‘The Andy Griffith Show’: Actress Behind Aunt Bee’s Best Friend Played Character Charged With Treason on ‘M*A*S*H’
An actress behind Aunt Bee’s best friend on The Andy Griffith Show also played a character charged with treason on the hit comedy MAS*H. The actress, Hope Summers, had a long and successful career in the entertainment industry.
On The Andy Griffith Show, she played Cara Edwards, who happened to be Aunt Bee’s longtime best pal.
In MAS*H, she had a crucial supporting role in an episode called The Trial of Henry Blake. The season two episode, written by McLean Stevenson, follows Blake’s trial. He’s accused of shipping supplies up to the north to a clinic there, which is run by Meg Cratty, played by none other than Hope Summers. Summers may have had a small part, but it was a tricky one nonetheless.
Hope Summers also had important roles in Rosemary’s Baby, Foul Play, Inherit the Wind, and The Children’s Hour.
There are a Lot of Actors Who Appeared in both ‘M*A*S*H’ and ‘The Andy Griffith Show’
Hope Summers wasn’t the only person to appear on both hit TV shows. Of course, they’re very different.
The Andy Griffith Show aired from 1960 through 1968 and was an incredibly wholesome comedy following the life of Sherrif Andy Taylor and his friends in the small town of Mayberry.
Meanwhile, M*A*S*H was a comedy/drama set during the Korean war. The show, starring Alan Alda, aired from 1972 through 1983.
Both shows were incredibly different, but took a lot from the same pool of guest stars.
Even one of the stars of The Andy Griffith Show, Ron Howard, who played Opie Taylor, had a role on M*A*S*H. He played a young soldier in the episode, Sometimes You Hear the Bullet. In the episode, the character is only 16 and was too young to enlist, but he stole his brothers ID and enlisted all to impress a girl.
His character wound up at the 4077th because he had appendicitis. And when Hawkeye found out he was too young, he decided to report it to the army.
Another major figure from The Andy Griffith Show to make an appearance on M*A*S*H was George Lindsey, who played Gomer’s cousin Goober. But on M*A*S*H, his character couldn’t be more different, playing an uptight Surgeon from Arkansas. He was sort of the antithesis of Hawkeye, so when he took over for Hawkeye in an episode called Temporary Duty, it was strange for the other members of the 4077 to say the least.
Both M*A*S*H and The Andy Griffith Show charmed their audiences for years and are now considered absolute classics. They’re incredibly different shows. But unbelievably, there’s a handful of lucky actors who got to take a part in both of them.
