Here's Wayne Curtis with a good article about Mt. Airy in North Carolina. The town has patterned much of itself after Mayberry and The Andy Griffith Show and it's boosted tourism and civic pride. It's also provided a great retirement home for Betty Lynn, who played Thelma Lou in the popular TV series. In the article, you'll see it noted that Ms. Lynn lived in a house in Los Angeles for fifty years. That house was right next door to the one in which I grew up…the house in which my mother now lives. Betty was like my unofficial aunt and I still love her dearly and talk to her from time to time. That's when she can tear herself away from her current vocation, which is being the town celebrity and officiating at all the important events.
I still find it amazing that of all the fine TV shows, that one has had the most longevity by some measures. Even though most (the best ones) are in dreaded black-and-white, those shows are rerun and rerun and rerun to the point of exhaustion. The Danny Thomas Show, which was produced by the same company, was on for 11 years and 351 episodes. The Andy Griffith Show, which spun off from The Danny Thomas Show, was on for 8 years and 249 episodes. The two shows received about the same ratings…
…and yet today, nobody remembers much about The Danny Thomas Show and there's no audible demand for reruns, whereas there are few towns that don't air Andy Griffith at least once a day, and most people can quote you memorable lines (most of them from Don Knotts) and tell you their favorite storylines. In the last few years of his life, my friend Howard Morris couldn't believe the money he was making from appearing as his Griffith Show character, Ernest T. Bass — this, despite the fact that he only appeared in five episodes of the series. No one ever asked him about his years working with Sid Caesar on programs that some critics call the greatest comedy show ever on television…but everywhere he went, they knew Ernest T.
I think it's great that Mayberry represents a simpler time for so many people and I understand it being someone's favorite. Absolutely, I understand…and some of those episodes (especially those that spotlighted Barney Fife) are quite funny. I just find it curious that it became so timeless and beloved in such a disposable business.