I just came to the realization that Andy & Helen's wedding was not the last episode of TAGS, but the first for Mayberry R.F.D. The last episode of The Andy Griffith Show, actually served as the pilot for RFD. This sucks because if Mayberry R.F.D. is never released on DVD, we won't have this significant episode which includes the return of Don Knotts.:mad:

Interesting note: The second-to-last episode of TAGS to be broadcast, "A Girl for Goober" (production code 249) guest-starring Nancy Malone, was actually the final TAGS episode to be filmed. The episode "Mayberry RFD" (production code 241) was held back, allowing for several eps to precede it when the shows originally aired.

So there actually was filming done between the Mayberry RFD "pilot" and the actual first episode of the series Mayberry RFD (some of which included Sam Jones on TAGS). In other words, the pilot was not filmed right before the series. And the producers obviously could have married Andy & Helen on TAGS during the run of those episodes that preceded the showing of the pilot.

I recommend viewing the final season of TAGS by the production numbers. Then for example you will find Sam's son Mike in no. 248, "Opie and Mike," in the proper order (an ep filmed well after his "real" intro in no. 241).

Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll release it since all 8 seasons of TAGS are on dvd.

Mayberry RFD is owned by Time Warner, so they would have to do it. I never understood how the sequel/spinoff series got owned by a different company.

...he wanted his series to end after the 1967-'68 season. However, he and his agent Dick Linke were convinced by CBS and sponsor General Foods to continue it in a slightly different form for the fall of 1968 [they didn't want to lose their #1 series at 9pm(et) on Monday nights], with occasional appearances and an added incentive of Andy co-owning and co-producing the show as well, while he went off to try his luck as a movie star at Universal {"Angel In My Pocket" was as far as he got}. Sheldon Leonard and Danny Thomas were not involved in this deal, and the series didn't automatically revert to CBS or VIACOM ownership once it ended {as did Andy's series}. Telepictures got the rights to distribute "MAYBERRY RFD" in the '70s- then they merged with Lorimar, which was swallowed up by Warner Bros. in the '80s...and that's why Time-Warner owns it these days.

:tv:

^ok thanks........I knew about Telepictures, etc. Wasn't sure how the show wasn't in CBS's hands in the first place.

Also reminds of me of Dynasty being a Fox property while the spinoff, The Colbys is a Warner one.

^ok thanks........I knew about Telepictures, etc. Wasn't sure how the show wasn't in CBS's hands in the first place.

Also reminds of me of Dynasty being a Fox property while the spinoff, The Colbys is a Warner one.


...and Green Acres at some point became the property of MGM, while its sister shows, Petticoat Junction and The Beverly Hillbillies are still owned by CBS.

....was a separate "deal" between Filmways and CBS; even though Paul Henning was executive producer of the show, Jay Sommers was its creator and producer, who owned and controlled the majority of it, since he adapted and reworked it from his short-lived 1950 radio show, "GRANBY'S GREEN ACRES", starring Gale Gordon & Bea Benaderet. Before he was fired from CBS in February 1965, James T. Aubrey, CBS' president and chief programmer, wanted another "rural sitcom" from Filmways for the 1965-'66 season. Paul Henning couldn't give him another "BEVERLY HILLBILLIES" or "PETTICOAT JUNCTION" (as he was too busy involved with both), but Jay, who was executive producer during "PETTICOAT"'s second season, offered the network the idea for "GREEN ACRES", which Aubrey quickly approved and "pencilled in" for the network's fall schedule, making sure there'd be plenty of "crossover" episodes that season between most of "PETTICOAT"'s and "ACRES"' cast [starting with Oliver and Lisa arriving at the Shady Rest in the September 21, 1965 "PETTICOAT" episode, a week after the "GREEN ACRES" pilot, which established their eventual move to Hooterville, had aired, and chronologically before their second episode appeared the following evening). But there were NO "crossovers" with the "HILLBILLIES" {indeed, a later episode has the Douglases presenting their own version of it as a Hooterville "stage production", specifically identified as just a "TV show"} because "GREEN ACRES" wasn't part of the "deal" Filmways made with the network for the other two. They owned the rights to the series (after Jay Sommers sold his interest in it)- and the right to syndicate it- after it left CBS in 1971. In the '80s, Filmways became part of Orion Pictures...which was eventually folded into MGM/UA...which became SONY property several years ago.

:tv:

The plane of reality between the three shows is murky and was subject to change at any time. For instance, in at least one episode of Green Acres, Petticoat Junction was "just a TV show" being watched by Eb! Yet if I'm not mistaken, that happened in the very same year that The Beverly Hillbillies aired its Thanksgiving crossover episode set at the Shady rest and uniting the casts of all three shows--for the only time. Frank Cady kept busy appearing regularly as Sam on all three during that same (1968-69) season.

...although the occasional "crossovers" continued between "GREEN ACRES" and "PETTICOAT JUNCTION" through 1968 (even though the latter is "just a TV show" that Eb happens to watch in one episode), none of the "ACRES" cast ever appeared on "THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES", and vice versa. As you've pointed out, 'TD', just ONE occasion united all three casts around Thanksgiving 1968 [probably to draw attention away from the fact that Bea Benaderet had just passed away, and that "Kate Bradley" was never coming back, so let's bring everybody together and give thanks for those still around!]. That was the exception, as the rights to all three series were "split" between CBS {"HILLBILLIES", "PETTICOAT"} and Filmways {"ACRES"}. However, there was no "legal restriction" keeping "Sam Drucker" from turning up on all three shows at one time or another!

:tv:

Interesting note: The second-to-last episode of TAGS to be broadcast, "A Girl for Goober" (production code 249) guest-starring Nancy Malone, was actually the final TAGS episode to be filmed. The episode "Mayberry RFD" (production code 241) was held back, allowing for several eps to precede it when the shows originally aired.

So there actually was filming done between the Mayberry RFD "pilot" and the actual first episode of the series Mayberry RFD (some of which included Sam Jones on TAGS). In other words, the pilot was not filmed right before the series. And the producers obviously could have married Andy & Helen on TAGS during the run of those episodes that preceded the showing of the pilot.

I recommend viewing the final season of TAGS by the production numbers. Then for example you will find Sam's son Mike in no. 248, "Opie and Mike," in the proper order (an ep filmed well after his "real" intro in no. 241).

"Opie and Mike" must be the episode I watched last week, with Mike following the much older Opie around, and then the family with the blonde girl moves in, who Opie becomes smitten with.

A good episode for a color one.

If Andy and Helen had a daughter..

Does anyone else feel that this first episode of Mayberry RFD or last episode of TAGS is rushed? That's my take on it. I really wish that the wedding would have had a bigger build up (a two-parter). There could have been more enjoyable scenes with Barney, even Helen (gasp). I really thought Opie (Ronny Howard) is underutilized- he just sits in the pew with a line or two.

I also felt that the part of Aunt Bee being afraid of the animals and living on the farm could have been its own episode. I thought that storyline could have been expanded as well. So a single episode could have been 3 with a little more planning and writing.