Andy Griffith on DVD Gomer Pyle on DVD Mayberry RFD on DVD Andy Griffith Show season 4 on DVD Gomer Pyle on DVD Fractured Fairy Tales on DVD Carol Burnett Show on DVD
TV Shows on DVD
Commercials on DVD
TV Show ReviewsTV on DVD Reviews
Christmas DVDs TV DVDs & TV Books

 

Andy Griffith Show / Mayberry RFD / Jim Nabors Hour
The Andy Griffith Shows: Part One
Part Two / Part Three / Part Four / Part Five

THE FINAL YEAR

Both The Andy Griffith Show and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. were riding the very top of the Nielsens for the 1967-68 season, finishing number one and three respectively.

New  Andy Griffith ShowDon Knotts won a total of five Emmys for the run of The Andy Griffith Show, two of them after he left as a regular. His eighth season guest shot ('Barney Hosts A Summit Meeting') attracted a 33.4 audience share, making it the most-watched episode of the series' run.

That year, Andy Griffith announced his retirement from the series. Naturally the show's sponsor General Foods didn't want to lose their hold on the number one audience draw in the nation, nor did CBS. It was decided that Mayberry would live on - without Andy.

STORY CONTINUES - AFTER THIS AD FOR VIDEO DOWNLOADS:



Mayberry RFD (RFD is a postal service term for people that live out in the country, it stands for Rural Free Delivery.) was originally intending to focus on Aunt Bee as she was the only remaining original cast member to have a regular role on the new series. However, the 65-year old actress was eager to work less, not more. She only appeared in about two-thirds of the episodes during season eight of The Andy Griffith Show and was only pivotal in nine storylines.

To ease in the transition from series to series, in April of 1968 Ken Berry (F-Troop) was introduced as Sam Jones, a gentleman farmer that Andy and Emmett talk into running for the Town Council. Opie Taylor and Sam's son Mike (played by 11-year old Buddy Foster, brother of actress Jodie Foster) were the focus of the next episode.

Show 249, entitled Mayberry, RFD) established the format for the new series and served as the last episode of The Andy Griffith Show.

 

Mayberry RFD

"In Mayberry, boys don't wear their hair long. Cut your hair. Period."
- producer Bob Ross to actor Buddy Foster when he asked if he could grow his hair out in 1970.

Mayberry RFD castIf Mayberry RFD was anything, it was evocative and insular. Even if there was no whip behind the cream, before you realized it, you were soaking in it. And that's why ratings were exceptional for the series from the very start.

There was no serious drop in audience numbers from the last season of The Andy Griffith Show; Mayberry RFD was the second most popular sitcom in the nation in 1968 (Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. was first).

As with the last three seasons of the Griffith show, former Leave it to Beaver scribe Bob Ross produced Mayberry, RFD. He also wrote the pilot which had aired on one of the last episodes of the previous series. Here's the first episode of Mayberry RFD.

 

Exteriors were still being lensed on the Forty Acres set, the backlot built in 1926 for the RKO Studio (later Desilu) where leftover Atlanta sets from Gone With The Wind (those that weren't burned to a cinder) stood-in for the town of Mayberry.

In the first episode of RFD, Andy Taylor and his girlfriend of four years Helen Crump (Aneta Corsault) were married and the whole gang turned out for the celebration; this was the only episode of RFD in which Opie Taylor (Ron Howard) and Barney Fife (Don Knotts) appeared. After the wedding, Aunt Bee decides to stay in Mayberry as the Jones' family housekeeper.

Andy turned up briefly in three additional episodes of RFD after which it was casually explained that he and Helen had moved to Charlotte.

The next (and last) time Andy turned up was in an episode during the second season in which he and Helen visit Mayberry with their new baby.

 

The Jim Nabors Hour

Gomer PyleThe Andy Griffith Show begat Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. in 1964 and that was a winner. While starring in Gomer, Jim Nabors scored a hit album (Jim Nabors Sings) in 1966 and more successful LPs followed.

In 1969, it was deja vu all over again for CBS when Nabors, star of their top-rated sitcom, announced he was quitting. Gomer Pyle wasn't re-enlisting in the Neilsen wars - and no wonder. He had taken that hill and held it for five long years and never made it past the rank of private.

In the fall of 1969, Nabors leveraged his clout with the network to launch his own one-hour musical-variety series (similar to The Carol Burnett Show). For the production, Nabors brought along his friends and Pyle costars Ronnie Schell and Frank Sutton; the executive producer was Richard O. Linke.

