The BEST episodes of The Andy Griffith Show season 3
Every episode of The Andy Griffith Show season 3, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Andy Griffith Show season 3!
Down-home humor and an endearing cast of characters helped make The Andy Griffith Show one of the most beloved comedies in the history of TV. The show centered around widower Andy Taylor, who divided his time between raising his young son Opie, and his job as sheriff of the sleepy North Carolina town, Mayberry. Andy and Opie live with Andy's Aunt Bee, who serves as a surrogate mother to both father and son. Andy's nervous cousin, Barney Fife, is his deputy sheriff whose incompetence is tolerated because Mayberry is virtually crime-free.
#1 - High Noon in Mayberry
Season 3 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/21/1963
Andy gets a letter from a criminal he had wounded years before and learns the man is coming to Mayberry to see him. Barney becomes convinced the man wants revenge and enlists Gomer and Otis to secretly protect Andy, which ends up wreaking more havoc than any criminal ever could.
#2 - The Bank Job
Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/24/1962
Barney becomes convinced the Mayberry bank is ripe for a robbery and tries to prove his point by staging a fake one. When he discovers a weak spot in the security system, he unknowing relays this information to a couple of actual robbers.
#3 - Man in a Hurry
Season 3 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/14/1963
Malcolm Tucker, a business tycoon from Charlotte, has the unfortunate luck of having his car break down in Mayberry on a Sunday. Now he's willing to do just about anything to be on his way, including stealing Gomer's truck. Andy invites the man over for Sunday dinner to try and teach him the importance of relaxation before he does something he'll really regret.
#4 - Convicts at Large
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/10/1962
Barney and Floyd stumble upon a cabin in the woods where three dangerous female convicts are hiding out. They are taken prisoner and it's Andy to the rescue when he manages to capture two of them. But it's up to Barney to get the third using all the charm he can muster, along with his best Rudolph Valentino impression.
#5 - The Great Filling Station Robbery
Season 3 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/25/1963
Andy suggests to Gomer that he hire a troubled young man named Jimmy to help out at Wally's gas station. But everyone soon suspects Jimmy of being a thief after valuable items start disappearing from the station. Andy believes Jimmy is innocent but must prove it, even when all the evidence is against him.
#6 - The Cow Thief
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/29/1962
Two cows suddenly go missing in Mayberry and Mayor Stoner has decided to bring in a professional investigator to solve the crime. The investigator's conclusion goes along with what the rest of the town already suspects, but Andy has his own idea of what happened, an idea just crazy enough to be true.
#7 - Mr. McBeevee
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/1/1962
Opie tells Andy about his new friend Mr. McBeevee, who Andy believes to be a figment of Opie's imagination. But when Andy begins to suspect Opie is using his new-found friend as an excuse to lie, he decides to set the record straight and prove Mr. McBeevee doesn't really exist. Or does he?
#8 - Mountain Wedding
Season 3 - Episode 31 - Aired 4/29/1963
The Darling clan is back and this time need Andy's help to wed their daughter Charlene to Dud Walsh before crazy old Ernest T. Bass makes good on his threats to kidnap her and take her for his own. Andy sets Barney up as a decoy bride while the real wedding takes place elsewhere. The plan works, until Ernest kidnaps Barney and decides he's just as good a bride as Charlene.
#9 - Barney's First Car
Season 3 - Episode 27 - Aired 4/1/1963
Barney learns that the car he's spent his life savings on is a lemon, and the little old lady he bought it from may have put one over on him. When Barney and Andy set out to return the car and arrest her, however, they find the hardest part may be just getting there.
#10 - Andy Discovers America
Season 3 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/4/1963
Opie complains to Andy about how his new history teacher Ms. Crump is a mean old woman who likes to assign extra homework. Andy tells Opie it's not important if he doesn't know every answer, which leaves Opie believing history isn't important. Now Andy has to show Opie, and his class, how much history matters before Ms. Crump decides to quit.
#11 - The Big House
Season 3 - Episode 32 - Aired 5/6/1963
Andy is told to keep two big-time bandits in his jail until detectives from Tennessee come to get them. Knowing that the bandit's friends will try to break them out, Barney spots two suspicious men outside the jail and promptly arrests them. As it turns out, they are the detectives from Tennessee, giving the bandit's real friends the opportunity they've been waiting for.
