

Now Barney is the town laughingstock, and as a result his fragile self esteem is shattered and he may quit. Andy comes up with a clever solution that trades on the fact that the townspeople do actually like Barney, they just don't realize the harm all of their ribbing is doing.