When Andy Griffith Became Mayberry RFD

[TMC]

Why did they have to bring in a new lead for Mayberry RFD.

Weren't any of the Mayberry characters good enough to continue the show?

[Zoneboy]

I'm not sure why the comments from JTS were needed, but I think it only made sense to bring in Ken Berry. George Lindsey, Jack Dodson and Paul Hartman are fine in supporting roles, but not as leads.

[vitoscotti]

I think bringing in Sam Jones (Ken Berry) and Mike (Buddy Foster) was a huge mistake. I normally really like Ken Berry's work but he had no chemistry with the carryover cast members. The final 4 TAGS season 8 episodes with Sam Jones shoehorned in were simply dreadful. I just watched the first RFD episode and Ken Berry did seem more relaxed. But, Sam & Mike couldn't generate any laughs. They just weren't funny. I've always thought that they made a huge mistake dumping Warren (Jack Burns). He and the remaining cast would have been better sharing the RFD lead than lifeless, dull Sam Jones doing a bad Andy Taylor impression.

[SarahBellum]

Originally Posted by vitoscotti

I think bringing in Sam Jones (Ken Berry) and Mike (Buddy Foster) was a huge mistake. I normally really like Ken Berry's work but he had no chemistry with the carryover cast members.

So who might have been a better choice? Or should they have just ended TAGS and not done Mayberry RFD?

[stevea]

Sam was kinda just there, and so were Mike and Aunt Bee. Sure, they had scripts, but they were boring rehashes. Aunt Bee considers marrying--we've never seen anything like that on TAGS. Sam puts in a new well and a dowser comes around. Snooze!

Really, George Lindsey, Paul Hartman, and Jack Dodson carried the show. The comedy came from them deciding to paint Sam's house and screwing it up. Or Howard going on TV and reading poetry, and Emmett and Goober playing a joke on him. Or....

I doubt you can consider MRFD a mistake, though. It had high ratings for its three season run, brief only because of the CBS rural purge.

[GentlemanJim]

Originally Posted by SarahBellum

So who might have been a better choice?

John Cassavetes? Put him in there as sheriff

[vitoscotti]

So who might have been a better choice? Or should they have just ended TAGS and not done Mayberry RFD?

It would be interesting to know who the "bunch of people" were that auditioned or were interviewed. But it looks like Ken Berry was in a good position going into the interview.

I doubt you can consider MRFD a mistake, though. It had high ratings for its three season run.

Commercial mistake, no. But, comedy wise a huge mistake. I remember watching as a kid and thinking "This is really bad". Andy Griffith had to make a lot of money off it no doubt.

[Duster76]

Mayberry RFD replaces the departing sheriff, his son and his girlfriend with the head of the town council, his son and his girlfriend, that's the difference between TAGS final three seasons and RFD. As unimaginative as that was it worked perfectly. The show remained a top 5 hit for two additional seasons before falling to number 15, but even the third season drop can be explained by much tougher competition on ABC with the debut of Monday Night Football. It's hard to criticize anything that Griffith and his team did adhering to the old saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Now with all that said Andy and his team could be accused of being shortsighted. Talent was clearly underutilized, Ken Berry was a talented performer, a good physical comic but those talents were wasted. Arlene Golonka was far more talented than Aneta Corsaut, Berry and Golonka made a much more interesting couple than Griffith and Corsaut and there were writers who could have worked a bit of Rob and Laura into the series. The Aunt Bee character was played out in my opinion, her replacement in season 3 of RFD by Alice Ghostly should have happened after season 1. If RFD had evolved a bit and become its own show it might have survived the purge of 71.

[vitoscotti]

I vaguely remember seeing this as a kid. The pilot for The New Andy Griffith Show. In it are Emmett (Paul Hartman), Goober (George Lindsey), Barney (Don Knotts) who are the highlights making one time appearances. He knows all three from Mayberry oddly even with his new Miss America wife and different kids. Andy (now Sawyer) has come from Raleigh to be the interim Mayor of Greenwood. Would have been horrendous without the old castmates. Show lasted 10 episodes.

