The Andy Griffith Show

The Andy Griffith Show, American television comedy series that aired on CBS from 1960 to 1968. During its entire run, the show rated no worse than seventh in the seasonal Nielsen ratings and held the number one spot when it ended.

The Andy Griffith Show takes place in the fictitious Mayberry, North Carolina, a sleepy rural town. Named after its star, the show centres on Sheriff Andy Taylor (played by Andy Griffith), whose prudent and common-sense approach to life and law enforcement never fails to thwart the petty criminals who make mischief in his jurisdiction. Much of the sheriff’s energy is spent protecting the townsfolk from becoming victims of their own follies. The show plays upon popular stereotypes of rural and small-town life; Mayberry is almost entirely populated by simple (sometimes simple-minded) “country” people immortalized by the likes of gas station attendant Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors) and the town drunk, Otis (Hal Smith), who locks himself in jail after his weekly bender and lets himself out upon sobering up. Taylor’s hapless sidekick is his excitable cousin, Deputy Barney Fife (Don Knotts), whose overly earnest and misguided tactics typically exacerbate the duo’s problems. Knotts excelled at the role, picking up four Emmy Awards before quitting the show in 1965 and being replaced by Jack Burns. Other frequent story lines concerned Taylor’s parenting of his fishing-enthusiast son, Opie (Ron Howard), and worrying about the misadventures of his unmarried aunt and housekeeper, Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier).

The Andy Griffith Show was part of a larger trend in 1960s television programming that focused on comedic and lighthearted country themes and characters. The series gave rise to two separate spin-offs, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (1964–69) and Mayberry, R.F.D. (1968–71). Griffith, a one-time comic monologuist who had appeared in motion pictures such as A Face in the Crowd (1957) and No Time for Sergeants (1958), later had another long stay on television as a lawyer in the title role of Matlock (1986–92, 1993–95). Among the others in the cast who had later success were Knotts, who starred in a raft of motion-picture comedies; Nabors, a singer, who headlined the Gomer Pyle spin-off and hosted a television variety show; and Howard, the star of television’s Happy Days (1974–84) before directing motion pictures such as Cocoon (1985) and A Beautiful Mind (2001).