The Andy Griffith Show
1 9 6 0 - 1 9 6 8 (USA)
249 x 30 minute episodes
This
sitcom focused on Sheriff Andy Taylor in the small town of Mayberry in
North Carolina. 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 centered around Andy, his family life and
working life especially with his somewhat stupid deputy 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 ("RFD" stood for the postal
designation "Rural Free Delivery" - the network of roadside mailboxes
owned by people who live in communities too tiny to have their own
postal facility).
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. In re-runs The Andy Griffith
Show is sometimes aired as Andy of Mayberry and in April
1986 the whole cast reunited for a TV movie called Return to
Mayberry.
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