Most characters on The Andy Griffith Show were either wholesome to the core or comically wayward (think boozy Otis Campbell and mountain man Ernest T. Bass). However, in the sixth episode of the show’s third season, the show got a dose of “here for the good times” with the introduction of Daphne and Skippy, also known as “The Fun Girls” of Mount Pilot.
Played with vigor by Martin Kane actress Jean Carson (Daphne) and The Outlaw Josie Wales star Joyce Jameson (Skippy), the bombshell blondes got their collective nickname from Barney Fife’s disdainful gal Thelma Lou, who considered them a bane of her existence.
Who are The Fun Girls on The Andy Griffith Show?
Wise to every party and hot spot in and around Mount Pilot, The Fun Girls made their first appearance on The Andy Griffith Show in the Season 3 episode “Barney Mends a Broken Heart.” In the episode, Sheriff Andy Taylor (Griffith) arrives at Peggy’s (Joanna Moore) for a date and finds another man already there. It’s just an old classmate of Peggy’s who dropped in for a visit, but Andy gets his nose out of joint and leaves. Determined to cheer his boss up, Barney (Don Knotts) suggests that he get dressed up too, and the pair mosey to Mount Pilot for a guys’ night out.
Predictably, the deputy has something up his sleeve, and the gents’ dinner is interrupted by wide-eyed, froggy-voiced Daphne and dippy Skippy, who have a night on the town with the boys in mind. Barney pretends that the meet-up is an accident, but Skippy spills the beans, settling in next to Barney — whom she lovingly calls “Bernie” — while Daphne takes the spot next to Andy, announcing “Hello, Doll,” in a come-hither voice and staring up at the sheriff with longing eyes.
Andy calls off the festivities before any club-hopping could begin, but not before receiving a black eye by Daphne’s would-be boyfriend.
Daphne and Skippy and Gomer and Goober
That wasn’t the last Andy Griffith fans saw of the Fun Girls. In the Season 4 episode “Fun Girls,” Andy and Barney are working late at the office when in walk Daphne and Skippy all the way from Mount Pilot. Though the ladies never announced their arrival, Andy’s girl Helen (Aneta Corsaut) and Thelma Lou (Betty Lynn) think otherwise and back out their big dates to Mayberry’s big dance.
Helen and Thelma Lou try to make Andy and Barney jealous by going to the dance with affable town mechanic Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors) and his cousin Goober (George Lindsey). When Barney decides they’ll take The Fun Girls to the dance, hilarity and some fancy dancing ensue.
The Fun Girls’ Final Ride
The Fun Girls make their final appearance in the Season 5 episode “The Arrest of the Fun Girls,” which sees Skippy and Daphne causing trouble for Andy’s and Barney’s love lives one last time.
Andy and Barney catch The Fun Girls speeding through town and pull them over. The gals are itching to spend some time with “Bernie” and “Doll” at the prison, but Helen and Thelma Lou walk in on the proceedings before the lawmen can usher the speeders out of town. Andy orders the Fun Girls back to Mount Pilot, but girls will be girls, especially when they can’t resist some fun.
“The Arrest of the Fun Girls” also marks the final time Barney and Thelma Lou appear together onscreen before Knotts left The Andy Griffith Show to pursue a career in movies.
Whether you loved them or found them annoying, there’s little arguing that The Fun Girls added some big-city bad girl pizazz to Mayberry’s corn-fed wholesomeness. Following their time harassing Andy and Barney, Jameson proved a popular guest star on a host of TV sitcoms and, later, dramas.
Carson, who once described her characters as perpetual “second tomatoes,” divided her time between TV and films before retiring from acting in 1977.
