Would more established character background info have helped ?

[Vicki L.]

For instance, if they had written in the series description of the characters what Andy's late wife's first name was and exactly how she'd died or what exactly was Barney's middle name? And they had managed not to leave us in the dark about character's backgrounds so much or been so fickled about their exact identities and other. A permanent and set description of Mayberry's age and other stuff would've been good too.