The Andy Griffith Show

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The Andy Griffith Show

The opening credits of The Andy Griffith Show, featuring Griffith as Andy Taylor and Howard as Opie.
Genre Sitcom
Running time 30 minutes per episode (with commercials) 25-26 minutes per episode (without commercials)
Creator(s) Sheldon Leonard
Starring Andy Griffith
Ronny Howard
Don Knotts
Frances Bavier
Country of origin Flag of United States United States
Original channel CBS
Original run October 3, 1960–April 1, 1968
No. of episodes 249
IMDb profile

The Andy Griffith Show was an American television series that aired from 1960 to 1968. The show centered around Andy Taylor, (played by Andy Griffith), a rural sheriff who rarely carried a gun. The series was an immediate hit with its audience, and still enjoys success in syndication. Its whistled theme song ("The Fishin' Hole", by Earle Hagen and Herbert Spencer, with unsung lyrics by Everett Sloane) is quickly identified by a significant portion of the public.

The executive producer of the show was Griffith's manager, Richard O. Linke. However, it was producer Aaron Ruben's (writer for The Phil Silvers Show), Sheldon Leonard's (producer of The Danny Thomas Show), and Andy Griffith's attention to the scripts that was credited for giving the show its enduring quality.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Knotts as Barney Fife and Griffith as Andy Taylor
Enlarge
Knotts as Barney Fife and Griffith as Andy Taylor

The Andy Griffith Show was based around widowed Sheriff Andy Taylor, raising his young son Opie (Ron Howard) in the rural North Carolina town of Mayberry. Sheriff Taylor was also the town's justice of the peace dispensing summary judgments. He apparently had jurisdiction in the surrounding county as well.

The first episode begins with their family housekeeper getting married (by Andy) and moving away. This sets up the arrival of Andy's Aunt Beatrice (Frances Bavier; called "Aunt Bee" by nearly everyone) who moves in to help take care of Opie.

Barney Fife (Don Knotts) had just been hired as Andy's deputy sheriff. (Barney was Andy's cousin, a fact mentioned only three times, early in the first season.) Barney and the three members of the Taylor household made up the nucleus of the show. Before long, other eccentric characters were introduced, including auto mechanic Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors from 1962-1964, whose role was spun-off into the series Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.) and his cousin Goober Pyle aka "Goober Beasley" in one early script (George Lindsey), town drunk Otis Campbell (Hal Smith), hell-raising mountain man Ernest T. Bass (Howard Morris), Aunt Bee's busybody best friend Clara Edwards (Hope Summers), absentminded barber Floyd Lawson (Howard McNear), and the rest of the townsfolk. In 1964, Helen Crump (Aneta Corsaut) was added to the show as a love interest for Sheriff Andy Taylor, and before long she was Andy's main girlfriend, until the series ended in 1968.

[edit] Origins

The Andy Griffith Show originated from an episode of The Danny Thomas Show in February 1960. In that show, Danny Williams (Danny Thomas) was arrested by the sheriff for running a stop sign (at a spot where a crossroad had yet to be built) while driving through Mayberry. Andy Griffith was already a well-known actor, and received a large hand from the studio audience upon entering the scene ("The name ain't 'Clem', it's 'Andy', Sheriff Andy Taylor!"). While Danny was waiting for a resolution to the problem, various denizens of Mayberry wandered into the courthouse, notably Frances Bavier, who played a character different from her eventual Aunt Bee: a widow being victimized by a formal wear shop owner, who is making her pay eternal rent for the tuxedo her husband was buried in. The Andy Griffith Show, its format and cast somewhat retooled from this episode, made its debut that fall.

The Andy Griffith Show was an early example of a TV sitcom spin-off, though it was not the first, as is often assumed. The first was Pete & Gladys in 1960, a spin-off of December Bride.

[edit] Reaction

When the show premiered in 1960, many viewers felt a connection with widowed Sheriff Andy Taylor, his son Opie, his Aunt Bee, and his deputy sheriff, Barney Fife. Ironically, the airing of the series coincided with one of the largest cultural upheavals in American history, but it focused on a quaint, idealistic community, befitting the American Dream. Audiences took an instant liking to the show, and it finished its first season at #4 in the United States.

