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".

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