# Well Gollllllly! Gomer Pyle done married him a feller! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 30, 2013, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783 "2013-01-30T05:20:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/61 "2013-01-31T00:42:50Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Come to think of it, did the comic strip _Beetle Bailey_ ever mention it? Yep. Lt. Flap designed as a black, Vietnam-veteran officer. ---
**Author:** ![YWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/6f9a4e/32.png) [@YWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YWalker)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/62 "2013-01-31T01:21:01Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > I am old enough to remember there was the scandalous rumor of Jim Nabors and Rock Hudson getting married! I think this was in the 70’s - long before anyone even mentioned the idea of Gay Marriage, let alone take it seriously. There were tons of jokes about it and, if I remember correctly, there was even a public denial of this and it was an embarrassment to both Jim Nabors and Rock Hudson. This was the basis of a popular joke around here at the time: > [@](#): > > What do Jim Nabors and the North Carolina mountains have in common? Blowing Rock! Blowing Rock is a resort town in the North Carolina mountains ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/63 "2013-01-31T04:30:23Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > But of course the number one great thing about the union is how many people who have been listening to his Gospel 8-tracks, cassettes, records, and CDs for the past 50 years just shit in their pants and choked on their pork rinds. Yes. They’ll be shocked, positively shocked! ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/64 "2013-01-31T05:53:06Z")
Huh! Not that I payed any attention to his career but I too remember all the jokes about him and Rock Hudson after Hudson died of AIDS, and I thought that he and his agent denied **both** the rumors _and_ that Nabors was even a homo? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/65 "2013-01-31T15:59:56Z")
Jim Nabors married a guy? ‘Surprise, surprise, surprise!’ No, it isn’t. Actually, I thought he’d drowned decades ago. Someone said he was found bobbing up and down on the Hudson. But seriously, good for him. Thirty-eight years is a long time to be together; longer than many marriages. May he and his partner be happy to the end of their days. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/66 "2013-01-31T16:05:46Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Actually, I thought he’d drowned decades ago. Someone said he was found bobbing up and down on the Hudson. Yes, but he climbed up on a Rock. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/67 "2013-01-31T20:41:43Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > But seriously, good for him. Thirty-eight years is a long time to be together; longer than many marriages. Though I was surprised to learn that Ron Howard has been with his wife that long as well. They married in '75. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/68 "2013-01-31T21:00:03Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Though I was surprised to learn that Ron Howard has been with his wife that long as well. They married in '75. Speaking of Opie (and others), I saw a political photo on FB. It’s a photo of Andy, Barney, Aunt Bea, Opie, Gomer, and Otis, and references Conservatives’ desire to ‘return to Mayberry’. The caption says: ‘Maybe the conservatives are right. Maybe we can learn a lot from the folks in Mayberry… Andy, a Democrat, supported Obamacare. Opie grew up to be an outspoken Liberal. Gomer just got gay married.’ Not to turn this into a political thread, or to extol or disparage the virtues of Mayberry. Just something I found amusing that referenced Nabors’s wedding. ---
**Author:** ![MsBatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@MsBatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsBatt)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/69 "2013-01-31T22:54:30Z")
I don’t remember when or how I found out Nabors was gay, but I was surprised that some people were still surprised to learn it. I’m 54, and I can’t remember ever NOT knowing he was gay. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/70 "2013-01-31T23:00:59Z")
> [@MsBatt](#): > > I don’t remember when or how I found out Nabors was gay, but I was surprised that some people were still surprised to learn it. I’m 54, and I can’t remember ever NOT knowing he was gay. Ditto Rock Hudson; I remember being amazed at how many were surprised when he was outed following his AIDS diagnosis in the '80s, and at that time I had never even heard the Hudson:Nabors rumor. There are several versions of how the Hudson-Nabors rumor started, all of which seem to stem from the “once he marries Gomer his name will be Rock Pyle” punchline, but per publicists the two barely knew each other and in fact made a point not to be in the same location after the rumors. Though that said it would be funny if we were to learn that no, they were indeed in a marital type relationship in the '70s. Wanna see [a video](http://vimeo.com/13983909) of Jim’s Maui house and acreage? It’s impressive, and you get to see him holding his nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/71 "2013-02-01T00:47:46Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Wanna see [a video](http://vimeo.com/13983909) of Jim’s Maui house and acreage? It’s impressive, and you get to see him holding his nuts. Those would be his large hairy nuts, I presume? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/72 "2013-02-01T02:39:38Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Those would be his large hairy nuts, I presume? Watch the video and you’ll see that he pays people to sit in his old director’s chairs and handle his nuts, even drying them as needed. ---