[edit] Commentary

The show operated on at least two levels: there were the corny, nitwit antics of the supporting players, who provided most of the humor, and there was also the straightforward presentation of the occasional story involving a criminal to be caught or a love interest to be established. There was often a storyline of a serious nature concerning Andy's being a single parent to Opie. (The series never explained the circumstances surrounding Andy's wife, though she is mentioned in two episodes including "A Wife for Andy" and an episode where Aunt Bee is considering marriage to the local dry cleaner. In this episode Andy talks with Opie about different types of love ... including the marriage kind. That is when Opie asks if that is the kind of love Andy had with Opie's mom to which Andy answers in the affirmative.)

One of the show's dynamics was the relationship between Andy Taylor, the sensible, easygoing sheriff and Barney Fife, his high-strung, overzealous deputy. From a comedic aspect, Andy usually served as the straight man to Barney's over-the-top antics. Andy's laidback law enforcement style was more in step with the sleepy town he safeguarded than Barney's, whose "by-the-book" attitude towards law and order generally served to cause more problems than it resolved. Andy rarely wore his full uniform and almost never carried a weapon, as opposed to Barney, who was never seen on duty without his cap and tie and was so anxious to use his gun, he had to carry the sole bullet Andy allowed him in his shirt pocket for safety.

Andy had an understanding of the townspeople, and he regularly made exceptions to the rules. Because of this approach, Mayberry rarely ever saw any major crime. His familiarity with the small town and his intricate relationships with the individuals residing there made him a natural choice for sheriff. In contrast, Barney's heavy-handedness went steadily against the grain. On one occasion, Andy had to leave town for a day and left Barney in charge as acting sheriff. When he returned, he discovered dozens of the townspeople had been arrested, including Aunt Bee and her ladies group (for "Unlawful Assemblage and Inciting a Riot"—they were standing in front of the courthouse chatting), and the mayor (for "Vagrancy and Loitering"). Andy held a brief trial for each "criminal" and promptly dismissed every case.

Andy had a different moral code than the average law enforcer. He did what he thought was right, and that sometimes meant he had to lie to protect the feelings of his friends and loved ones, which he saw to be more important than brazen honesty in certain situations. Andy regularly used reverse psychology on people, which he clearly saw to be for their own good. He seemed to have a keen eye for surreptitious or otherwise questionable situations, which the people of Mayberry sometimes lacked. If somebody he cared about made a poor decision, he would find a way to get them out of the situation without letting them know their mistake. He was regularly getting Barney out of some kind of trouble, which he tended to bring upon himself, letting him believe he had done right all along. Another one of Andy's character traits was giving credit to someone (usually Barney) for something he had done himself, and let them receive the adulation for it.

Another of the show's dynamics was Andy's relationship with his son, Opie, as a single father. He was constantly teaching Opie moral lessons and making him think through situations. One of the most memorable examples of this is when Opie accidentally killed a mother bird, leaving three baby birds unattended. Rather than punishing him by conventional methods, Andy convinced Opie that he needed to take care of the birds himself, since it was because of him that they had no mother. Opie raised them until they were able to fly away. From this experience, Opie learned a sense of responsibility and that actions produce consequences.

[edit] The later years

In the fall of 1965, Don Knotts left to pursue a career in feature films. Griffith had said early on that he only planned to do the show for five years. As that time approached, Knotts signed a movie contract. Griffith reconsidered his earlier decision and Knotts, who wanted to continue as Barney, tried to get out of or rework his film contract. However, the film studio wouldn't consider either option, so Knotts was forced to leave the show (although he made 5 guest appearances over the following 3 seasons).

Beginning with the 1965-66 season, the series was broadcast in color. The opening and closing credits were reshot, but retained the familiar theme "The Fishin' Hole". Jack Burns joined the cast as Warren Ferguson, the new deputy, but the character was dropped mid-season without explanation. Griffith later said that it just hadn't worked out.

