THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW: THE COMPLETE SERIES
This 2016 Paramount DVD offering is a newly repackaged release of the complete-series The Andy Griffith Show, one of TV’s more iconic and durable comedies. The physical packaging in this set is a lot less durable, and the extras assembled for this set remain woefully meager compared to the status of the series itself. (For a behind-the-scenes story about Paramount’s approach to DVD extras, see this vintage, very informative Diane Werts’ For Better or Werts column from 2012.) But for all of what’s lacking in both strength of packaging and bonus material, what’s great here is the series itself – and with a price of under $70 for an eight-season, 249-episode, 39-disc set, that works to less than $2 per disc, for the entire 1960-68 classic TV series. Andy Griffith as Sheriff Andy, Don Knotts as Deputy Barney Fife, and Ron Howard as little Opie were at the center of a series as warmly nostalgic and soothing as its opening credits theme and sequence, whistling its way to the local watering hole. And in Mayberry, it wasn’t a bar, it was a pond. When I was in the hospital for a stretch a few years ago, the daily doses of The Andy Griffith Show I received on my hospital TV did me as much good, and comforted me, as much as anything the medical staff gave me. Well, except for the operation. And the post-op care. And the rehab. And the drugs. But still, The Andy Griffith Show helped a lot – and here it all is, in one ridiculously affordable bundle. – David Bianculli