How long is the ‘Mayberry thing’ going to last?

[Brian Damage]

I ask myself a lot of rhetorical-type questions, ones that reflect a sincere quest for the truth but which also offer no promise of a real answer or prediction of an outcome.

It’s not important to me whether pigs will ever fly or if you-know-where freezes over, but I do wonder about some things relevant to our daily lives and what might be anticipated in the future.

For example, can we ever expect to see peace in the world or will there ever be an end to greed and corruption? Are $2-per-gallon gas prices gone forever? Will my Washington Redskins make it back to the Super Bowl anytime soon?

And there’s another such question-with-no-answer that I hear all the time from local business people and other concerned folks in the community: “Just how long is this Mayberry thing going to last?”

Of course, the coming of spring and summer is bringing its usual throngs of tourists to “Mayberry.” Some come on buses with tour groups, while others arrive in private vehicles. The important thing is they come.

Along with those here just to soak up whatever “Andy Griffith Show” flavor they can are the hangers-on: a different cut of visitors not interested in seeing Mayberry sights such as the old jail or Wally’s filling station so much as they are exploring the Mayberry phenomenon itself.

Over the years, these visitors have included reporters from major newspapers and magazines, broadcast networks and even an appearance in downtown Mount Airy by Oprah Winfrey in the 1990s for her television show. Oprah even touched the back of my hand that day, which was exciting, but not nearly as thrilling as when I touched Elizabeth Taylor. No offense, Oprah!

The most recent such visit came this week when a crew from the Cable News Network arrived, bringing along its CNN Express bus.

CNN was here to feature Mount Airy/Mayberry as part of a special series on “Building up America.” It is focusing on communities that are finding unique ways to help offset a struggling economy, such as tourism. The segment produced locally was called, “For the Love of Mayberry — Fictional town helps build up the real thing.”

It was nice for Mount Airy to once again receive some priceless national media exposure (those ringing sounds in your ears are probably the telephone calls over at the visitors center from people interesting in coming here). Yet the eternal question remains: Just how long is this Mayberry gravy train, if you will, going to keep chugging along?

My own basic nature compels me to just enjoy good things while they’re here and not shake the tree, so to speak. But in a true journalistic effort to arrive at SOME answer to that question, I checked one of my usual sources of information: the Web site Wikipedia. However, that usually reliable resource strangely contains no studies or statistics on the tourism longevity of towns that provided the inspirations for 1960s television shows.

Basically, we are in uncharted territory, people. Most of the situation comedies or dramatic shows that have appeared on the air all these years are almost always set in big cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or Miami. I don’t think we’ll we watching “CSI: Lowgap” anytime soon, do you?

So there is a narrow window for quality, long-running programs that also take place in small towns. “The Andy Griffith Show” is in a class all its own in this regard. It was part of another kind of phenomenon in the 1960s when the CBS network made a living on shows with a rural flavor such as “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “Green Acres” and “The Andy Griffith Show.”

But that philosophy changed in the early 1970s when the network axed “every show that had a tree in it,” lamented one “Green Acres” actor at the time. Taking their place were programs with more of an urban flavor such as “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “All in the Family.”

Yet the CBS bigwigs obviously weren’t as smart as they thought they were, since “The Andy Griffith Show” has been one of the most-watched TV series in America in the 40 years AFTER it was canned by the network.

So while I’m unable to provide a definitive answer for “How long is this going to last?” — I can still venture an educated opinion, and that is I don’t believe the Mayberry phenomenon will fade anytime soon. After all, the show has been popular for more than 50 years, and there’s no reason for thinking this can’t continue well into the future, so long as those wonderful reruns are available via TV Land or DVDs.

Critics say that as Mayberry fans die off, younger ones won’t replace them. But one thing I’ve noticed over the years is that as America’s problems have become more complex and society more troubled, the simple messages of “The Andy Griffith Show” have been all the more appealing.

As life elsewhere continues to deteriorate, it therefore can be only good news for Mount Airy in capitalizing on people’s desire to escape to a better place — or at least what they perceive as a better place.

Read more: Mount Airy News - How long is the 8216 Mayberry thing 8217 going to last

[Sitcom Collector]

