Tag: The Andy Griffith Show

Mayberry R.F.D.

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How many of you kept watching Mayberry after Andy Griffith left? Mayberry R.F.D. continued the familiar small-town setting, but shifted the focus to farmer and town councilman Sam Jones, played by Ken Berry, and his young son Mike

The series still included many familiar faces, including Aunt Bee, Goober, Howard and Emmett. Its first episode even featured the long-awaited wedding of Andy Taylor and Helen Crump, giving longtime viewers a proper goodbye before the new chapter began

What may surprise many of us is how successful the show remained. Mayberry R.F.D. ranked among television’s top ten during its first two seasons and was still number 15 when CBS canceled it as part of the network’s move away from rural programming

This short clip also reminds us of the days when sponsors like Sanka and Post were announced as part of the program itself. Did Mayberry still feel the same to you after Andy left, or was something important missing?

Who Remembers Warren Ferguson aka Jack Burns?

For five memorable seasons of The Andy Griffith Show, Don Knotts superbly played Barney Fife, sheriff Andy Taylor’s well-intentioned but inept deputy. Deputy Fife was such a beloved character that anyone who attempted to replace him would have a difficult task. Knotts opted to pursue a movie career at the end of the 1964-65 TV season and left the TAGS cast. His replacement was comedian Jack Burns who was cast as deputy Warren Ferguson. Ferguson was the nephew of town barber Floyd Lawson. He was a recent graduate of a police academy who zealously enforced Mayberry’s statutes. (In one episode he raided a ladies’ club bingo game.) Ferguson is best remembered for his grating habit of punctuating his monologues with the word “Huh?”. He was also bungling, but nowhere near as popular as Barney Fife. After just 11 episodes, deputy Ferguson vanished without explanation. He was never seen or even mentioned again. Sheriff Taylor never had another regular deputy throughout the rest of the series (which ended in 1968).

This article was originally written by YouRememberThat member Lava1964 in February 1969.

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