Gomer Pyle

Barney Fife and Gomer Pyle.

Gomer Pyle is a simpleminded, gentle, rural auto mechanic character played by American singer/ television actor Jim Nabors. Gomer Pyle became a character on the TV sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, when actor Howard McNear, who played Floyd the barber, suffered a stroke and took a respite from acting. Jim Nabors was contracted to play Pyle, and did so for 23 episodes from 1962–1964. After two years of appearances on The Andy Griffith Show, McNear returned and Andy Griffith went to the producers seeking a vehicle for a show based on Nabors' Gomer Pyle. In 1964 the character was spun-off into a sitcom akin to the movie No Time for Sergeants. Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., ran until 1969.

Character

Gomer Pyle was depicted as a good-natured, naïve hay-seed from the fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina. The only seen employee at Wally's Filling Station, Gomer lived in the back room. Wide-eyed and slack jawed, Gomer provided much of the comic relief during his two-year stint on The Andy Griffith Show. He was often awestruck by the simplest of things, resulting in the exclamation of his catchphrases, "shazam!", "g-o-l-l-y", "sur-prise, sur-prise, sur-prise!", and on occasion, when his innocence was tested, "shame, shame, shame!"

Gomer as a new recruit under Sergeant Carter's evaluation.

Carter takes issue with Pyle.

The character was employed as a service station attendant with scant knowledge of auto mechanics (in "The Great Filling Station Robbery", he thought a carburetor was a hood ornament). He was later depicted as a skilled mechanic with a full knowledge of automobiles, perhaps due to training from his boss, or his cousin Goober (later played by George Lindsey). Gomer was usually seen sporting a ball cap with an upturned bill and his service station uniform with an ever-present handkerchief dangling from his back pocket.

Gomer was sometimes deputized by Deputy Barney Fife, when Sheriff Taylor was otherwise occupied. Though always compliant, Gomer's ineptitude usually made him more of a hindrance than a help in the line of duty. However, in the eyes of his friends, especially Sheriff Andy Taylor, his shortcomings were generally outweighed by his gentle, generous spirit.

Gomer's Mayberry roots were evident in the spin-off series Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., where his countrified, backward nature served as the keystone for the show's humor, making him a comic foil to the hard-nosed drill instructor, Sgt. Vince Carter, played by the late Frank Sutton.

At first Sergeant Carter was rankled and extremely irritated by the slow-witted Pyle, and dreamed of ways to rid himself of the private's presence. Over the course of the series, however, Carter increasingly respected Pyle, who, though unconventional, became a true Marine and a caring friend.

Both The Andy Griffith Show and Gomer Pyle USMC ended their runs by the late 1960s. While Mayberry RFD continued from 1968–71, where The Andy Griffith Show left off, the concept of returning Gomer to Mayberry was nixed, as the actor was given a CBS variety show of his own (which lasted two seasons). Gomer eventually returned, along with most of the original cast of The Andy Griffith Show, to the 1986 television movie Return to Mayberry. Gomer and Goober Pyle end up running a gas station/car repair shop called "G & G Garage".

Jim Nabors briefly reprised his role in Cannonball Run II, under the name Homer Lyle.

On an episode of The Lucy Show, "Lucy Gets Caught Up in the Draft," Nabors has a cameo role as "Gomer Pyle".

When both The Carol Burnett Show and GP were running on CBS first-run, there would be an annual crossover between the series – with a character played by Burnett appearing on GPUSMC, and Nabors appearing on Burnett's variety show.

Andy Griffith Show Appearances

The following is a list of Andy Griffith Show episodes featuring Gomer before his spin-off series.