**Author:** ![Agnostic\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@Agnostic\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agnostic_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/73 "2013-02-01T04:07:26Z")
Count me in as one of those who thought he had passed. And while I remember his show, it was never a favorite, and vaguely knew he was singer, but never realized how good he was until I saw this [clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqJ2jYumJJo). Still not quite my cup of tea, but an amazing voice. Congrats that he could realize his ‘impossible dream’, to paraphrase one of the comments. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/74 "2013-02-01T04:42:18Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > My dad liked _Hogan’s Heroes_ because it actually also showed Germans as regular people and not all evil.[like when they kip out for something and hit somewhere for a beer] But that would have been very hard for the audience to accept if all the Germans hadn’t been played by Jews. (I’m assuming that was fairly well known at the time. I may be wrong.) ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/75 "2013-02-05T17:48:32Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > There are several versions of how the Hudson-Nabors rumor started, all of which seem to stem from the “once he marries Gomer his name will be Rock Pyle” punchline, but per publicists the two barely knew each other and in fact made a point not to be in the same location after the rumors. Though that said it would be funny if we were to learn that no, they were indeed in a marital type relationship in the '70s. Now, I’m beginning to believe the original rumors about the marriage. Of course, there was no real marriage between gay people back then, but, IIRC, allegedly they were at some party, and there was a theme of ‘gay marriage’ night, or some such, and some of the participants let it slip out to somebody who blabbed. Even het parties do dipshit, trying-to-be-funny things, so I most definitely see it as possible, even back then. Per the rumor, Rock and Gomer were one of the couples. Since the outing of both, I also wonder if the original rumors were true. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/76 "2013-02-05T17:54:13Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > But that would have been very hard for the audience to accept if all the Germans hadn’t been played by Jews. (I’m assuming that was fairly well known at the time. I may be wrong.) Minor hijack: To me, even more amusing than the fact that they were Jewish, was that Major Hochstetter, IRL Howard Caine, was a big time bluegrass fiddler! _"Klink! Der Fuehrer vants answers! Ve haff vays of making you talk! But first, let’s have a quick session of “Turkey in the Straw” and “Orange Blossom Special!”_ ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/77 "2013-02-06T05:53:22Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Activism isn’t the same for everyone. As a kid back in the 70s I knew Jim Nabors was gay and so did everyone else. (Knew about Paul Lynde too). They were dignified people completely without scandal who didn’t pretend to be straight like Rock Hudson (whom we also all knew about). Nabors wasn’t Harvey Milk in what he did, but he was someone everyone knew was genuine and could respect. That’s what confused me about this thread - everyone seemed surprised that Gomer is gay. In school back in '75 it was common knowledge that Jim Nabors was gay. The rumor was that he was partnered with Rock Hudson in Hawaii. That part would seem to be untrue. ETA - further reading shows that others heard the rumor about Rock Hudson as well. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/78 "2013-02-06T07:44:09Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > Minor hijack: To me, even more amusing than the fact that they were Jewish, was that Major Hochstetter, IRL Howard Caine, was a big time bluegrass fiddler! Not fiddle, [banjo](http://www.banjonews.com/2010MP3/COH_Caine.mp3) :). ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_E.Nixon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@Richard\_E.Nixon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_E.Nixon)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/79 "2013-02-06T08:20:41Z")
[quote=“Sampiro, post:45, topic:648783”] The two biggest jawdroppers of '60s sitcoms were probably how _Hogan’s Heroes_, set in a p.o.w. camp and featuring real life concentration camp survivors in the cast, was not only a hit and not only didn’t receive boycotts and outrage out the wazoo QUOTE] I believe the POW camps were run by regular German soldiers. Most of them were not members of the NSDAP and they certainly weren’t SS. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783/80 "2013-02-06T11:43:32Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > I’m very much not under 35 (54), but I was probably in my 30’s when I found out that _Gomer Pyle, USMC_ was a spinoff from Andy Griffith, and that Goober was his cousin. > > I only remember Andy from reruns, and I don’t remember seeing any with Gomer in them. I remember enjoying Gomer’s show, though, so his backstory wasn’t necessary for that. Pity you missed the episode in which Gomer marches into Andy’s office singing _The Marines’ Hymn_ and shouting “I’m in, I’m in!” Now we all know why he was so excited about signing up… :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-gollllllly-gomer-pyle-done-married-him-a-feller/648783.md?page=5)