The Andy Griffith Show
1 9 6 0 - 1 9 6 8 (USA)
249 x 30 minute episodes
This
sitcom - spun-off from an episode of The Danny Thomas Show
in which Thomas was arrested in a small North Carolina town - focused on Sheriff Andy Taylor in the small town of
Mayberry.
Taylor was a widower with a young son
(Opie) and the pair of them lived with Andy's Aunt Bee.
Crime in Mayberry was of the distinctly petty variety and much
of the comedy centred around Andy, his family life and working
life especially with his somewhat stupid deputy (and cousin) Barney Fife.
Throughout the show's run Andy had two love interests - the
first was druggist Ellie Walker, and then later schoolteacher
Helen Crump whom Andy ended up marrying in 1968.
When Andy Griffith decided to call it quits with the show it
was still popular and the network decided to carry it on under the
new name of Mayberry RFD with Ken Berry in the lead as
councilman Sam Jones.
Griffith helped with the change
over by appearing in the first episode (it was in this episode
that he married Helen and the pair then moved away from the town).
 There
were two spin offs from the series, the 1964 sitcom Gomer Pyle
USMC (which concerned Gomer, the Mayberry gas station
attendant, joining the marines) and also The Don Knotts Show
(a variety series) in 1965 .
The show was eventually canned when CBS, concerned about its
audience demographics (which were skewed to the rural Midwest and
west of the USA) cancelled all shows "with trees".
A New Andy Griffith Show - in which Griffith played the
mayor of a small southern town - lasted a single season in 1971, and in April 1986 the whole cast reunited for a TV
movie called Return to Mayberry. It was the highest-rated
film on American television for the 1985-86 season.
In re-runs The Andy Griffith Show is sometimes aired as Andy
of Mayberry.
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