When Andy Griffith Became Mayberry RFD

The fey Howard Sprague wasn’t really leading man material circa 1968.

Don Knotts wanted to leave to do movies, and that prompted Andy Griffith to want to leave too. but most of the regulars stayed on: Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier), Goober "The Gay Bear" Pyle (George Lindsey), Clara Edwards (Hope Summers), Emmett Clark (Paul Hartman) and Howard Sprague (Jack Dodson) stayed on, and the goodwill Americans felt towards those hcaracters kept the show going even though it was awesomely unfunny. Frances Bavier left after only one season.

^ Don Knotts had left the regular cast a few seasons before the Andy Griffith Show wrapped. Right before it went to color. His departure - & that of the show’s original writers -heralded the end of its greatness.

I was a huge fan of the b&w episodes, but never liked the Darling family episodes.

[quote]most of the regulars stayed on: Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier), Goober "The Gay Bear" Pyle (George Lindsey), Clara Edwards (Hope Summers), Emmett Clark (Paul Hartman) and Howard Sprague (Jack Dodson) stayed on,

All of the people listed above were supporting characters. They were fun to watch and added flavor to the town, but it's doubtful any of them could carry the show. Show needed a strong leading man to anchor everything. With Andy no longer wanting to carry it, they needed a new leading man. That's why they brought in Ken Berry to play Sam Jones.

Why did Ken Berry get so many starring roles? Even his own variety show at one point: The Ken Berry Wow Show. Yes, that was actually the title.

I never got his appeal and in general, his starring vehicles weren't received well, yet he kept getting them for years. Did he blackmail studio execs?

I wonder if Ron Howard wanted to leave or was kicked out. He smelled funny but I wonder if that was enough?

I hated Gomer and Goober.

r8

As long as they loved each other who are you to judge?

[quote] "When Andy Griffith Became Mayberry RFD"

It SHOULD'VE been "B.D.F.", not "R.F.D.". Trust me!

When Floyd left, it sucked.

R11 Howard McNair who played Floyd died. He had no choice but leave the show.

And it’s only post-stroke Floyd we remember so fondly.

I’ve seen every b/w episode dozens of times. I know exactly what they’re going to say, and exactly what they’ve cut out to put in ads. It’s like I Love Lucy. I don’t miss it at all yet.

[quote]Don Knotts wanted to leave to do movies

If you like campy 1960s sex comedies, check out [italic]The Love God?[/italic] (1969). He played a nerdy ornithologist who becomes a Hugh Hefner type after selling his birdwatching journal to a girlie-magazine publisher.

[quote] Why did Ken Berry get so many starring roles?

He had been very popular as the lead on "F Troop." By this time, he had a sort of sexless paternal appeal that network executives liked, even if most Americans found him unfunny and dull.

[quote] I hated Gomer and Goober.

I hated Gomer when I was growing up, because he was so cheesy and overdone, and then when he would sing (which seemed constantly) in Jim Nabors' deep voice it seemed they were just throwing his characterization out the window.

Now I'm older I see more what they were doing with his character and with Goober's. They were both ambiguously gay, and Goober was in sort of a sexy way while Gomer was in an annoying way. But basically Gomer was supposed to be the big hick, which is why he was so popular on "Gomer Pyle USMC." Men who had been through WW2 or the Korean war liked to be reminded of the hicks they had worked with who had been drafted into the service with them. This was also the time period when the US was outgrowing its rural past and becoming more definitively urban, and so much sitcom humor of the 60s (Andy Griffith, Gomer Pyle, Petticoat Junction, Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres) was about that divide. The backwardness of the sticks and of the hicks from the sticks was constantly mocked, but at the same time all those sitcoms looked back nostalgically to the rural past as the repository of old-fashioned moral values.

Gomer was simultaneously ridiculous yet also supposedly very kind and moral. Goober wasn't funny, but he was kind and moral, and clearly wanted to just spoon and cuddle with anyone, male or female, who would have him.

