Sitcom The Andy Griffith Show told stories of Sheriff Andy Taylor in the small town of Mayberry in North Carolina. Taylor was a widower with a young son (Opie), 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 Barney Fife.
Throughout the show’s run Andy had a couple of 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 pretty popular and the network decided to carry it on under the new name of Mayberry R.F.D, Andy 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 U.S.M.C (which concerned the Gomer Pyle character played by Jim Nabors joining the marines, Pyle was the gas pump attendant in Mayberry) and also in 1965 The Don Knotts Show ( a variety series).
In re-runs the show is sometimes seen as Andy of Mayberry and in April 1986 the whole cast re-united for a TV movie called Return to Mayberry.
production details
USA / CBS / x30m-e / Broadcast Monday 3 October 1960 – Monday 16 September 1968
cast
ANDY GRIFFITH as Andy Taylor
RONNY HOWARD as Opie Taylor
DON KNOTTS as Barney Fife (-65)
ELINOR DONAHUE as Ellie Walker (1960-61)
FRANCES BAVIER as Aunt Bee Taylor
HOPE SUMMERS as Clara Edwards
JIM NABORS as Gomer Pyle (1963-64)
ANETA CORSALT as Helen Crump (1964-68)
GEORGE LINDSAY as Goober Pyle (1965-68)
HOWARD McNEAR as Floyd Lawson
HAL SMITH as Otis Campbell (1960-67)
PAUL HARTMAN as Emmett Clark (1967-68)
BETTY LYNN as Thelma Lou (1960-65)
PARLEY BAER as Mayor Stoner (1962-63)
KEN BERRY as Sam Jones (1968)
