I recall that there is a portable TV set in a prisoner's cell during season 1 episode "Andy and the Gentleman crook".

But you will find no TV set anywhere in Andy's house during seasons 1 & 2, and I'm into season 3 and there is absolutely no sign of a TV set.

First TV set that I know for sure is in Andy's living room is in the very first color episode. Anyone know of one earlier?
Yet several times during the first few seasons, Barney mentions his intent to go over to Thelma Lou's house to watch TV.

Wondering if this is an intentional editorial statement by the show's writers, of just an obscure oversight?

I recall that there is a portable TV set in a prisoner's cell during season 1 episode "Andy and the Gentleman crook".

But you will find no TV set anywhere in Andy's house during seasons 1 & 2, and I'm into season 3 and there is absolutely no sign of a TV set.

First TV set that I know for sure is in Andy's living room is in the very first color episode. Anyone know of one earlier?
Yet several times during the first few seasons, Barney mentions his intent to go over to Thelma Lou's house to watch TV.

Wondering if this is an intentional editorial statement by the show's writers, of just an obscure oversight?

Seems like TV's only pop up in homes when being viewed. They're no where to be seen when not used, and part of the plot.

The TV may be on the so-called 4th wall that's not seen. I only recall seeing it, as said, when it's watched, like the travelog that gets Howard to live on the island, or Aunt Bee's cooking show.

Seems like TV's only pop up in homes when being viewed. They're no where to be seen when not used, and part of the plot.

That's a reasonable argument, and I'm not disagreeing just to be ornery, but that doesn't track with the "Andy and the Gentleman Crook" episode.

Barney and Dan Caldwell were in the cell nearest the front door, they were playing cards. There was both a TV and a record player sitting unused in the background.....just basic "decorum".

Also, the TV set in the first color episode was not turned on, it was basically just part of the living room furniture, nobody watching it.

Again let me emphasize that I'm not just trying to be a hard head, but I don't believe that your very reasonable explanation fits here.

In the episode where Gomer was Andy's houseguest, he does several things that annoy Andy interfering with his sleep. Was "watching late night TV" one of those? If so, then this might be an example of a TV prior to the color era

That's a reasonable argument, and I'm not disagreeing just to be ornery, but that doesn't track with the "Andy and the Gentleman Crook" episode.

Barney and Dan Caldwell were in the cell nearest the front door, they were playing cards. There was both a TV and a record player sitting unused in the background.....just basic "decorum".

Also, the TV set in the first color episode was not turned on, it was basically just part of the living room furniture, nobody watching it.

Again let me emphasize that I'm not just trying to be a hard head, but I don't believe that your very reasonable explanation fits here.
There are exceptions of course a tv is visible. Most times in homes it's nowhere to be seen.

Just documenting the file, season 3: episode 26 (Andy's English valet) and still no sign of a TV set in the Taylor living room

In "Gomer the Houseguest" Gomer keeps telling stories while they're watching a show. Also Andy and Helen are watching TV while Goober and Barney are watching them in "Goober and the Art of Love."

Yes, TVs are almost always shoved off to the side on series like TDVDS, The Odd Couple, Laverne & Shirley, and other shows, except when they are watching them. At least in TAGS the TV was in a spot that made sense.

A day or two ago I saw a TV that I'd never noticed in Wally and Beaver's room, in a later episode of that series. TV shows have usually been strange about showing TVs on TV.

You usually don't see console furniture like TV's in classic tv homes. They're usually portable TV's on wheels. Even in living rooms.

Bewitched is the only one I can remember with a console.

There's a console TV in Ward's den on Leave It To Beaver, and it's even shown when the TV isn't part of the plot. There's also a portable TV that is sometimes seen in the boy's room.

Maybe he didn't make enough to have a TV, only a radio. I was born in the mid 60s and we didn't have TV then.

You usually don't see console furniture like TV's in classic tv homes. They're usually portable TV's on wheels. Even in living rooms.

The TV in Andy's living room in the first color episode is a floor standing unit in a wood cabinet. I don't know if that qualifies as a "console".....we always called the TVs with a built in record player/hi-fi a "console".

In "Gomer the Houseguest" Gomer keeps telling stories while they're watching a show. Also Andy and Helen are watching TV while Goober and Barney are watching them in "Goober and the Art of Love."

.

Okay, "Gomer the Houseguest" is season 4 episode 6
and "Goober and the Art of Love" is season 5 episode 20

While in season 4 episode 21 "The Shoplifters" Barney tells Andy that he intends to go home and watch the George Raft movie on TV, and Andy acknowledges that he intends to watch it too.

So, season 4 episode 6 appears to be the earliest instance we can document in the Taylor household.

In "Dinner at 8" there is a stand-alone console tv in front of the window left of the front door. There usually isn't anything in front of the window.

In "Dinner at 8" there is a stand-alone console tv in front of the window left of the front door. There usually isn't anything in front of the window.

Thanks! That was season 7? I think I saw the same one in season 6 episode 1.

Season 5 episode 5... still no permanent TV in the living room

Season 4, episode 24 "Bargain Day" appears to be the very first episode where TV is acknowledged in the Taylor household. Aunt Bee tells Opie to go watch TV while she contemplates how to explain to Andy why all the lights in the house are flickering.

I had earlier thought perhaps season 4 episode 6 "Gomer the House Guest" was the first hard proof, but I am fairly certain that Andy, Gomer, Opie, and Aunt Bee are all staring at the Console radio that sat next to the doorway into the kitchen for much of the duration of the series. They were listening to a radio program together. No room for a TV screen in this unit, the whole front side is speaker cloth

Season 5 episode 17 "Goober takes a car apart" appears to be the first black and white episode I have seen to have a TV in the Taylors' living room

The truly amusing thing about season 4 episode 6, "Gomer the House Guest"...Andy, Opie and Aunt Bee all three are staring at that unit as though it was a TV (despite no light in their faces from the "screen").
But after the program they were attending to ended, you can clearly see Andy walking over to the unit, right beside the doorway to the kitchen, to switch it off. And there are numerous shots of this piece in many other episodes, and it clearly is a console radio, not a TV set.

Season 2, episode 4 "Mayberry Goes Bankrupt", Andy has to go out to impoverished farmer Frank Meyers to evict him for property taxes owed.

Despite Meyers' poverty, he's got a TV set in his living room, years before Andy would. It's a fairly unique TV, table top unit built into a trapezoidal shape, or you could call it pyramid shaped with the point lopped off the very top it it. Perhaps a 9" screen. Visible with a book sitting on top of it just under Meyers' right arm in the following photo. Wish I could find a picture of the whole thing, any of you who have the dvd set and care to take a screen shot and post it I'd be appreciative

https://i.imgur.com/H6cZIEp.jpg