The series revolves around Sheriff Andy Taylor and his life in sleepy, slow-paced fictional Mayberry, North Carolina.

Opie's relationship with his "Pa" provides plot material for numerous episodes.

The show opens with that famous shot of Andy and Opie heading down to "the Fishin' Hole", set to some of the catchiest whistling ever.

Otis works as a glue dipper in a furniture factory Monday through Friday and drinks all weekend. After a binge, he usually locks himself in the town jail until he is sober. On one occasion Otis brings a suit to the jail on Friday before his binge so that he can change into the suit for church on Sunday without going home first.

In "Barney's Bloodhound", Barney attempts to train a crime-fighting Bloodhound, but the whole scheme backfires when Barney leads Blue to a criminal and the dog likes the lawbreaker better than the law enforcer.

Besides her love of gossiping and being a general busybody, Clara Edwards has a passion for making homemade pickles and entering them in the yearly competition at the fair, which she has won an astonishing 12 years in a row.

Barney has a tendency to shoot his gun, so Andy makes him keep his bullet in his shirt pocket. Sometimes, however, the bullet finds its way into the gun and Barney shoots it. Andy then holds out his hand, and Barney reluctantly gives the gun up for a while.

Like his cousin Goober, Gomer provides comic relief, awestruck by the simplest of things, resulting in the exclamation of his catchphrases, "Shazam!", "Gawwww-leeeee", and "Sur-prise, sur-prise, sur-prise!"

Andy teaches Opie the value of responsibility and parenthood after Opie accidentally kills a mother bird with his slingshot and leaves her three nestlings orphaned. Andy opens Opie's bedroom window so he can hear the chicks calling after the mother who will never come home. Naming the birds "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod", Opie nurtures them until they are ready to be released into the wild.

When Briscoe Darling gets the impression that Aunt Bee is sweet on him, he decides to kidnap Bee and take her back to the Darling cabin. Andy rescues her by convincing Bee to try to reform Briscoe. Bee's attempt to civilize the Darlings causes Briscoe to call off the engagement.