Holidays are done for another year, new memories we’ve made are tucked away in the attic, and too our minds, along with the decorations and holiday wrapping paper, so this week I wanted a basic, “Did you ever wonder” type piece to ease into the new year. Here’s one to maybe make us pay attention a little more as you watch some of your favorite old television shows.

Do you ever notice, while watching old, and some new television shows, some created from popular plays, and movies, there were peculiar inconsistencies/oddities that popped up here and there? Many of them are from these older programs, and they might make you scratch your head about casting and other things you may see or hear that may make you wonder a bit. Here’s twenty that may make you scratch your head.

≤ In the Andy Griffith Show, Barney Fife had at least three different middle names, Bernard Milton Fife, Bernard Oliver Fife, and an unknown Middle name, when he was referred to as Bernard P. Fife.

≤ In the same show, Aunt Bea’s best friend’s name (the same character played by Hope Sommers), was Bertha Johnson, Clara Johnson, and Clara Edwards in different episodes.

≤ Again, on Andy Griffith, Gomer sang with a squeaky, squawky voice, then with an operatic voice, then back to the squawky voice.

≤ Another from Andy Griffith, who remembers Jack Dodson playing insurance agent Ed Jenkins before being cast as County Clerk, Howard Sprague.

≤ In the popular long running M*A*S*H, Harry Morgan played the daffy Major General Hamilton Bartford Steele, before becoming Commanding Officer, Colonel Sherman T. Potter.

≤ In the show Happy Days, the Cunningham Family had two sons and a daughter. The oldest son, Chuck, was played by three actors, Ric Carrott, Gavin O’Herlihy, and Randolph Roberts, but after the second season Chuck was gone, never to be seen or heard from again.

≤ In M*A*S*H’s first Christmas Episode, Hawkeye wrote his father mentioning his father lived in Vermont, yet the rest of the time he loved talking about his lifetime family hometown being Crabapple Cove, Maine.

≤ Also, in M*A*S*H, Henry Blake’s wife’s name was Mildred, then later in the series, it was Lorraine, and Col. Potter’s wife was named Mildred.

≤ Again, in M*A*S*H, early in the run of the show, Clinger wore a bandana which he said his mother gave him before he shipped out, yet in the episode where relatives of the 4077th met for a proxy reunion, Clinger said his mother didn’t know he was in Korea.

≤ Still M*A*S*H, in an early episode Hawkeye mentioned his sister, who sent him a sweater she knitted for him, but a later episode mentioned he was an only child.

≤ In a couple episodes, Radar, from M*A*S*H made reference to a sister, and other episodes referred to two different brothers, yet Radar was referred to as an only child in numerous episodes.

≤ One more M*A*S*H, Col. Potter’s horse began as a male, but inexplicably changed to a mare.

≤ In the TV sitcom, The Odd Couple, The Original Opening Theme and Dialogue (1970) said that after Felix was asked to remove himself from his place of residence, and with nowhere else to go, he appeared at the home of his childhood friend, Oscar Madison. (A revised opening was used later during the run of the show removing the word childhood.) In Season One, also in 1970, the episode The Jury Story, flashbacked to when Felix and Oscar met as jurors for the trial of Leo Garvey. [There was also an episode where Felix’s father, Optometrist, Dr. Morris Unger, met Oscar’s father, Blinky Madison (a Speak Easy wise guy), and Felix and Oscar met as kids.]

≤ In the sitcom, Friends, did you find it strange that Ross, in one episode, said his birthday was in December, and in another episode he said it was in October?

≤ Back to The Odd Couple, why was Felix’s wife’s name Frances on the Big Screen, but in the TV show her name was Gloria?

≤ Also, The Odd Couple, in the movie Oscar had two children, one a son, Brucey, but on television, he had no children.

≤ Back to Mayberry, did anyone find it odd that in one episode, when the State Police captured two escaped prisoners, Andy put both in the same cell, and left the other cell empty? Also, did anyone notice it took three actors to play Ben Weaver and two to play Bobby Fleet?

≤ Another from the Streets of the tiny North Carolina town, how was it that in the early episodes, Gomer had no clue as how to fix a car, but when he was fired from the Filling Station and stayed with the Taylors, he was an expert at car diagnosis and repair? So as far as Gomer went, he couldn’t sing, then he could sing, then he couldn’t sing, but when he went into the Marines in Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C he could sing again, and in Mayberry he couldn’t fix cars, then he could fix cars. And how did sophisticated group, Bobby Fleet and his Band with the Beat, become beatnik group, Freddy Fleet and his Band with the Beat?

≤ And speaking of singing, why was it that when Barney sang “Seeing Nellie Home,” “Riding on that Mule River Train,” and “Mayberry Union High School,” he never hit any clinkers, but when he sang “Good Old 14A,” he sounded like a squealing hog?

≤ Last one from B & W Mayberry…did anyone ever notice one gentleman, who was in numerous episodes as an extra, or sometimes had a bit more active role. He had a distinguished mustache, sometimes wore a fedora-type hat, or a construction hard hat, once, I recall, a painter’s cap. He rarely had a line but seemed like he was a main member of the cast due to the number of times he appeared in the show. That actor was Tom Jacobs (born Thomas Yakhoob), brother of Danny Thomas, who appeared as an extra in at least 60 episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, a show that Danny Thomas produced.

I’m a fan of old-time television. With channels/networks like WBBZ, and FETV, Pluto, Nick at Night, and Sundance, old-time TV shows allow us to watch early days of television and see that, as enjoyable as they were, their consistency and accuracy planted a lot of questions in our minds.

If you watch many of the sitcoms of old, you will find many more inconsistencies in some of our favorite shows. It won’t stop me from watching them though. It’s still great TV.