Jim NaborsTVparty-er Joe tells us, "I remember, a regular sketch was called 'The Brother-in-laws' and it starred Frank Sutton with Barbara Harris (Sgt. Carter's girlfriend Bunny on Gomer) as Sutton's wife and Jim Nabors as his brother-in-law Loomis who run a boarding house - they were just Gomer Pyle, Sgt. Carter, and Bunny again but with different names and in a different setting. Also, Ronnie Schell (Duke Slater on Gomer) was in some of the sketches as a resident of the boarding house who was constantly drunk- he'd make his entrance by falling down the stairs."

The Jim Nabors Hour did well enough in the ratings, finishing twelfth for the first season. That still represented a net loss of more than twenty percent of the audience from the year before. That's undoubtedly why CBS aired reruns of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. during the summer of 1970 while the The Jim Nabors Hour was on hiatus.

Jim Nabors HourNEXT: PART THREE:
The 1970-71 season brings five Andy Griffith related series. Andy flops, then it's the end for Mayberry!

 


Andy Griffith Show: Part One
Andy Griffith Show: Part Two
Andy Griffith Show: Part Three
Andy Griffith Show: Part Four
Andy Griffith Show: Part Five

The Andy Griffith Show: Part One
Mayberry RFD & The Jim Nabors Show
Don Knotts Show / Headmaster
The New Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show: How it Ended

TVparty is Classic TV on the internet!
Classic TV!


The Andy Griffith Show: Part One
Mayberry RFD & The Jim Nabors Show
Don Knotts Show / Headmaster
The New Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show: How it Ended

NOW ON DVD!
Gomer Pyle on DVD Andy Griffith Show season seven on DVD

Buy The Andy Griffith Show on DVD here!


Saturday Morning TV 1980s on DVDFractured Fairy Tales on DVD

Gomer Pyle on DVDSaturday Morning Cartoons 1970s V1 on DVD

TV on DVD / / Holiday Specials on DVD
TV Commercials on DVD

TV Commercials on DVD Peabody & Sherman cartoons on DVD

1950's Saturday Morning Shows Fractured Fairy Tales on DVD

 

Classic TV Blog

Television Blog

TV Shows on DVD

Best-selling
Classic TV DVDs

Christmas
Specials on DVD

Classic Movies
on Blu Ray

Kid Shows on DVD

Movies on DVD Reviews

Beulah TV show on DVD Andy Griffith Show season seven on DVD

Mayberry RFD on DVD
NEW Book on

ad

 

 

 

Commercials of the 50s, 60s, 70s on DVD

Classic TV Shows on DVD

The TV Series that travelled from city to city across America :Route 66 on DVD


Lost Kid Shows / Movie Stars on TV / Saturday Morning Shows / Video Vault / Classic Christmas Specials / Fabulous Fifties / Unseen Scenes / Game Shows / Requested Forgotten TV Shows / The Super Sixties / More Modern TV Shows / The New * * Shows / 1980's Wrestling / TV Blog

TVparty is Classic TV on the internet!
Classic TV on the Internet!

TV's Embarrassing Moments / Action Shows of the Sixties / TVparty Mysteries and Scandals / Variety Shows of the 1970s / The Eighties / The Laugh Track / 1970's Hit Shows / Response to TVparty / Search the Site / Add Your Comments

The New Andy Griffith Show / The New Dick Van Dyke Show
New (everybody else) Shows
/ Theme Song Makeovers / The New Bill Cosby

Hit Shows of the Seventies: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy / Gene Roddenberry in the 1970s / Star Trek Animated / 1970 TV Shows / Mike Connors Remembered / Mike Wallace, Virginia Graham & Jim Longworth / Dick Clark / Fall Previews of the 70s / Lance Link, Secret Chimp / Star Wars Holiday Special / Alias Smith and Jones / 1977 Year in Review / Top Ten 1970-76 / The Rockford Files / All in the Family / Sam Hall (Dark Shadows) Interview / Actor Ed Nelson / Death of Archie / Battlestar Galactica / Wonder Woman / Network Jingles / Class of '74 / Happy Days / Good Times / Mr. Bill / Dinah! / Maude / Doris Day Show / Pamelyn Ferdin Interview / The Bicentennial Minute / Jingles & Catch Phrases of the 1970s / Early Cable TV 1970s / TV commercials for Women / TV Moms / Country Music TV Shows of the 1960s & 1970s / Betty White Show / Rodney Dangerfield / How Sanford & Son Ended / Sanford & Son Spin-Off Grady / Great Memoirs / Virginia Graham Show / The "N" Word on TV / 10 Classic Comedy Routines You Have To Laugh At Before You Die / Hollywood Squares / 1970's Teen Idols & The Hudson Brothers / Unsold Pilots / Jackie Cooper / The Good Guys / Match Game / Mannix & Gail Fisher / Bette Midler in the 1970s / Bonus 1970's Stuff: Silent Star Marion Mack / Biff Burger / 1970s Fast Food Chains / Latin Casino

