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‘The Andy Griffith Show’ Actor Yuki Shimoda Made Three Appearances on ‘M*A*S*H’

Here’s some trivia night intel for you. Ten actors from The Andy Griffith Show also appeared on M*A*S*H, and one of them was Yuki Shimoda.

In Mayberry, Shimoda played Mr. Izamoto, a judo instructor who helped Barney Fife get out of a bind during a 1964 episode titled Barney’s Uniform.

In the show, a bully tells Barney that he’s going to beat him up the second he catches the officer without his police garb. So to ward off the chance of a knockout, he starts wearing his uniform all the time.

But when he realizes that his plan was flawed, he asks Mr. Izamoto to teach him how to defend himself.

Shimoda taught Barney well and was never needed again. The episode was his one and only The Andy Griffith Show cameo. However, his career expanded far and wide with 66 acting credits on shows such as CHiPs and Wonder Woman.

And as we mentioned above, he also appeared in M*A*S*H—three times to be exact.

Yuki Shimoda’s episodes spanned from 1979 to 1981. And in each story, he played a different character.

He first appeared in The Price and played a former cavalry officer named Cho Pak. Cho had been reduced to laundry detail by the Korean Army and was too poor and proud to ask for medical help when he fell ill. And Col. Potter set out to help him.

Yessir, That’s Our Baby was the actor’s second episode. In it, he played Chung Ho Kim, a South Korean government official who advised the 4077th after they found an abandoned baby on base.

And Shimoda’s final performance was in Oh, How We Danced when he starred as Key Yong Lu. In the episode, Key Yong Lu brought his grandson to the M*A*S*H after he was injured while fleeing his village.

Why Andy Went By Andy Taylor on ‘The Andy Griffith Show’

On The Andy Griffith Show, the star went by Andy Taylor, despite the fact that the series went by his real name. And apparently, that was common practice in the 1960s.

Around the same time, shows such as The Danny Thomas ShowThe Doris Day Show, and The Donna Reed Show also gave their lead characters new last names.

But why would they do that? Well, according to MeTV, it was to help keep the actors separate from their characters.

Griffith once shared that The Andy Griffith Show producers didn’t want viewers to confuse his real life with that of Mayberry’s sheriff.

One reason was that Andy Griffith had been married for ten years when the show picked up. And Andy Taylor was a widower. So the producers didn’t think it would be appropriate for Griffith to be “makin’ eyes at a girl” if he was a taken man.

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