I don't mean to insult fans of the show, I live in a small town myself south of the Mason-Dixon line.
But lets be honest.
TAGS was popular for one reason alone, the person who held it up above other sitcoms of the time: Don Knotts. When he left, the show tanked. The only bright points in those later years was when Knotts made an appearance.
Andy Griffith may have been from North Carolina, but he left his roots behind and became fully Californized long ago. Even his southern accent disappears except when he can use it, like in the Obamacare ads("Eye t'ink yer gonna like it!!) . He always acted like his 'rural sitcom' was not like the others of the day: making fun of the hicks.
Yet that is exactly what he did on his show, he just wasn't as off the wall as the Paul Henning shows.
To its credit. TAGS had some of the best writers in Hollywood, the best episodes are in the first couple seasons. But it didn't last, Knotts left at just the time the stories started getting worse. The color episodes IMO, are almost unwatchable.
Today TAGS is popular with evangelical Christians who view the show as some kind of idealized Christian paradise (even though the actors on the show were far from Christian). There are preachers down here who have actually preached sermons based on the show (I wish I was making that up). Indeed many of the episodes do have strong moral messages....but then so did My Three Sons, Father Knows Best, Family Affair, and other shows of the era.
As long as people are looking for an idealized Shangri-La, TAGS will be popular, and there is nothing wrong with that.
But don't raise it too high.
At the end of the day, it was just a sitcom.

[MichaelKeith]

It is true that it was a sitcom, but TAGS and other shows are really a reflection of society at that time, of us as a nation.

Yes, many shows of that era did tend to idealize life in America, but in realilty, life in America for many of our citizens was very similar to that portrayed in these shows. And that's not a bad thing.

[Sitcom Collector]

Originally Posted by MichaelKeith

It is true that it was a sitcom, but TAGS and other shows are really a reflection of society at that time, of us as a nation.

Even the creators of the show admit it was really about an earier era, around the 1930s. And when you look at the plotlines of the earlier seasons, it seems to make sense. Only in the later years did they acknowledge rock n' roll and television. I think that is why the show ages well.

[70s show watcher]

Originally Posted by Sitcom Collector

I don't mean to insult fans of the show, I live in a small town myself south of the Mason-Dixon line.
But lets be honest.
TAGS was popular for one reason alone, the person who held it up above other sitcoms of the time: Don Knotts. When he left, the show tanked. The only bright points in those later years was when Knotts made an appearance.
Andy Griffith may have been from North Carolina, but he left his roots behind and became fully Californized long ago. Even his southern accent disappears except when he can use it, like in the Obamacare ads("Eye t'ink yer gonna like it!!) . He always acted like his 'rural sitcom' was not like the others of the day: making fun of the hicks.
Yet that is exactly what he did on his show, he just wasn't as off the wall as the Paul Henning shows.
To its credit. TAGS had some of the best writers in Hollywood, the best episodes are in the first couple seasons. But it didn't last, Knotts left at just the time the stories started getting worse. The color episodes IMO, are almost unwatchable.
Today TAGS is popular with evangelical Christians who view the show as some kind of idealized Christian paradise (even though the actors on the show were far from Christian). There are preachers down here who have actually preached sermons based on the show (I wish I was making that up). Indeed many of the episodes do have strong moral messages....but then so did My Three Sons, Father Knows Best, Family Affair, and other shows of the era.
As long as people are looking for an idealized Shangri-La, TAGS will be popular, and there is nothing wrong with that.
But don't raise it too high.
At the end of the day, it was just a sitcom.

thank you i think you hit the nail on the head about why i dont seem to enjoy the show as much as i used to when i was a kid ,dont get me wrong i think the show is still one of the best sitcoms ever but in the last 20 years or so the show has been so overanilized and overplayed that it almost takes the fun out of watching it ive told this story here before but it bears repeating i was at an autograph show in tucson and a reporter was covering the event for a local tv station and the show promoter was a friend of betty lynn and the reporter siad to him i understand that you know thelma lou from the andy griffith show and he told her no i know betty lynn who played thelma lou and this woman nearly burst into tears when she found out thelma lou wasant real how scary

[Sitcom Collector]

Originally Posted by 70s show watcher

thank you i think you hit the nail on the head about why i dont seem to enjoy the show as much as i used to when i was a kid ,dont get me wrong i think the show is still one of the best sitcoms ever but in the last 20 years or so the show has been so overanilized and overplayed that it almost takes the fun out of watching it

No show is beyond scrutiny and criticism just because its popular. Many years ago Griffith was interviewed and sanctimoniously claimed his 'rural' sitcom did not make buffoons out of rural folk like others did (think the Paul Henning shows, Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, ect). I almost fell out of my chair. Really? Gomer, Goober, Ernest T, the Darlings and many others were not stereotyped country bumpkins? He was trying to claim his show was of a higher nature, like Mary Tyler Moore, MASH, or All in the Family. Quite a claim. I think that exaggeration speaks to Griffiths character.
At least the Henning shows were honest about thier ridicule and never made a claim to being anything else.
In a way though, the myth that has grown up around TAGS, with Griffith fueling it, that rural America is some sort of Paradisical Utopia, unchanged by the modern world, hurts the image of rural America far worse than Henning's off-the-wall shows. Henning never claimed his shows were even the slightest realistic.
Personally, it I sat in a Baptist church down south, and all the preacher could come up with on a Sunday morning was a sermon based on TAGS, I would walk out.