Horse Trader, The (TAGS Episode)

Episode Info

The Horse Trader

• S1.E14
• Filmed: 14
• Aired: 14
• Original Air Date: 1961/01/09
• Writer(s): Jack Elinson and Charles Stewart
• Director: Bob Sweeney

Plot Summary

Andy proves fallible when he cons a traveling antique dealer into buying the town's old cannon with a fabulously fictional story of the cannon's glorious past. Opie follows his father's example and cons a friend of his into trading roller skates for some "licorice seeds" that Opie got in a bad trade for his cap pistol. Andy, again seeing his own actions mirrored by his son, turns around and makes ammends for his bad dealings.

Plot

When the town council decides to get rid of an old Civil War cannon, the Mayor puts the responsibility on Andy and Barney to sell it.

After going through every possible buyer he can think of to include a frustrated Barney Fife, Andy feels his fortunes have turned when an antique dealer just happens to stop by Walker's Drugstore.

Forgetting the talk he just had with Opie about "the golden rule" and how "honesty is the best policy” Andy commences to do a bit of what he calls "horse-trading" with the dealer. He makes outrageous claims about the cannon saying everything from it fired the first shot at Ft. Sumter all the way to it being the personal canon of Teddy Roosevelt during the Battle of San Juan Hill.

Not only do Andy's underhanded tactics upset Barney, but they have a profound impact on Opie who takes what he has learned and uses it as a way to unload some worthless merchandise on his own.

After Andy sells the canon for $175, neither Ellie nor Barney will speak to him. Upset that they refuse to see how he made good money for the town and got rid of an eyesore at the same time, Andy storms out of the drugstore only to run into Opie sporting a brand new pair of roller skates and enough extra money for an ice cream cone. Andy questions Opie only to discover that Opie has been doing some "horse-trading" of his own.

After a short and pathetic attempt at justifying his trading tactics while condemning his son's, Andy comes to see the error of his ways. He then refuses to sell the canon even though the antique dealer still wants it. In the end, Andy agrees to sell the cannon but at the reduced price of $20.

Like that famous bad penny, the cannon's not gone after all as the antique dealer sells it, using Andy's lies, to a man who intends to give it to the town of Mayberry!

Odd Facts Known by Few

• The cannon that is hauled away in this episode and is returned to the city as a gift in the epilogue is seen in Mayberry years later in a fifth season episode The Cannon. The most likely reason being that writer Jack Elinson wrote both episodes.
• Actor Casey Adams was also known as Max Showalter. He played the part of "Ward Cleaver" in the pilot episode of "Leave It To Beaver".
• Barney shows a weakness for drinking when he gets loaded on ice cream sodas at the drug store.
• Ellie sells the antiques dealer a copper pot saying she has no use for it, even though she was currently using it to display bars of soap on the store countertop.
• Why did Opie want Jerry Parker's roller skates so badly? Just three episodes earlier, The Christmas Story, Ben Weaver gave him a pair of roller skates as a Christmas present. He must have worn them out in a hurry or they broke like the chairs that Weaver's sold.
• The first "You beat everything, you know that" is heard. Barney says it to Andy when Andy asks him if he wants to buy the town's old cannon.
• The $175 that Andy was so happy about, would be worth $1,761.90 in 2022 dollars.
• Andy says the T.R. on the cannon stands for "Teddy Roosevelt" but Barney states the T.R. was carved by a nail by a Mayberrian named Tracy Rupert.
• At the council meeting, Mayor Pike mentions the cannon is being replaced by a plaque being donated by former Mayberrian Milford Phillips. Andy looks baffled when Milford's name is mentioned so it is assumed Milford left the town possibly before Andy's birth.
• It is assumed Ralph Mason (the person Andy sells the cannon to) in turn sold the cannon to Milford Phillips. In the epilogue, Milford sends a telegram to the council saying he's reconsidered giving the plaque and is donating a Civil War cannon used in San Juan Hill (the same cannon Andy sold to Mr. Mason using the same fabricated story).

Notes

• A "TV Guide" with Lucille Ball on the cover can be seen on the top shelf of the magazine racks, just as Mr Mason enters Walker's Drug Store for the first time. The Andy Griffith Show (1960) was produced by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball's company, Desilu.
• Andy tells Barney that he could put the cannon in front of his house. Barney's house is never seen during the series and his only known residence is Mrs. Mendelbright's boarding house where he rents a room. It was also suggested in one episode that he lives at 411 Elm Street.
• The Walker's Drug Store set has a pay phone mounted on the wall. The pay phone has a dial. Mayberry doesn't have dial telephone service, it has Sarah who patches calls through. The other telephones seen during the series have no dials.

Quotes

• Opie Taylor: If honesty is such a good policy, how come I'm out a cap pistol?
• Andy Taylor: Well, that crack right there came from a direct hit whilst Teddy Roosevelt was a-draggin' her up San Juan Hill.

Character List

• Andy Griffith - Andy Taylor
• Ronny Howard - Opie Taylor
• Don Knotts - Barney Fife
• Elinor Donahue - Ellie Walker
• Dick Elliott - Mayor Pike
• Casey Adams - Ralph Mason
• Pearl Cooper - council member
• Spec O'Donald - council member