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| Barney Fife, Oppie Taylor and Sheriff Andy Taylor. |
On October 3, 1960 one of the best television shows ever of all time (at least in my opinion) was aired for the first time on CBS, The Andy Griffith Show. The show stared native North Carolinian and UNC alum Andy Griffith as Sheriff Andy Taylor in the fictional town of Mayberry. Mayberry's location is never reviled in the show but the mentioning of Siler City (a real town) and Mt. Pilot (real town is Pilot Mountain) hints that Mayberry is most likely modeled after Griffith's home town of Mount Airy in Surry County.
The series centered around Sheriff Taylor's who is a widowed father and often the voice of reason in the typical small southern town where everyone knows everyone and gossip has a tendency to spread like wild fire at times. Besides Sheriff Taylor the cast is full of memorable characters. Taylor's son Opie is played by a young Ron Howard. Other notable characters include Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier), Deputy Barney Fife (Don Knotts), town drunk Otis Campbell (Hal Smith), mechanics Gomer (Jim Nabors) and Goober Pyle (Jim Lindsey) and Floyd the barber (Walter Baldwin), just to name a few.
The series centered around Sheriff Taylor's who is a widowed father and often the voice of reason in the typical small southern town where everyone knows everyone and gossip has a tendency to spread like wild fire at times. Besides Sheriff Taylor the cast is full of memorable characters. Taylor's son Opie is played by a young Ron Howard. Other notable characters include Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier), Deputy Barney Fife (Don Knotts), town drunk Otis Campbell (Hal Smith), mechanics Gomer (Jim Nabors) and Goober Pyle (Jim Lindsey) and Floyd the barber (Walter Baldwin), just to name a few.
After eight seasons and 249 episodes the series ended on April 1, 1968, making it one of the longest running series in television history. The show produced a number of notable spin-offs during and after its tenure. In 1964 Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. starring Jim Nabors and in 1968 Mayberry RFD with Ken Berry. In 1986 NBC aired a reunion special entitled Return to Mayberry, bringing back most off the original cast.
Today the show's legacy still lives on 63 years after it first debuted. Monuments have been erected dedicated to the cultural icon. One such monument can be found in Raleigh's historic Pullen Park, where Andy and Opie have been immortalized in the familiar pose of walking down to the fishing hole with rods at hand. Mount Airy attracts fans from all over with museums and even an annual festival in September called "Mayberry Days."
Sources:
Powell, William S., Encyclopedia of North Carolina, "The Andy Griffith Show." Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2006.
Robinson, Dale and David Fernandes, The Definitive Andy Griffith Show Reference. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Publishing, 2004.
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| Andy and Opie at Pullen Park, Raleigh, NC. |
Sources:
Powell, William S., Encyclopedia of North Carolina, "The Andy Griffith Show." Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2006.
Robinson, Dale and David Fernandes, The Definitive Andy Griffith Show Reference. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Publishing, 2004.
