What happened to Elinor Donahue?

[Chocolate Moose]

She seemed to really like Andy in Season 2 and vice versa, then I couldn't get season 3 from the library, and in 4, he got a hot and heavy with Ron Howard's teacher.


What happened? Thanks.

[Chocolate Moose]

No one?

[PracTz]

OK,

I'll bite! As best I can tell, Miss Donahue and Mr. Griffith did not have great offscreen chemistry and increasingly she got annoyed that any comedic aspect of Miss Walker got muted in favor of Barney's antics. Also, I think that since she was a new wife and mother, she wasn't happy having to spend so much time away from her family to do this show that she felt she was being edged out of.

Regardless, Ellie Walker was EASILY my fave of Andy's flames and I think the viewers deserved SOME explanation re why she was no longer living in Mayberry the next year. Instead, no one ever talked about her (not even Opie who she'd been FAR warmer to than a certain Miss Crump ever would be) and everyone pretended she'd never existed.

[Chocolate Moose]

Oh, wow! I did not know any of that!

thank you very much !!!

[biffbronson]

Andy did have some other love interests in between Ellie and Helen -- notably Peggy, played by Joanna Moore (Joanna Cook Moore).

[kclj520]

I am concerned that she may be having health problems, as I wrote to her last month, and the photos I sent came back with a note saying "unable to sign." Hope she is well!

[Scrabjan1]

I also read that Elinor had done a long TV series in Father Knows Best and did not want to be part of another long series.

[Babalu]

Originally Posted by PracTz

OK,

I'll bite! As best I can tell, Miss Donahue and Mr. Griffith did not have great offscreen chemistry and increasingly she got annoyed that any comedic aspect of Miss Walker got muted in favor of Barney's antics. Also, I think that since she was a new wife and mother, she wasn't happy having to spend so much time away from her family to do this show that she felt she was being edged out of.

Regardless, Ellie Walker was EASILY my fave of Andy's flames and I think the viewers deserved SOME explanation re why she was no longer living in Mayberry the next year. Instead, no one ever talked about her (not even Opie who she'd been FAR warmer to than a certain Miss Crump ever would be) and everyone pretended she'd never existed.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/ent...e42732489.html

▪ Elinor Donahue was introduced in Season 1 as Griffith’s love interest, but there was no chemistry, onstage or off. It was quite the opposite with Aneta Corsaut, introduced in Season 3, as teacher Helen Crump. She and Griffith became passionate lovers.

▪ Griffith’s 23-year marriage to Barbara Edwards unraveled in a storm of alcohol and domestic violence. She once described Griffith as a man “surrounded by himself.”