The Andy Griffith Show is<!-- Do NOT change to "was" per WP:TVLEAD--> an American sitcom television series that 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 (and cousin), the well-meaning and enthusiastic but bumbling deputy, Barney Fife (Don Knotts), Andy's aunt and housekeeper, Bee Taylor (Frances Bavier) and Andy's young son, Opie (Ron Howard). 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 (1957) and Seinfeld (1998). 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. (1964–1969)and a reunion telemovie, Return to Mayberry (1986).
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
Sheldon Leonard—producer of The Danny Thomas Show—and Danny Thomas hired veteran comedy writer Arthur Stander (who had written many of the "Danny Thomas" episodes) 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.
Production
right|thumb|Knotts and Griffith as their characters in a still taken from the October 7, 1965, one-hour variety special The Andy Griffith, Don Knotts, and Jim Nabors Show
The sitcom's production team included producers Aaron Ruben (1960–1965) and Bob Ross (1965–1968).
The show was filmed at Desilu Studios, Don Knotts, who knew Griffith professionally (they had appeared together in both the Broadway and film versions of No Time for Sergeants) 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. 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,
In 1986, the reunion telemovie Return to Mayberry was broadcast with several cast members reprising their original roles. Absent, however, was Frances Bavier. She was living in Siler City, North Carolina in ill health and declined to participate. In the TV movie, Aunt Bee is portrayed as deceased (and in fact, Bavier did die three years later), with Andy visiting her grave. Also absent were Howard McNear, Paul Hartman, Jack Burns, and the cast members who were featured only in the Mayberry RFD seasons.
In 1993, The Andy Griffith Show had a Reunion Special which featured Andy Griffith, Don Knotts, Ron Howard, Jim Nabors, George Lindsey, and Jack Dodson.
In 2003, four surviving cast members (Griffith, Howard, Knotts, and Nabors) came together for a reunion special that featured the actors reminiscing about each other's time on the show. The production was interspersed with archival footage and short filmed interviews with some of the other surviving cast members. This special was called The Andy Griffith Show: Back to Mayberry.
Griffith and Howard reprised their roles a final time for a Funny or Die skit supporting the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama.
Reception
Ratings
The Andy Griffith Show was a top ten hit through its entire run, never ranking lower than seventh place in the yearly ratings. A Nielsen study conducted during the show's final season (1967–68) indicated the show ranked number one among blue collar workers followed by The Lucy Show and Gunsmoke. Among white collar workers, the show ranked third, following Saturday Movies and The Dean Martin Show. Other shows to have accomplished this include I Love Lucy and Seinfeld. In 1998, the year Seinfeld ended, more than five million people a day watched the show's reruns on 120 stations.
Awards and nominations
Emmys
1961
- Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role by an Actor or Actress in a Series: Don Knotts – Won
- Outstanding Program Achievement in the Field of Humor – Nominated (Winner: The Jack Benny Program)
1962
- Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role by an Actor: Don Knotts – Won
- Outstanding Program Achievement in the Field of Humor – Nominated (Winner: The Bob Newhart Show)
1963
- Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role by an Actor: Don Knotts – Won
1966
- Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Comedy: Don Knotts for "The Return of Barney Fife" – Won
1967
- Outstanding Comedy Series – Nominated (Winner: The Monkees)
- Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Comedy: Don Knotts for "Barney Comes to Mayberry" – Won
- Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Comedy: Frances Bavier – Won
TV Land Awards
- Favorite Second Banana: Don Knotts – Won (2003)
- Single Dad of the Year: Andy Griffith – Won (2003)
- Legend Award – Won (2004)
Other accolades
- In 1997, the episode "Opie the Birdman" was ranked No. 24 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.
- In 2002, TV Guide ranked The Andy Griffith Show ninth on its list of the 50 Best Shows of All Time.
