The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom television series that was aired on CBS from October 3, 1960, to April 1, 1968, with a total of 249 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons—159 in black and white and 90 in color.
The series originated from an episode of The Danny Thomas Show. It stars Andy Griffith as Andy Taylor, the widowed sheriff of Mayberry, North Carolina, a fictional community of roughly 2,000–5,000 people. Other major characters include Andy's lifelong friend, the well-meaning and enthusiastic but bumbling deputy, Barney Fife, Andy's aunt and housekeeper, Bee Taylor and Andy's young son, Opie. The townspeople round out the regular cast. Regarding the tone of the show, Griffith said that despite a contemporary setting, the show evoked nostalgia, saying in a Today interview, "Well, though we never said it, and though it was shot in the '60s, it had a feeling of the '30s. It was when we were doing it, of a time gone by."
The series was never placed lower than seventh in the Nielsen ratings, ending its final season at number one. The only other shows to end their runs at the top of the ratings are I Love Lucy and Seinfeld. On separate occasions, it has been ranked by TV Guide as the 9th- and 13th-best series in American television history. Though neither Griffith nor the show won awards during its eight-season run, co-stars Knotts and Bavier accumulated a combined total of six Emmy Awards. The series spawned its own spin-offGomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and a reunion telemovie, Return to Mayberry.
After the eighth season, when Griffith left the series, it was retitled Mayberry, R.F.D., with Ken Berry and Buddy Foster replacing Griffith and Howard in new roles. In the new format, it ran for 78 episodes, ending in 1971 after three seasons. Reruns of The Andy Griffith Show are often shown on TV Land, MeTV, The CW, and SundanceTV. On those channels, the episodes are edited to make room for more commercials, but some airings on SundanceTV air the full uncut versions. The complete series is available on DVD and Blu-ray and intermittently on streaming video services such as Amazon Prime and Paramount+. Mayberry Days, an annual festival celebrating the sitcom, is held each year in Griffith's hometown, Mount Airy, North Carolina.
Origin
—producer of The Danny Thomas Show—and Danny Thomas hired veteran comedy writer Arthur Stander to create a pilot show for Griffith, featuring him as justice of the peace and newspaper editor in a small town. At the time, Broadway, film, and radio star Griffith was interested in attempting a television role, and the William Morris Agency told Leonard that Griffith's rural background and previous rustic characterizations were suited to the part. After conferences between Leonard and Griffith in New York City, Griffith flew to Los Angeles and filmed the episode. On February 15, 1960, The Danny Thomas Show episode "Danny Meets Andy Griffith" aired. In the episode, Griffith played the fictional Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry, North Carolina, who arrests Danny Williams for running a stop sign. Future players in The Andy Griffith Show, Bavier and Howard, appeared in the episode as townspeople Henrietta Perkins and Opie Taylor, respectively. General Foods, sponsor of The Danny Thomas Show, had first access to the spin-off and committed to it immediately. On October 3, 1960, at 9:30 p.m., The Andy Griffith Show made its debut.Production
The sitcom's production team included producers Aaron Ruben and Bob Ross. First-season writers included Jack Elinson, Charles Stewart, Arthur Stander, and Frank Tarloff, Benedict Freedman and John Fenton Murray, Leo Solomon and Ben Gershman, and Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum. During season six, Greenbaum and Fritzell left the show. Ruben departed for Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., a show he owned in part. Writer Harvey Bullock left after season six. Bob Sweeney directed the first three seasons save the premiere.The show was filmed at Desilu Studios, with exteriors filmed at Forty Acres in Culver City, California. Woodsy locales were filmed north of Beverly Hills at Franklin Canyon, including the opening credits and closing credits with Andy and Opie walking to and from "the fishin' hole". Don Knotts, who knew Griffith professionally and had seen The Danny Thomas Show episode, called Griffith during the developmental stages of the show and suggested the Sheriff character needed a deputy and comic sideman; Griffith agreed. Knotts auditioned for the show's creator and executive producer, Sheldon Leonard, and was offered a five-year contract playing Barney Fife. The show's theme music was composed by Earle Hagen, who also performed the whistling in the opening and closing credits. Herbert Spencer was credited by the BMI as "co-composer", but was not involved with the composition of the theme. In 1961, actor Everett Sloane, who also guest starred as Jubal Foster in the episode "The Keeper of the Flame", wrote lyrics for the theme after he learned it did not have any. This vocal version of the theme was renamed "The Fishin' Hole" and first appeared on an LP album of music from the show. One of the show's tunes, "The Mayberry March", was reworked several times in different tempo, styles, and orchestrations as background music. The show's sole sponsor was General Foods, with promotional consideration paid for by Ford Motor Company.
