Opie Joins the Marines - S2-E26
Question: How can Andy meet Sergeant Carter here if they met in the pilot episode of Gomer Pyle, USMC?
Question: Throughout the whole show Gomer Pyle's rank stays as Private First Class. With how long he had been in the Marines, why was he never given a promotion to a higher rank?
Answer: If you saw the whole series run, you know that Gomer was a country bumpkin. He fumbled, stumbled and tumbled his way into one disaster after another. There was an episode that questioned why he was never promoted. However, a few years before Jim Nabors died, the real Marine Corps, gave him a ceremonial promotion to the rank of Lance Corporal, which Jim gladly accepted.
Unfortunately, I never saw all the episodes. Only a few episodes and a clip of the episode where he sings "The Impossible Dream" which made me wonder why he was still a PFC. Thanks so much for the info.
Answer: There's no indication they were meeting for the first time, in fact they seem to know each other as Sgt. Carter addresses Andy only as "Sheriff". Gomer Pyle just says his two favorite people are "meeting face to face", and obviously in the pilot episode Sgt. Carter wasn't one of Pyle's favorite people yet.
Bishop73