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#12 - Dogs, Dogs, Dogs
Season 3 - Episode 30 - Aired 4/22/1963
A pack of stray hunting dogs descends upon Mayberry at the same time that a state investigator has come to review Andy's request for more funds for the jail. Barney and Opie decide to bring the dogs to the courthouse to shelter them from a storm, not realizing that Mr. Somerset is already there.
#13 - Lawman Barney
Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/12/1962
Barney loses his self-confidence when two unlawful bullies laugh off his attempt to run them out of town. Andy tells them Barney is actually a trigger-happy lawman out for vengeance, but the bullies quickly see through the ruse and Barney now must find the courage within himself to stand up to them.
#14 - Andy and the New Mayor
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/15/1962
There is a new mayor in town who is immediately put off by Andy's laid back management style. When Andy lets a prisoner out of jail for a few days so he can harvest crops, he finds his job is suddenly on the line, especially when the prisoner doesn't return.
#15 - The Mayberry Band
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/19/1962
When Mayor Stoner decides not to cover the expense of sending the Mayberry Marching Band to their annual competition in Raleigh because he thinks they're terrible, Andy helps out by having a few of his friends from "Freddy Fleet And His Band With A Beat" step in.
#16 - Class Reunion
Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/4/1963
Andy and Barney reminisce about old flames and decide to throw a class reunion. When the big night finally comes, they both find they have a lot to learn about how much things have -- and have not -- changed.
#17 - Barney and the Governor
Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/7/1963
Barney believes his job is on the line when he accidentally gives the governor's car a parking ticket. When he learns the governor is coming to town to see him about it, his nervousness causes him to drink cup after cup of water from the water cooler, the very same cooler Otis has spiked with alcohol.
#18 - The Rivals
Season 3 - Episode 28 - Aired 4/8/1963
Opie develops a case of puppy love for a girl in his class, but is crushed to find she isn't interested. Barney tries to lift his spirits by letting Opie hang out with him and Thelma Lou awhile. It works great, until Opie forgets his crush and sets his sights on Thelma Lou.
#19 - A Wife for Andy
Season 3 - Episode 29 - Aired 4/15/1963
Barney believes it's time for Andy to get married and sets Andy up with Opie's teacher, Ms. Crump. When Barney decides she's not right for him, he tries to set up a party for Andy to meet all the other eligible ladies of Mayberry. But Andy has other plans, and they all involve Ms. Crump.
#20 - Andy's English Valet
Season 3 - Episode 26 - Aired 3/25/1963
A tourist from England causes a traffic accident and finds himself unable to pay the damages, so Andy decides to let the man pay it off by being his valet. But it's not long before Andy finds his laid-back small-town lifestyle clashing with the man's strict, English ways.
#21 - The Loaded Goat
Season 3 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/28/1963
Cy Hudgins has a pet goat with a taste for dynamite and Andy and Barney are forced to put it in a padded cell until the danger "passes." But when Otis unknowingly lets their new prisoner out, it's up to Barney and his harmonica to safely lead the goat out of town.
#22 - Opie's Rival
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/3/1962
When Andy starts seeing Peggy MacMillan, Opie feels like she's become more important to Andy than he is. He decides to sabotage Andy's dates and break them up and nearly succeeds, until Andy finds out.
#23 - Barney Mends a Broken Heart
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/5/1962
When Andy and Peggy must break a date, Barney mistakenly sees this as the end of their relationship. He decides to play matchmaker to help Andy mend his broken heart, with disastrous results.
#24 - One-Punch Opie
Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/31/1962
A new boy named Quincy moves into town and starts getting Opie and his friends into trouble. When Opie is dared to break a streetlight, he refuses and is teased mercilessly. Andy tries to help by telling the boy's parents, but Opie sees that it's up to him to stand up to Quincy once and for all.
#25 - The Bed Jacket
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/17/1962
With Aunt Bee's birthday fast approaching, she begins dropping hints about the pale blue bed jacket she's been eyeing in the store window. When Andy doesn't catch on and buys the jacket for Mayor Stoner's wife instead, she is crushed. Now the only way Andy can get the jacket back is to trade it for his most prized possession: Ol' Eagle-Eyed Annie, his beloved fishing rod.