Griffith's development of Andy Taylor
Initially, Griffith played Taylor as a heavy-handed unworldly country bumpkin, grinning from ear to ear and speaking in a hesitant, frantic but friendly manner. The style recalled that used in the delivery of his popular monologues such as "What It Was, Was Football." He gradually abandoned the "rustic Taylor" and developed a serious and thoughtful characterization. Producer Aaron Ruben recalled:He was being that marvelously funny character from No Time for Sergeants, Will Stockdale ... One day he said, "My God, I just realized that I'm the straight man. I'm playing straight to all these kooks around me." He didn't like himself ... and in the next season he changed, becoming this Lincolnesque character.As Griffith stopped portraying some of the sheriff's more unsophisticated character traits and mannerisms, creating his own problems and troubles was impossible in the manner of other central sitcom characters such as Lucy in I Love Lucy or Archie Bunker in All in the Family, whose problems were the result of their temperaments, philosophies, and attitudes. Consequently, the characters around Taylor were employed to create the problems and troubles, with rock-solid Taylor stepping in as problem solver, mediator, advisor, disciplinarian, and counselor.
Premise and characters
The series revolves around Andy Taylor, the sheriff of the sleepy, slow-paced, fictional community of Mayberry, North Carolina. His laid-back but level-headed approach to law enforcement makes him the scourge of local moonshiners and out-of-town criminals, while his abilities to settle community problems with commonsense advice, mediation, and conciliation make him popular with his fellow citizens. His professional life, however, is complicated by the repeated gaffes of his inept deputy, Barney Fife. Barney is Andy's cousin and best friend. At home, widower Andy raises his young son Opie, assisted by his maiden aunt and housekeeper, Aunt Bee. Opie, though generally respectful and well-behaved, is also curious and adventuresome and tests his father's parenting skills. Aunt Bee, meanwhile, is a wonderful cook and housekeeper, but her ill-considered romances and occasional quirks cause her nephew concern.Andy's friends and neighbors include, at various times, barber Floyd Lawson, service station attendants and cousins Gomer Pyle and Goober Pyle, and local drunkard Otis Campbell. There are two mayors over the course of the series: Mayor Pike is more relaxed, but often indecisive, while Mayor Roy Stoner has a more assertive personality. Other semi-regulars include townswoman Clara Edwards, Barney's sweetheart Thelma Lou and Andy's schoolteacher sweetheart Helen Crump. Ellie Walker is Andy's girlfriend in the first season, while Peggy McMillan is a nurse who becomes his girlfriend in season 3. In the color seasons, County Clerk Howard Sprague and handyman Emmett Clark appear regularly, while Barney's replacement, Deputy Warren Ferguson, appears in about half of season six.
Ernest T. Bass made his first appearance in episode 94, as well as four later episodes. The actor who portrayed him, Howard Morris, also played George, the television repairman in episode 140 and two uncredited voice roles, as Leonard Blush and a radio announcer. Morris also directed a total of eight episodes of the show, none while portraying Ernest T. Bass.
Unseen characters such as telephone operator Sarah, and Barney's love interest, local diner waitress Juanita Beasley, as mentioned in the first season, are often referenced. The show's announcer for the first five seasons, Colin Male, portrayed Game Warden Peterson in episode 140.
In the series' last few episodes, farmer Sam Jones debuts and later becomes the lead of the retitled show, Mayberry R.F.D. Don Knotts, Aneta Corsaut, Jack Dodson, and Betty Lynn also appeared on Griffith's later show, Matlock.