The Andy Griffith Show (seasons 6-8)

Andy Taylor is the widower sheriff of the small, sleepy North Carolina town of Mayberry. Andy and son Opie live with Aunt Bee, who takes care of the family. Andy's deputy is his bumbling but neurotically hilarious cousin, Barney Fife. Among Andy's Mayberry friends is the town's resident barber, Floyd. While the first 5 seasons were met with generally favorable reviews, these seasons were met with mostly mixed-to-negative reviews from fans. This article will only focuse on these last 3 seasons of the show.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The main problem with these seasons is that Similar to (seasons 6-8) of SpongeBob Squarepants and the final two seasons of Ed, Edd, n Eddy they lack the charm of the first 5 seasons of the show.
 * 2) Barney Fife (despite making guest appearances) is rarely ever seen in these seasons which is disappointing due to how he was one of the most memorable characters in the show itself.
 * 3) The humor has been noticeably downgraded from being hilarious in the first 5 seasons, to very dry and predictable in these seasons, sometimes the laugh track will play after a character just says a line that isn't even meant to be funny.
 * 4) Some of the characters suffered from flanderization:
 * 5) *Andy himself went from a very caring and compassionate father, to very strict and spiteful towards his son Opie.
 * 6) *Opie, despite still being likable went from a sweet yet stuck up child, to a mh:loathsomecharacters:Butt-Monkey that is usually getting put down by Andy on certain occasions.
 * 7) The finale "Mayberry R.F.D" was a horrible way to end the series due to the cliffhanger ending it had.
 * 8) Some episodes clearly reuse the same plots for example:
 * 9) *During these seasons there is an episode titled "Opie's Girlfriend" in season 7 though the season 8 premiere has similar title to said episode titled "Opie's First Love" in which both have similar plots, and this also shows that the show was running out of ideas at this point in time.
 * 10) These seasons can get fairly mean-spirited at times, especially times when Andy is belittling Opie, or when he occasionally gets mentally put down by his friends at times (as stated above).
 * 11) The writing went from being clever and witty, to atrocious and due to this some episodes are prone to contain some filler and also caused by lack in direction.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Some of the jokes are still funny.
 * 2) There are a handful of good episodes such as:
 * 3) *“Opie’s Job” (which started these seasons on a high note)
 * 4) *“Andy's Rival”
 * 5) *“A Man's Best Friend”
 * 6) *"The Cannon
 * 7) *“Opie Steps up in Class”
 * 8) *“Aunt Bee, the Juror”
 * 9) *“Andy's Investment”
 * 10) *“The Return of Barney Fife”
 * 11) **And despite Barney Fife no longer being a main character in these seasons, there are still times where he makes guest appearances which is quite nice but still.
 * 12) The switch from black and white, to color cinematography is admittedly a nice change.
 * 13) Some heartwarming moments are still retained.
 * 14) Despite the aforementioned flanderization, some of the characters remain likable such as Opie, and Aunt Bee.
 * 15) *And similar to the first 5 seasons the show these seasons still have some good morals.
 * 16) The acting is still good as it was back in the first 5 seasons.
 * 17) Some fans might still like these seasons.

Reception
While the first 5 seasons recieved positive reviews, these seasons were met with mostly mixed-to-negative reviews from fans and critics. On IMDb the sixth seasons holds a 6.8/10, the seventh season which is currently the most well recieved season of the three holds a 7/10, and season eight which holds a 6.7/10.