Breaking Mayberry

This week, Barney does a sexism, skeet gets shot, and Marty and Dan ponder the sexual escapades of Philadelphia's many Benjamin Franklin impersonators. It's Season 2, Episode 8, "The Perfect Female." Come and see BREAKING MAYBERRY LIVE! https://www.facebook.com/events/311184442830383/ (Part of the Everything is Awesome/HEADstrong Comedy Festival.) Donate to the South Street Cinema Kickstarter: htt...

Okay, so about halfway through the discussion here, we realize that this episode is actually terrible and makes no sense and that's about it from there. It's Season 2, Episode 8 "Crime-Free Mayberry" Come and see BREAKING MAYBERRY LIVE! https://www.facebook.com/events/311184442830383/ (Part of the Everything is Awesome/HEADstrong Comedy Festival.) Music by Max Ludwig: twitter.com/sleeptalky End Mu...

We meet the most crust-punk of all Andy Griffith characters in this episode, Mad Men is discussed at length, and Marty does a pretty solid Tom Waits impression. It's Season 2, Episode 6, "Opie's Hobo Friend." Come and see BREAKING MAYBERRY LIVE! https://www.facebook.com/events/311184442830383/ (Part of the Everything is Awesome/HEADstrong Comedy Festival.) Music by Max Ludwig: twitter.com/sleeptal...

(NOTE: This is a re-load of episode 13, with a new intro by Marty, here in time for the holidays!) It's Christmas and the Breaking Mayberry crew is celebrating with a special guest, Joe Wade from the hit podcast Christmas Creeps! ( https://christmascreeps.com/) Joe joins us to talk about S01EP11, "The Christmas Story", the only holiday episode in the entire Andy Griffith canon, where an old man tr...

Legal council Ian Roberts returns for our back-to-back legal episodes! Ian explains the history of "the pill" and its availability, Dan learns secrets about J Edgar Hoover, and Barney Fife accidentally gets into some cuckold/swinging shenanigans. This shit is weird, folks. It's Season 2, Episode 5, "Barney on the Rebound!"

Marty and Dan sat down again with their legal expert Ian Roberts to talk about historical financial contracts and the breakdown of the post-Civil war southern economy, all while Andy tries to keep a senile old man from being evicted. Look, there's a lot going on in this episode, okay? It's Season 2, Episode 4, "Mayberry Goes Bankrupt!" SUPPORT BREAKING MAYBERRY ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/...

Come on down to Barney's Secret Hole, a magical place special to Barney. Is it a hole that only Barney knows about, or is it a hole where Barney's secrets are kept? No one knows, I guess. That's why it's a secret hole. Marty and Dan try to survive election night by plowing through episodes 2 and 3 of AG Season 2. First, in "Barney's Replacement", Barney resigns from the Mayberry PD, a move that ma...

Marty and Dan are back for Season 2, and we start with a very special episode about the dangers of bullying, and how Opie is impervious to pain. In S02EP01 "Opie And The Bully", Opie is constantly losing his milk money to a slightly taller child, and Andy provides the best course of action: Lying to his son to put him in physical danger. Marty and Dan take on the Great British Baking Show and the...

It's the Season 1 Finale of Breaking Mayberry, and we're closing out with our first movie episode! Going back a few years before the AG Show premiered, we're taking on 1957's "A Face In The Crowd", starring Andy Griffith as a conman drifter named Lonesome Rhodes. It's the darker side of the Mayberry coin as Marty and Dan talk about the Hollywood blacklist, Andy's cult following, and the difference...

It's an ACTUAL sequel, not one we screamed into existence! When Jim Lindsey, the famous guitar player from episode 2 of our podcast returns to Mayberry, Marty and Dan have a great realization: We absolutely hate Jim Lindsey. Also, the boys have to say good-bye to their true love, Elinor Donahue, as she leaves the Andy Griffith Show never to be mentioned again. Next, Marty and Dan take on Episode 3...

It's the long-awaited sequel to MANHUNT and Marty and Dan are absolutely thrilled. When an escaped criminal comes for Barney, it's a non-stop thrill ride of body-blocks and serious shocks or something like that. Look, this episode rules. Just listen. SUPPORT BREAKING MAYBERRY ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/breakingmayberry Music by Max Ludwig: twitter.com/sleeptalky End Music: "Appalachian Co...

In this episode, we witness a scientific miracle happening in Mayberry - the miracle of birth, but without that whole pesky part of "women" being involved. Comedy Writer Jordana Lipitz joins us for Season 1, Episode 29 "Quiet Sam." We get some new theories on Barney's days in the war, do our best Spongebob impressions and debate the merits of menstruation tents. Then, Dan and Marty return for Seas...