Perhaps the most significant changes to the show in the 1965/66 season, however, were immediately apparent only to viewers who closely watched the credits: show producer and story consultant Aaron Ruben left the Andy Griffith Show after 5 seasons, as did frequent episode writers Everett Greenbaum and Jim Fritzell. Subesquently, prolific writer Harvey Bullock left after season 6, and by season 8, an entirely new crop of writers was working for the show. While it would be unfair and untrue to characterize the new writers as anything less than professional, the color episodes were often accused of lacking Ruben's customary affection for the small-town lifestyle and attention to production detail. Additionally, due in part to the departure of Knotts as a comic foil, Griffith's character often comes across as irritable and distant. At the time of their original broadcasts, however, the color episodes of The Andy Griffth Show were quite popular, with the show consistently finishing in the top 10.

[edit] Unpopularity of color episodes in syndication

At the same time The Andy Griffith Show switched to color, a new writing/producing team was hired, the popular Knotts departed, and new (not always popular) supporting characters were added. This made for a unique situation when the show went into sydication.

Over the years, several classic sitcoms of the 1960s began as black and white shows, but went color after a year or two (e.g., Gilligan's Island, My Three Sons, Bewitched, I Dream Of Jeannie, The Beverly Hillbillies). When these series were shown in syndication, TV stations tended to run the color episodes more often than the black and white ones. In some instances, TV stations would even skip the black and white episodes altogether. In some cases, the black and white episodes would be colorized, to make them saleable on the syndication market. With Andy Griffith, however, the opposite would happen. In syndication, the black and white "Barney Fife" episodes from 1960 to 1965 were much more popular and aired much more than the 1965 to 1968 color episodes.

In the 1990s, WHNT-TV in Huntsville, Alabama started airing the color episodes in black and white, the thinking being these episodes would be more likely to be watched if viewers thought they were watching an episode from the popular black and white years. Within the past few years, however, the station has started showing the color episodes in color once again.

[edit] Going out on top

Griffith left the show in April 1968 when his show was #1 in the television ratings (one of only three shows to do so, the other two being I Love Lucy in 1957, and Seinfeld in 1998). Griffith and CBS saw the potential profit in continuing the franchise, so Mayberry and most of the supporting characters lived on in a spin-off from (or perhaps more correctly a continuation of) The Andy Griffith Show entitled Mayberry R.F.D.. The first episode featured the marriage of Andy Taylor to his longtime girlfriend Helen Crump, and marked the only appearance of Barney Fife and Opie Taylor on the spin-off series. Frances Bavier (Aunt Bee) was the only original member of the cast to remain on the show.

Mayberry R.F.D. continued with Ken Berry (who had joined the cast that year as farmer Sam Jones) as the star. It was cancelled in the spring of 1971 along with CBS' other rural-themed shows, as the network sought to attract the younger, more urban demographic advertisers desired. People in the TV industry said at the time, "CBS killed everything with a tree in it."

[edit] Mayberry

The Andy Griffith Show was set in and around the fictional town of Mayberry in the county of Mayberry, North Carolina. (Andy and Barney were employees of Mayberry County.) According to roadside signs seen in various episodes, the town population varied between 2,000 and 5,360 during the eight seasons of The Andy Griffith Show. Raleigh was a few hours' drive away but the nearest city was Mount Pilot, located to the east of Mayberry in Pilot County. Mt. Pilot had a population of 30,000 and was known for its fast pace. Another nearby city mentioned numerous times on the show is Siler City, in Chatham County. It is also the town where Frances Bavier, the actress who played Aunt Bee, retired and was buried.

There is no real town of Mayberry but, despite his claim to the contrary, it is widely believed that it was based upon Andy Griffith's real hometown of Mount Airy in Surry County, North Carolina. More likely, Mayberry was the brainchild of not only the writers, directors, and producers of The Andy Griffith Show, but also of the several other actors besides Griffith who hailed originally from southern towns and cities (e.g., Don Knotts from Morgantown, West Virginia, Jim Nabors from Sylacauga, Alabama, and George Lindsey, from Jasper, Alabama).

The word Mayberry has become a common term in American parlance. In a positive sense, it is synonymous with the peaceful charm and wholesome goodness of small town America. In a negative sense, the term has been used to connote the ignorance and lack of sophistication often associated with people from rural areas, and as an example of an idealized, fictional white south that never really existed.

[edit] Mount Airy, North Carolina

Years after the series ended, tourists driving through rural North Carolina still asked for directions to Mayberry, not realizing that the town didn't exist. The adjacent town to fictional Mayberry is named Mt. Pilot, and is an obvious reference to nearby Pilot Mountain, which is better known as a mountain rather than a town. Mount Airy caters to fans of the show with a large gift shop of show memorabilia, a museum, and a large fan club reunion in September, with character look-alike contests and visits by surviving cast members.