The other thing is both their names sounded so stirking when Aunt Bee would call out their names: "GOHM-MUH! GOOB-BUH!"

I didn't realize Goober's last name was Pyle. How were he and Gomer related? Brothers?

^ They were cousins.

Ken Berry was hot af.

My mom loved Jim Nabors’ singing. She played his album on 8 track a lot. One of the few of her musical choices that I never cottoned to.

[quote] How were he and Gomer related? Brothers?

Kissin' cousins!

I had no idea there are color episodes. I’ve only watched the black and white. What are the Darling family episodes?

Ya'll can say what you want; but Jim Nabors (Gomer Pyle) was widely loved by many in various television shows, his recordings and personal appearances.

From the Appalachians on down south and out in middle American people tuned in to see Jim Nabors on various television shows, bought and listened to his recordings.

It doesn't get more "good ole boy" than Indy 500 and Jim Nabors was featured guest opening act with his rendition of "Back Home In Indiana"

It just don't seem right; voice coming out of Jim Nabors does not match image one would have of a person otherwise.

You know he was probably packing some serious trade. Jim Nabors just gives off BDE...

So called "Rural Purge" saw end of Mayberry RFD among other "hillbilly" and "rural" programming.

Liked watching reruns of Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C and similar shows as a teen if for nothing else to see how good some of male cast members looked in uniform.

Forrest Compton who played Lieutenant Colonel Edward Gray in Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C and was on Mayberry RFD died recently (2020) from covid.

[quote]Forrest Compton who played Lieutenant Colonel Edward Gray in Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C and was on Mayberry RFD died recently (2020) from covid.

Compton was also the third and final actor to play Mike Karr on "The Edge of Night."

[quote] I had no idea there are color episodes. I’ve only watched the black and white.

The show's entry into the world outside of B&W coincided with the departure of Barney Fife along with the original writers. And it forms the dviding line between two very different series, one exceptional & the other mostly unwatchable.

They probably wanted to attract younger audiences so they brought in the young and sexy Ken Berry.

R29 aka Font Of Tiresome Trivia.

Just to make sure, everyone here does know that Griffith had a decades long affair with Aneta Corsaut (Helen Crump), do you not? His wife knew all about it too. They were still carrying on long after the Andy Griffith Show & Mayberry RFD were long gone. Corsaut even appeared on his 'Matlock' series as a judge several times.

Griffith was known for his big johnson. I guess we know what kept Miss Crump around all those years.

The question should be how did they think Emmett, Goober and Howard could carry a storyline. Tedious assholes, the lot of ‘em.

Everyone connected with the Andy Griffith show knew AG and Aneta Corsaut were having a hot and heavy affair. AG was so smitten he proposed marriage several times to Ms. Corsaut (this while still married to his then current wife), but she turned him down. Apparently carrying on with a married man was fine, but being known as a home wrecker was too much for Ms. Corsaut.

What about a reboot? Mayberry BDF?

For the record Don Knotts was also stepping out on his first wife while on AGS.

Andy Griffith was not the wholesome good natured down home sort of guy he played on his show. The man had a violent temper and liked having sex, quite a lot of it apparently. Joanna Moore who made several appearances on AGS was one of his conquests.

If you like a good read pick up "Andy & Don from Simon & Schuster" it's all in there..

Maybe Frances Bavier had good reason not to like anyone on that set. She may have seen the top 2 stars as womanizing scum.

Regarding Joanna Moore & Griffith. Moore was a well known sex fiend, most likely caused by her extreme mental illness. She spread for every man on every set she ever worked on who wanted a piece.

[quote]Why did Ken Berry get so many starring roles?

Why are you coming for Vint?

"Regarding Joanna Moore & Griffith. Moore was a well known sex fiend, most likely caused by her extreme mental illness. "

As with so many other women root cause of so called "mental illness" and other issues may lie with rumors Joanna Moore was sexually molested as a young girl by member of her adopted family.

