Mayberry R.F.D.

Mayberry R.F.D. (R.F.D. is a postal abbreviation for Rural Free Delivery) was a spin-off, or, perhaps more accurately, a direct continuation of The Andy Griffith Show under a new title. When Andy Griffith decided to leave his show, most of the supporting characters continued on the new show. It first aired on the CBS network in 1968 and lasted until 1971.

CBS wished to profit from the sensational popularity of The Andy Griffith Show, which ended its eight-season run in the #1 spot in 1968. The new premise keeps the familiar characters of Goober Pyle, Clara Edwards, Emmett Clark, Howard Sprague, and Aunt Bee (alas, no Otis, the town drunk, or Opie). After Sheriff Andy Taylor marries his longtime girlfriend Helen Crump, Aunt Bee Taylor (played by Frances Bavier) remains in Mayberry, serving yet another widower, Sam Jones, whose character was introduced during the 1967-68 season of The Andy Griffith Show, easing the transition. Sam, played by Ken Berry, was elected town council chief by beating fix-it/handyman Emmett Clark in a 1968 election. Choosing to give the newlywed Taylors their own space, Aunt Bee becomes housekeeper to farmer Sam and son Mike (Buddy Foster), who live in the outskirts of Mayberry. Actress Arlene Golonka plays Sam's love interest, bakery clerk Millie Swanson. A recurring black character named Ralph lives with a pre-teen son next to the Jones farm—the first blacks ever portrayed as residents of the Mayberry area. Griffith appears as Sheriff Taylor in several first-season episodes (his wedding, sponsoring parolees as Sam's farmhands, his second-born's christening, and a youth-day episode), after which it is established that he has moved from Mayberry.

In October 1970, the end of an era seemed near when Sam's cousin Alice Cooper (Alice Ghostley) took Bee's place, while the warm-hearted matriarch (who logged more Mayberry years than any other character) left the picturesque town. (Horror-rocker Alice Cooper said in 1973 that he took the Ghostley character's name as a sort-of inside joke.) The series was enormously popular, safely perched in Nielsen's top five for its first two years. Despite the loss of Aunt Bee, a producer, and some top writers (Danny Bonaduce's dad, Joseph, was a Griffith/RFD writer), Mayberry R.F.D. ranked 15th (out of 47) in its last season. The series was still strong enough for renewal. Ironically, the network which had axed The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour a couple years earlier for its "provocative" religious and political themes, was now seeking a more progressive image. In 1970 and 1971, during what became known as the infamous "Rural purge", CBS canceled all its rural-based series including Mayberry R.F.D., Petticoat Junction, Hee Haw, Green Acres, and The Beverly Hillbillies. Hee Haw went into first-run syndication for the next 21½ years, featuring Mayberry's George "Goober" Lindsey. Concomitantly, as CBS cancelled these venerable series, they began introducing another set that would soon come to represent some of the best television of the 1970s—The Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in the Family, The Bob Newhart Show, Maude and M*A*S*H.

While "The Andy Griffith Show" theme showed Andy and Opie walking to "the fishin' hole", no words were sung. The theme was whistled. With "Mayberry RFD", Sam and Mike Jones are seen playing baseball to an instrumental song, which was the "back theme" to the Griffith show. The theme to "Mayberry RFD" was originally done as up-tempo, and called the "Mayberry March".

See also

• The Andy Griffith Show
• Rural purge

External link

• Behind the Scenes of the Real Mayberry A behind the scenes look at The Andy Griffith Show and the "real" Mayberry. Includes filming locations, the stars made on the show, and Mayberry trivia.