[edit] The Forty Acres Lot

The TV show itself was filmed entirely in Hollywood, at Desilu Productions on the former RKO Pictures lot (now merged with the Paramount Pictures lot in West Los Angeles). Mayberry exteriors were shot on the former Selznick International lot, later known as Forty Acres, which is recognizable to fans of the 1950s program Adventures of Superman and was used in many other TV shows and movies, including Gone With The Wind and three episodes of Star Trek ("Miri", "The Return of the Archons", and "The City on the Edge of Forever"). The Forty Acres lot was torn down in 1976. (The 1986 reunion TV movie Return to Mayberry used the small California town of Los Olivos as Mayberry.) Even the apparently rural fishing hole that led off each episode was actually in the Los Angeles area: Franklin Canyon Lake, just north of Beverly Hills.

[edit] Lists

[edit] Characters and Cast

Main articles: List of all Andy Griffith Show cast

[edit] Episodes

Main articles: List of The Andy Griffith Show episodes.

[edit] Music

[edit] Notable Guest Stars

  • James Best played guitarist Jim Lindsey in "The Guitar Player" and "The Guitar Player Returns".
    Best is best known for his role as Rosco P. Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard.
  • Buddy Ebsen played Dave Browne, the drifter hobo in "Opie's Hobo Friend".
    Ebsen is best known for his role as Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies.
  • Both Bob Denver and Alan Hale Jr., known for their roles on Gilligan's Island, guest starred on episodes of the show. In "The Farmer Takes a Wife", Hale played "Big Jeff" Pruitt, the farmer who falls in love with Thelma Lou, much to Barney's dismay. In "Divorce, Mountain Style", Denver played Dud Wash, the husband of Charlene Darling, who is jealous of her attraction to Andy.
  • Everett Sloane played Jubal Foster, the farmer/moonshiner in "The Keeper of the Flame". He also composed lyrics for the show's theme song; Andy sang them on the show's soundtrack album, but the lyrics were never used on the show. Sloane is best known for his role as Mr. Bernstein in the film Citizen Kane.
  • Bill Bixby played Ronald Bailey in "Bailey's Bad Boy".
    Bixby later starred in five TV series. For the course of his long career, he was best known for his portrayal of Tim O'Hara in My Favorite Martian (1963–1966) on CBS, Tom Corbett, in The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1969–1972) on ABC; and as Dr. David Banner in The Incredible Hulk (1978-1982), with Lou Ferrigno on CBS. He also starred in The Magician (1973) and Goodnight Beantown (1984). Bixby and Don Knotts would work together again in 1975 in the family western The Apple Dumpling Gang
  • Barbara Eden played Ellen Brown, the title character of "The Manicurist".
    Eden is best known for her role as Jeannie in I Dream of Jeannie.
  • Sterling Holloway played Burt Miller, the traveling merchant in "The Merchant of Mayberry".
    Holloway's voice is best known as the voice of Winnie the Pooh.
  • Allan Melvin played different characters in eight episodes of The Andy Griffith Show.
    Melvin is best known for his roles as Sam Franklin on The Brady Bunch and Barney Hefner on All in the Family. His is also known for working on the Andy Griffith Show spin-off Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.. In addition to guest starring on some episodes of the series. Melvin also directed some episodes of Andy Griffith, including Don Knotts' return appearance on the show in 1966 (The Return of Barney Fife).
  • Don Rickles played traveling salesman Newton Monroe in "The Luck of Newton Monroe".
  • Jerry Van Dyke played bumbling musician Jerry Miller in "Banjo-Playing Deputy". He was considered as a permanent replacement for Don Knotts, who left at the end of season 5. However Van Dyke opted to take a starring role in My Mother The Car instead. Today he is best known for his role as Luther Van Dam on Coach.
  • Jamie Farr played a gypsy in "The Gypsies". Farr is best known for his role as Max Klinger on M*A*S*H.
  • William Christopher played Dr. Peterson in "A New Doctor in Town". Christopher is best known for his role as Father Mulcahy on M*A*S*H. He also played Private Lester Hummel on The Andy Griffith Show's first spin-off, Gomer Pyle: U.S.M.C.
  • Jack Nicholson played the baby's father in "Opie Finds a Baby" and played the defendant in "Aunt Bee the Juror".
  • George Kennedy played a police officer in "The Big House".

