SYNOPSIS
The small town of
Mayberry, North Carolina, was the setting of this highly successful homespun
situation comedy.
Sheriff Andy Taylor
was a widower with a young son, Opie. They lived with Andy's Aunt Bee, a
combination housekeeper and foster mother for Opie. Andy's deputy was his
cousin Barney Fife, the most inept, hyper-tense deputy sheriff ever seen on
television.
The tone of the show
was very gentle, giving Andy the opportunity to state and practice his understanding,
philosophical outlook on life. Since there was practically no crime in
Mayberry, the stories revolved mostly around the personal relationships of
its citizens.
Two of the show's
regulars graduated to series of their own. The first was Jim Nabors. He
had become a member of the cast in the spring of 1963 in the role of Gomer
Pyle, the naive, lovable gas station attendant at Wally's filling station.
After a year and a half, he left to join the Marines and become
Gomer
Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Co-star Don Knotts left the show in 1965 for his own variety series,
The
Don Knotts Show.
Among the other
regulars, Andy's original girlfriend, druggist Ellie Walker, was seen only
during the first season, and for the following three years, Andy had no
regular romantic interest. Schoolteacher Helen Crump filled the void in
1964, and, when Andy Griffith decided to quit the show in 1968, she also
provided his means of escape. On the first episode of
Mayberry
R.F.D., the
successor to
The
Andy Griffith Show,
Andy and Helen married and moved away, leaving the supporting cast to carry
on with a new star, Ken Berry, in the role of Sam Jones - another widower
with a young son.
Daytime reruns of the
series, as well as some syndicated versions, were titled
Andy
of Mayberry.
CBS aired weekday daytime reruns from October 1964 to September 1970, with
the title reverting to
The
Andy Griffith Show,
when the prime-time version left the air.
A nostalgic reunion of the
series' original cast - the made-for-TV film "Return
to Mayberry"
-
aired in April 1986 and was the highest-rated movie of the entire 1985-1986
season.