- In 2013, TV Guide ranked The Andy Griffith Show number 15 on their list of the 60 Greatest Shows of All Time. Among the handful of merchandise released during the show's first run, Dell Comics published two The Andy Griffith Show comic books, one drawn by Henry Scarpelli, the other by Bill Fraccio. In 2004, copies in near-mint condition were priced in excess of $500 each. There was also a soundtrack album, two coloring books, and a 1966 Grape-Nuts cereal box with a photo of Griffith in character as Sheriff Andy Taylor beside a lemon pie recipe on the back.
The cable television network TV Land erected bronze statues of Andy and Opie in Mount Airy and Raleigh, North Carolina (see: Pullen Park).
The Taylor Home Inn in Clear Lake, Wisconsin, is a bed-and-breakfast modeled after the Taylor Home. The Mayberry Cafe in Danville, Indiana, features Aunt Bee's Fried Chicken and a replica of Andy's Ford Galaxie police car.
In 2021, the original feature film Mayberry Man was produced by children of actors from The Andy Griffith Show featuring Mayberry tribute artists set in a fictitious modern-day Mayberry.
Home media
In the late 1980s, Premier Promotions released various episodes on VHS. Most tapes had either two or four episodes. In the early to mid-1990s, United American Video (under license from the show's then-syndicator Viacom Enterprises) released VHS tapes of various episodes. They either had two or three episodes. These compilations were culled from episodes early in the show's run that had lapsed into the public domain; these episodes continue to be circulated on unofficial video releases.
Starting in 2004, Paramount Home Entertainment (under the CBS Home Entertainment label starting in 2006) released all eight seasons as single-season packages on Region 1 DVD. The Andy Griffith Show: The Complete Series was first released as a 40-disc boxed set in 2007. In addition to all 249 episodes of the series, its bonus features included the episode "Danny Meets Andy Griffith" from The Danny Thomas Show which served as the pilot, the episode "Opie Joins the Marines" from Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. which featured Ron Howard and the 95-minute, made-for-television comedy film Return to Mayberry. In 2016, The Andy Griffith Show: The Complete Series was repackaged and released again as a 39-disc set that featured all 249 episodes of the series but did not include the bonus feature disc. The last 16 episodes of the third season, which lapsed into the public domain after CBS neglected to file copyright renewals on the episodes in 1989, are available on discount DVDs. The 2007 lawsuit CBS Operations Inc v. Reel Funds International Inc. ruled that the episodes in question were derivative works based on the copyrighted episodes even though the episodes themselves were not under copyright and granted CBS indirect copyright over the public domain episodes; the ruling enjoined Reel Funds International, a public domain distributor, from selling DVDs with those episodes within the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!DVD name
!Ep#
!Release date
|-
| The First Season
| 32
| November 16, 2004
|-
| The Second Season
| 31
| May 24, 2005
|-
| The Third Season
| 32
| August 16, 2005
|-
| The Fourth Season
| 32
| November 22, 2005
|-
| The Fifth Season
| 32
| February 14, 2006
|-
| The Sixth Season
| 30
| May 9, 2006
|-
| The Seventh Season
| 30
| August 29, 2006
|-
| The Final Season
| 30
| December 12, 2006
|-
| The Complete Series
| 249
| May 29, 2007
|-
| The Complete Series
| 249
| February 16, 2016
|}
Note: The Region 1 release of The Third Season contains two episodes edited for syndication: "The Darlings Are Coming"—which had several scenes cut—and "Barney Mends a Broken Heart", which had its epilogue cut.
Notes
References
Further reading
- Beck, Ken, and Clark, Jim. Mayberry Memories. Rutledge Hill Press, 2000.
- Fann, Joey. The Way Back to Mayberry. Broadman and Holman, 2001. .
- Kelly, Richard. The Andy Griffith Show (John F. Blair, 1981). .
- McElroy, Kathleen. "Remembering Mayberry in White and Black: The Andy Griffith Show's Construction of the South," Memory Studies, 8 (Oct. 2015), 440–453.
- Pérez Firmat, Gustavo. A Cuban in Mayberry: Looking Back at America's Hometown. Austin: The University of Texas Press, 2014.
External links
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- The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry R.F.D. background article (archived)