[edit] Trivia

In order to meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article's trivia section requires cleanup.
Content in the trivia section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article.
  • In the series, Barney Fife is supposedly Andy's cousin, but it was only mentioned in three episodes of the first season of the series, and then it was not mentioned again.
  • Earle Hagen wrote the music on the series, and also wrote the music for Andy Griffith's later short-lived sitcom The New Andy Griffith Show in 1971.
  • When Don Knotts left the series, he made five more guest appearances on the show, when it was explained that Barney had moved to the state capital of Raleigh, North Carolina to become a detective. His last guest appearance on the show in 1968 was the most watched episode of the entire series.
  • Aside from Griffith himself, Ron Howard, and Frances Bavier are the only two cast members to remain on the show throughout its entire run (1960-68)
  • Both Don Knotts (Barney Fife) and Frances Bavier (Aunt Bee) are the only two cast members of the show to win Emmy Awards for their work (Knotts won 5 Emmys on the show, including on his guest appearances, Bavier won one Emmy in 1967). The same year that Bavier won, the show received its only nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series.
  • Actor Jerry Van Dyke made a guest appearance on one of the first Andy Griffith episodes after Don Knotts' departure in an episode that is clearly set up to introduce Van Dyke as a replacement deputy. He was invited to join the program, but declined in order to star on the TV flop My Mother the Car. Years later, Van Dyke said he wished he had accepted the offer.
  • The sole sponsor of The Andy Griffith Show was General Foods, makers of Post Cereals, Jell-O and Sanka Coffee.
  • Griffith often denied that Mayberry was modeled after his hometown of Mount Airy, N.C., but in one 1965 episode, "Aunt Bee's Invisible Beau," he can be seen perusing a copy of the Mount Airy News [1] in his living room.
  • A noticeable difference in the show occurs in season 6. The back door to the Taylor home moves from the back wall to the side wall (the same side the dish cabinet is on)
  • The Nirvana song 'Floyd the Barber' heavily references the show, mentioning several of the characters' names.
  • Fan of the show, Pop idol Elton John, frequently makes a pun-ish reference to the show when he covers the song "Goober Peas" in live performances.
  • The show's theme song is currently featured in advertisements for the grocery-store chain Food Lion, though with various instrumental accompaniments instead of the familiar whistling. It is also used when a caller is being put on-hold.
  • Andy Griffith and Frances Bavier never actually got along during the entire series. It wasn't until just before her death that they got along.

[edit] See also

[edit] Distribution

The Andy Griffith Show remains popular. It is syndicated by CBS Paramount Television (formerly Viacom) for reruns to be broadcast across the United States. It is also broadcast nationally on cable television on TV Land, and the first seven seasons are currently available on DVD with the eight and final one due out December 12. It is still seen on many television stations throughout the South (especially North Carolina and South Carolina) many years after the series ended (and often to very high ratings), thus making it the longest-running program to continue airing in the region after it ceased production.[citation needed]

[edit] Copyright status

The Mayberry FAQ says that the copyrights on some episodes have expired. These are all from the 1962-63 season, about a dozen and a half of them in total. The episodes are available on discount home video DVD's. It also says that composers don't receive royalties, but they do get performance money. The difference is that royalties are determined by a guild negotiating re-use payments with the producers. These payments diminish over time by the number of repeat plays of the program. Performance money is paid by the broadcasters who have to secure licenses to perform the music under the copyright laws of the world.

[edit] References

  • The Andy Griffith Show (television program) produced by CBS Television Network 1960-1968. Distributed in rerun syndication by CBS Paramount Television.
  • The Andy Griffith Show by Richard Kelly (John F. Blair, Publisher, 1994).
  • The Andy Griffith Show Book by Ken Beck and Jim Clark (St. Martin's Griffin, Publisher, 2000).
  • Mayberry Memories by Ken Beck and Jim Clark (Rutledge Hill Press, Publisher, 2000).

[edit] External links

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