[quote] Why did Ken Berry get so many starring roles?

Ken Berry was a mega talented performer. He was a triple threat. He could act, dance and sing. He tended to gravitate to comic roles, but he could play dramatic roles very well. And my God, there were few who could tap like Ken Berry.

FUCK that Southern WHITE TRASH 🗑 HILLBILLY-

The actor Jason Wingreen who played the bartender on Archie Bunker’s Place once said that Andy Griffith would constantly refer to black people as niggers.

On a television show set in the deep South in the 1960s, in which only one speaking role ever went to a black person, you expect them to not utter racial epithets? I am shocked, shocked I say!

Griffith was not a nice person. He got very mad (aka jealous) on set one day on Matlock because they gave some line or on-air function to that good looking Clarence Gilyard Jr. (who sadly died last November) who played Conrad. Griffith said "yeah, that's right, give it to the n----r".

Griffith was just lucky he was acting when he did. Today he would have been cancelled hard.

^Doubtful.

And more reason to be skeptical.

Jason Wingreen also said that on the set of either All In The Family or Archie Bunker's Place - The actor who played Barnie Hefner also said the N word when referring to black people.

R41- No one told me but I figured it out on my own that Ken Berry was a

GAY BOY

Some of you might just be too delicate for this world.

Andy Griffith was born in 1926 in North Carolina, it would be more shocking if didn't use the N word. This reminds me of how shocked people were that Paula Dean, a Georgian baby boomer, may have used the N word. Come on people.

Yes, R49. LBJ, along with Lincoln, the greatest friend of Black people who ever served in the presidency, & who was born in Texas in 1908, also used the N word.

If that's true about Griffith, one has to wonder what kind of opinion Ron Howard has of him now whenever he thinks back on those days.

From all I've read Ron Howard and Griffith were always very close.

[quote] The question should be how did they think Emmett, Goober and Howard could carry a storyline. Tedious assholes, the lot of ‘em.

And then a few years later CBS made the same mistake all over again by thinking Klinger, Colonel Potter, and Father Mulcahy could carry a series.

Greed is a hard thing to overcome.

[quote]Jason Wingreen also said that on the set of either All In The Family or Archie Bunker's Place - The actor who played Barney Hefner [Allan Melvin] also said the N word when referring to black people.

Not my Sam!

It is possible for people to change...

Was Ken married to Jackie Joseph? She was on one of the many versions of The Doris Day Show in the 70's.

I happened to see an episode last night which had me rolling my eyes all night, the one where Ain't Bee had seen this cute sweater at the general store and somehow she got the idea Andy was getting it for her. He wasn't getting it for her until he found out she was upset she wasn't getting it. Of course, one he found out she was upset he went back out to her the sweater for her.

Poor thing she thought Andy loved her like that.

[quote]Was Ken married to Jackie Joseph? She was on one of the many versions of The Doris Day Show in the 70's.

He was until he dumped her. Major bitterness ensued.

Jackie was also in the original (non-musical) "Little Shop of Horrors."

R32 a.k.a. the Font of Sour Posts because of his micro penis.

So was Ken Berry gay or not?

Ken Berry seemed too boring to be gay.

Even his name is blah.

For what it’s worth, Griffith was a lifelong Democrat and a big supporter of Democratic candidates in NC, credited with his endorsement being the reason Mike Easley won the governorship.

Ken Berry was a hold-over from an earlier time. He was a talented singer and dancer and fit the mold of old Hollywood better than he did the 70s idea of what a star was.

I wasn’t aware that Don Knotts wanted to leave TAGS, I thought there were rumors the show was ending and Knotts had signed a movie contract by the time it was decided that the show would continue. He certainly came back a few times to guest star, so there were obviously no ill will.

As a kid I never understood this transition.

Yes, Tony, I’ve also read that Knotts thought the series was ending.