Marty and Dan come back to the farm for just... just a shocking amount of sexism, even by 1961 standards, holy hell. Season 1, Episode 27, "Ellie Saves A Female" refers to women as "female" in the title and it doesn't get better from there. SUPPORT BREAKING MAYBERRY ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/breakingmayberry Music by Max Ludwig: twitter.com/sleeptalky End Music: "Appalachian Coal Mines"...

In this episode, Marty and Dan are both absolutely furious, but at different times. It's a real bad cop/also a bad cop situation. In Season 1, Episode 25, "A Plaque For Mayberry", the town of Mayberry ignores an alcoholic's obvious cries for help, and Marty and Dan are thrown by a Southern-ism that makes even less sense than usual. Next, Season 1 Episode 26, "The Inspection," in which it finally l...

This week breaks Marty and Dan a little as they deal with episodes ranging from needlessly convoluted to unbelievably dull. First, in episode 23, "The New Doctor", Andy is jealous of a new young doctor in town that he thinks is trying to steal Ellie. In the studio, Marty and Dan stumble upon a piece of Queer Lit history and wonder how many Opies it would take to beat one Barney Fife in hand-to-han...

This episode is full of romantic antics and serial killer seduction! First, Marty and Dan take on S01EP21 "Andy and the Gentleman Crook", AKA "Silence of the Fifes." When Mayberry plays host to a smooth-talking con-man, everyone but Andy is taken in by his charms - including Marty and Dan. Barney is wildly incompetent at his job and it nearly gets everyone killed, but it's cool. Then, we go onto s...

It's Christmas in July and the Breaking Mayberry crew is celebrating with a special guest, Joe Wade from the hit podcast Christmas Creeps! ( https://christmascreeps.com/) Joe joins us to talk about S01EP11, "The Christmas Story", the only holiday episode in the entire Andy Griffith canon - and maybe it's not even that? Join us for holiday hijinks and traditional Mayberry madness on this most festi...

We're back on the recap track with episode 18 of Season 1, "Andy the Marriage Counselor." Dan and Marty needed an adult in the room for this one, so we got special help from Sharon Rice, a social worker and relationship educator with Women Against Abuse ( www.womenagainstabuse.org ) We also talk about The Lockhorns, the anger of youth games, and how to make sure your child looks fly as fuck at bed...

It's the mental health episode of Breaking Mayberry! We're not actually recapping any AG episodes this time, but we thought it might be a good time at the halfway mark to unburden ourselves and talk through some of the things we've learned and observed on our journey so far. Join us as Dan introduces us to an unsung hero of the Red Scare, Marty introduces us to newspaper comic strips, and in gener...

Another round of Mayberry goodness and this time we have a special guest - Joseph McCarthy! (No seriously, we talk about McCarthyism and blacklisting in this one, turns out the Andy Griffith show was not immune from it.) First up, yet another episode about a stranger coming into town and getting under Andy's skin, but this one has like 30% more bluegrass - it's S01EP19 "Mayberry on Record" Next, i...

Okay, look, we talk about a LOT of stuff on this episode and at one point we have a complete breakdown about a line we totally missed. This time around, Breaking Mayberry covers S01Ep17 - "Alcohol and Old Lace," talking about Andy and Barney's crackdown on the controlled substances in Mayberry County, NC. We brought on freelance cannabis writer Russ Smith to talk about some parallels to today's mo...

It's another trek through the long cons and manipulations of Mayberry's finest with Marty and Dan taking on Season 1, Episodes 15 and 16 - "Those Gossipin' Men" and "The Beauty Contest" First, an irritated Aunt Bee drives the entire town to madness with one sentence and the men of Mayberry either save a man from suicide or drive him to it - we can't tell which. Second, Andy is picked to be the sol...

Marty and Dan take on two more of Season 1's finest, episodes 13 "Mayberry Goes Hollywood" and 14 "The Horse Trader". First up, the glitz and glam of the movies arrives in little old Mayberry... in the most boring, monotonous way possible. Marty gets to share some classic and modern film trivia, and Dan tells us of the time Rob Schneider irritated his entire hometown. Next, would you like to buy a...

It's another informative episode as Marta Rusek (WHYY Newsworks, Political Theater) joins Dan and Marty to talk about voter suppression, questionable relationships, and the potential use of a leg of lamb as a murder weapon! First up, the team dives into Episode 10 "Ellie for Council", which shows how Ellie deals with the RIDICULOUS PREPOSTEROUS notion that a woman might run for office! Crazy, righ...

The good news: Marty and Dan like both of these episodes! The bad news: That means things go off the rails REAL HARD. We talk about charity balls, donkey bites, and Barney Fife's role in World War II, all the while dancing around how Season One Episode 8 "Opie's Charity" and Episode 9 "A Feud Is A Feud" are both absolutely great. A family fight is resolved, a wedding is held, and a man comes back...