Season Three

• Episode 13: "The Bank Job"
• Episode 16: "Man in a Hurry"
• Episode 17: "High Noon in Mayberry"
• Episode 22: "The Great Filling Station Robbery"
• Episode 27: "Barney's First Car"
• Episode 32: "The Big House"

Season Four

• Episode 2: "The Haunted House"
• Episode 4: "The Sermon for Today"
• Episode 6: "Gomer the House Guest"
• Episode 7: "A Black Day for Mayberry"
• Episode 9: "A Date for Gomer"
• Episode 11: "Citizen's Arrest"
• Episode 13: "Barney and the Cave Rescue"
• Episode 20: "The Song Festers"
• Episode 22: "Andy's Vacation"
• Episode 23: "Andy Saves Gomer"
• Episode 24: "Bargain Day"
• Episode 26: "A Deal is a Deal"
• Episode 27: "Fun Girls"
• Episode 29: "The Rumor"
• Episode 30: "Barney and Thelma Lou, Phfftt"
• Episode 31: "Back to Nature"
• Episode 32: "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C."

Cultural references

In games

• In the 2008 video game, Call of Duty: World at War, a soldier in the first level is named Pvt. Pyle. He is eventually killed by having his throat slit by a Japanese soldier.

In the military

• A popular Army cadence uses the line "Got me looking like Gomer Pyle" while highlighting complaints about adjusting to life in the U.S. Army.
• "Gomer Pyle" has become U.S.M.C. slang for a recruit who continually messes up or needs extra training. Stanley Kubrick's film Full Metal Jacket depicts such a recruit who has this nickname applied to him.

In music

• The song "Theöne" by the band Lambchop, on their 1996 album How I Quit Smoking contains the lyric: "Gomer Pyle is just a man who served his country as best he can."
• Sometime in the 1960s, the normally operatic Jim Nabors recorded an entire LP of songs sung in character, entitled Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
• An audio clip including Gomer Pyle saying, "Surprise, surprise, surprise!" is one of the many TV samples used on the Pink Floyd album The Wall, during the song "Nobody Home".
• Big Boi's song "Shutterbugg" contains the lyric: "It ain't so country though, nigga, this ain't no Gomer Pyle."
• An audience member calls to Joni Mitchell 'Joni you have more class than Mick Jagger, Richard Nixon or Gomer Pyle combined!" after her song "Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire." from her 1974 album Miles of Ailes.

Onscreen

• In Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket GySgt. Hartman (R. Lee Ermey) in his motivating speech renames one of the new grunts (played by Vincent D'Onofrio) Pvt. Gomer Pyle.
• In Forrest Gump, Forrest is watching Gomer Pyle while recuperating from his wound in a military hospital.
• In the Futurama episode "Roswell That Ends Well", Philip J. Fry's "grandfather" is an homage to Gomer Pyle, USMC, serving in Roswell, New Mexico.
• Jim Nabors appears in The Muppet Show (Episode Six of Season One) and references his character Gomer Pyle.
• On The Simpsons, in the episode "Bart the Lover", Todd Flanders is seen watching an episode of the show. In "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes", Homer flashes back to watching Gomer Pyle as he mourns the loss of his couch. In "Bart Gets an Elephant", Homer is cleaning out the basement, finds an old TV Guide, and imagines Pyle and Carter repeating their respective catch phrases "Shazam!" and "PY-Y-YLE!".
• In the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles episode "Goodbye to All That", at the military academy where John Connor and Derek Reese went on an undercover mission, a goofy cadet that John assists at the shooting range and who is also part of his training unit is named Pyle. The fact that the writers named this character as a tribute to Gomer Pyle was confirmed on the show's blog.
• On an episode of Home Improvement, Tim starts imitating Gomer Pyle after they drive a tank.

Other

• Gomer Pyle was promoted to Private First Class during the run of the show. In 2001 Pyle was promoted to Lance Corporal by Marine Corps Commandant General James L. Jones. In 2007 Gomer Pyle was promoted to Corporal by Marine Corps Commandant General James T. Conway.
• The San Antonio, Texas neighborhood of Oak Hills Terrace consists of names of streets acquired from a TV Guide of the era the neighborhood was established; one of the streets in the neighborhood is named Gomer Pyle.
• The famous urban legend that suggested Jim Nabors married Rock Hudson stemmed from a joke put out by a California gay club involving the Gomer Pyle character. The punchline of the joke was that if Hudson and Nabors were to marry, Hudson would take Gomer Pyle's surname and from that point be known as "Rock Pyle".