Vietnam

[treky]

do you think the show would have worked if they changed the setting to the war in Vietnam? I don't, But if the show had gone on for at least 2 more seasons (which it could have because it was the #2 show in the nation it's 5th season) I think they would have had to at least mention Vietnam,

[Duster76]

The most amazing part of the Griffith product (The Andy Griffith Show [TAGS] and Gomer Pyle) was the fact that both shows peacefully coexisted right at the center of the two hottest issues of the 1960's, race and Vietnam. TAGS takes place in a southern town oblivious to segregation (there were virtually no members of the black community residing in Mayberry), and Gomer Pyle takes place as the Vietnam War escalates. Both shows ignored the two defining issues of the 60's and thrived. Amazing.


If the Gomer Pyle had gone on for two more years, I think the show would have continued to ignore the issue. Vietnam was a live third rail and the show's rural appeal would have made it impossible to effectively address what was evolving into a national tragedy.


Nabors career was brilliantly managed, he was getting too old for the part and he (or his management team) may have realized CBS was moving away from rural shows (this had actually been discussed at network level in 1966) so Nabors moved to a variety format before the roof caved in. The failure of that series is another for another discussion.

[treky]

actually in a couple episodes of TAGS they do show 1 or 2 black people as part of a crowd. And I read somewhere once that in one of the color episodes Opie has a basketball coach who's black. Sheldon Leonard said in an interview once that if they had any black people as regulars in the early shows they would have had to show what life was like for blacks in a small, southern town in the 60s and if they did that the show wouldn't be on all these years later.
Also, I heard that in one of the color episodes Aunt Bea is talking to a reverend in one scene. After he says something she says "Just like that terrible war in Asia." So that may or may not have been a reference to the Vietnam war.

[Duster76]

"actually in a couple episodes of TAGS they do show 1 or 2 black people as part of a crowd. And I read somewhere once that in one of the color episodes Opie has a basketball coach who's black. Sheldon Leonard said in an interview once that if they had any black people as regulars in the early shows they would have had to show what life was like for blacks in a small, southern town in the 60s and if they did that the show wouldn't be on all these years later".


I do remember seeing several episodes in the final three seasons where African Americans appear as extras (crossing the street or walking on the sidewalk). There was one episode where a black actor played a football player who was a coach of Opie's school football team. This was what I call an angry Andy episode, he wanted Opie to choose between football and piano lessons, and to make long story short it turned out he could do both since the football star a had also taken piano lessons when he was younger.

"Also, I heard that in one of the color episodes Aunt Bea is talking to a reverend in one scene. After he says something she says "Just like that terrible war in Asia." So that may or may not have been a reference to the Vietnam war".

Wow, that's interesting, I don't recall seeing that, but honestly I haven't seen the color episodes in 25 or so years. One of the writers may have stuck that in a script and somehow slipped it by everyone. This is a little off topic but I can think of another example of something being slipped into a script under the radar in the color years. In the episode Howard was introduced in, Helen wanted to set him up with a friend of hers, Andy warned against it describing Howard as "peculiar" which in those days was a code word used to describe someone who was gay.