Classic TV Commercials / 1950's TV / 1960's TV / Punk Book / / 1970's TV / Groucho vs William F Buckley / / TV Games / Honey Boo Boo / Lucy Shows / 2012 Emmy Awards / Classic Cars / John Wayne / Gene Roddenberry / Rockford Files / Sea Hunt / Superman on DVD / Toy Gun Ads / Flip Wilson Show / Big Blue Marble / Monty Hall / Carrascolendas / Mr. Dressup / Major Mudd / Chief Halftown / What's In Oprah's Purse? / Baby Daphne / Sheriff John / Winchell & Mahoney / Fireball X-L5 / Mr. Wizard / Captain Noah / Thanksgiving Day Specials / Disney's First Christmas Special / Saturday Morning Cartoons / The Magic Garden / Amahl & the Night Visitors / Holiday Toy Commercials / Lucy & Desi's Last Christmas Show / Joey Heatherton / Fat Albert / The Virginian / Bewitched / Death of John Wayne / 1974 Saturday Mornings / Chuck McCann / Rudolph Collectables / Shrimpenstein / Local Popeye Shows / New Treasure Hunt / 1966 ABC TV Shows / 1967 TV Shows / 1968 TV Shows / Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes & Baby Doll / Fridays / TV Moms / Red Skelton / Star Wars / KISS / Lancelot Link / Saturday Morning Cartoons / The Magic Garden / Wonder Woman / Classic Comic Books / Andy Griffith / Cher / TV Shows on DVD / Outtakes & Bloopers / 1967 TV Shows / Romper Room / ABC Movie of the Week / The Goldbergs / Daws Butler Commercials / Saturday Morning Commercials / Captain Kangaroo / Chicago Local Kiddie Shows / Boston Local TV / Philly Local TV / NYC Local Kid Shows / Amos 'n' Andy / Electric Company / Bette Davis / Judy Garland / Christmas Specials / Redd Foxx / Good Times / Sitcom Houses / What's Happening! / Winky Dink & You / Sonny & Cher / Smothers Brothers / Commercial Icons of the 1960s / Soupy Sales / The Carpenters / Route 66 / Bozo / The Carpenters Christmas Specials / Local Kid Shows / Death of TV's Superman / Wonderama / Sesame Street / Bob Hope Specials / Little Rascals / 1980's Retro Gay T-Shirts / 1980's TV Wrestling / Fess Parker / Howdy Doody / TV Blog / Lost In Space / Pinky Lee / 1980's LA Punk Rock / Alex Toth Book / TV Terrorists / Irwin Allen / The Untouchables / Carol Burnett Show / Batman TV Show / Green Hornet / Today Show History / Our Gang / Doris Day Show / 1970's Commercials For Women / Bill Cosby in the 1970s / The Golddiggers / Lola Falana / 1970s TV Shows / David Bowie on TV / Hudson Brothers / Jackie Gleason / Hollywood Squares / Match Game / Bob Keeshan / Gumby / The Flip Wilson Show / Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour / The Bobby Darin Show / The Richard Pryor Show / George Burns / Lucy's Lost Christmas Special / Classic Christmas Toy Commercials / Cricket On The Hearth / 1950's Holiday Shows / Amahl and the Night Visitors / A Christmas Carol on TV / The Yule Log / Celebrity Commercials / Rudolph / Movie Posters & More! 

Classic TV Shows on DVD

Get it here!

SAVE MONEY
ON EVERYTHING!

TV Commercials on DVD Lost In Space on DVD Mr Peabody on DVD Carol Burnett Show on DVD Mary Tyler Moore Show on DVD “The
Looking for classic TV DVDs?/See below:
TV Commercials on DVD Wrestling DVDs Classic TV Books