This episode has an interesting premise but it's executed wrong. First, we can believe that the naive trusting folks of Mayberry might get caught up in a get-rich-quick scheme. So it's easy to see them being swindled by a con artist passing through town, a man who bilks them each of $100. But it's not believable Andy would be just as gullible.
I think the story would have worked better if Andy had been tempted but stopped himself from throwing a hundred bucks away. The other characters were only responsible to themselves-- Bee, Helen, Floyd and Goober. But Andy was not only responsible to himself but to a young son he was raising. I sincerely doubt he would have wasted that much money on a man his gut was telling him was a swindler, especially because he'd remember bills coming due and things Opie might need that the money could be better spent on; and since Andy is that type of father, who puts providing for his son above everything else, he would not in good conscience have squandered $100.
Also, the ending of this episode doesn't ring true. When the others find out the man absconded with their dough and tell Andy, it is learned the crook was apprehended in a nearby town and all the money will be returned. When they learn another hundred dollars had been invested, it seems very out of character for Andy not to tell them he had also been conned. Andy Taylor is not that dishonest. He might make mistakes but not these kinds of mistakes.
I think the story would have worked better if Andy had been tempted but stopped himself from throwing a hundred bucks away. The other characters were only responsible to themselves-- Bee, Helen, Floyd and Goober. But Andy was not only responsible to himself but to a young son he was raising. I sincerely doubt he would have wasted that much money on a man his gut was telling him was a swindler, especially because he'd remember bills coming due and things Opie might need that the money could be better spent on; and since Andy is that type of father, who puts providing for his son above everything else, he would not in good conscience have squandered $100.
Also, the ending of this episode doesn't ring true. When the others find out the man absconded with their dough and tell Andy, it is learned the crook was apprehended in a nearby town and all the money will be returned. When they learn another hundred dollars had been invested, it seems very out of character for Andy not to tell them he had also been conned. Andy Taylor is not that dishonest. He might make mistakes but not these kinds of mistakes.
