Which episode marked Gomer Pyle's first appearance?

“The Bank Job” marked Gomer Pyle’s first appearance on The Andy Griffith Show.

Gomer was played by Jim Nabors and appeared as a gentle, naïve auto mechanic connected with Mayberry’s service-station world. In “The Bank Job,” which aired during the show’s third season, he is seen operating a blowtorch to cut through a bank vault. The situation makes his introduction memorable, even though Gomer is not presented as a criminal.

The character returned in “Man in a Hurry” and became a recurring presence before receiving his own spin-off, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. A common mix-up is treating “Man in a Hurry” as his debut because it became one of his better-known early appearances. The episode list, however, places “The Bank Job” first.

Nabors played Gomer in 23 episodes of The Andy Griffith Show from 1962 to 1964. The character then moved to the CBS spin-off, which followed his enlistment in the United States Marine Corps and ran from 1964 to 1969.