THE FLEETS ARE IN!

"Hi. My name is Larry.

This is my brother Darryl. And this is my other brother Darryl."

Larry

'Newhart'

One other point of interest from that "Mayberry Band" episode of 'The Andy Griffith Show' which I wrote about yesterday - Joseph Sirola was one of the guest stars playing a traveling musician named Freddy Fleet. By the way Andy and Barney greeted him when his band arrived in town, they had met before.

Bobby Fleet One

The Mayberry wikia would have you accept that Freddy Fleet was the same guy named Bobby Fleet who made two previous visits to Mayberry - in "The Guitar Player" (played by Henry Slate) and in "The Guitar Player Returns" (played by Herb Ellis). And they're only doing it because that's what the show wanted you to think. (Who had any idea back then that there would be DVDs and all-day marathons on TV Land?)

But as you might expect from a recastaway situation, none of them looked alike; and of course there's that matter of Sirola's Fleet having a different first name.

Freddy Fleet

Because of that quote at the top of the page, you may have already figured out where I'm going with this. As was the case of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl, these three Fleets were all brothers. And two of them had the same first name.

This situation isn't limited just to these two sitcoms. Over in the Wold Newton Universe, there are thee James Moriarty's to splain away certain discrepancies. I believe there are three Captain Nemo's as well for the same reason.

It could be that since the first two brothers are known as "Bobby", only one of them has "Robert" as his Christian name. The other could be "Robin", "Robinson", or even "Bobbitt".

Bobby Fleet Two

If this theory works, then the second Bobby took over "Bobby Fleet And The Band With The Beat" - probably because something happened to his older brother. And when Freddy showed up in Mayberry (and not for the first time, based on the dialogue), he may have taken over the band from Bobby Two. But I prefer to think that since we didn't see Jim Lindsey with the band, and the name of the band was not printed on the side of the "bus", then Freddy had started his own band.

And to splain away the Zonk of the characters greeting the second Bobby as though he had been there for that first episode, it could be chalked up to a matter of confusion - a mental lapse. We all get them. ("I could have sworn it was you who....")

And Bobby Two was too polite to correct them.

BCnU!