[MichaelKeith]

If Andy Griffith wanted (and did) "The New Andy Griffith Show", then why the heck did he leave the original one in the first place? I am guessing that had he wanted to stay with the original show, it would have run for three or four more seasons. No sense to his leaving.

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by MichaelKeith

If Andy Griffith wanted (and did) "The New Andy Griffith Show", then why the heck did he leave the original one in the first place? I am guessing that had he wanted to stay with the original show, it would have run for three or four more seasons. No sense to his leaving.

Part of the answer to your question is the simple fact that it was a good business decision. He spun his series off from himself creating a two prong effect, he would continue to make money on the Mayberry concept while developing other acting projects for himself and makes money off of those efforts. The film career didn't work out so it was back to TV, this is where things start getting strange.

The original new Andy Griffith show was called Headmaster and it bombed, but when did it bomb? The fact that Andy and his team developed a completely different new New Andy Griffith Show and had it ready to go by midseason is nothing short of astonishing. It's a new cast, an entirely different premise less than four months after the premiere of Headmaster! One can only assume that Andy and his team knew it was a bomb well before the first episode aired. There is no way they would have been able to secure network approval, cast the new series, develop whatever sets they needed, prepare scripts and film episodes so it was ready to air at the beginning of January. An even bigger question, the network was readying the axe for all their rural based series at the end of the TV season, with that as their strategy, why greenlight a new rural series! It makes no sense. Why didn't the network ask Griffith to try to fix the Headmaster series which at the very least seemed more in line with the direction the network was going in. If not that, then why not just pay off whatever deal they had with Griffith rather than starting a new series that was not only a rush job, but not at all in line with the direction CBS was heading in.

Is it possible that somewhere in CBS there was a hope that Griffith might be willing to bring Don Knotts into the series as a Deputy Mayor and recreate the magic of the original series. That's the only reason I could think of for greenlighting The New Andy Griffith Show in the first place.

[MichaelKeith]

Originally Posted by Duster76

Part of the answer to your question is the simple fact that it was a good business decision. He spun his series off from himself creating a two prong effect, he would continue to make money on the Mayberry concept while developing other acting projects for himself and makes money off of those efforts. The film career didn't work out so it was back to TV, this is where things start getting strange.

The original new Andy Griffith show was called Headmaster and it bombed, but when did it bomb? The fact that Andy and his team developed a completely different new New Andy Griffith Show and had it ready to go by midseason is nothing short of astonishing. It's a new cast, an entirely different premise less than four months after the premiere of Headmaster! One can only assume that Andy and his team knew it was a bomb well before the first episode aired. There is no way they would have been able to secure network approval, cast the new series, develop whatever sets they needed, prepare scripts and film episodes so it was ready to air at the beginning of January. An even bigger question, the network was readying the axe for all their rural based series at the end of the TV season, with that as their strategy, why greenlight a new rural series! It makes no sense. Why didn't the network ask Griffith to try to fix the Headmaster series which at the very least seemed more in line with the direction the network was going in. If not that, then why not just pay off whatever deal they had with Griffith rather than starting a new series that was not only a rush job, but not at all in line with the direction CBS was heading in.

Is it possible that somewhere in CBS there was a hope that Griffith might be willing to bring Don Knotts into the series as a Deputy Mayor and recreate the magic of the original series. That's the only reason I could think of for greenlighting The New Andy Griffith Show in the first place.

Interesting insights. You're right, it's totally confusing about the new program, but if by bowing out of the original series, he was able to parlay that into more ways of making money, I guess that's understandable. It's always about the money, isn't it.

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by vitoscotti

I vaguely remember seeing this as a kid. The pilot for The New Andy Griffith Show. In it are Emmett (Paul Hartman), Goober (George Lindsey), Barney (Don Knotts) who are the highlights making one time appearances. He knows all three from Mayberry oddly even with his new Miss America wife and different kids. Andy (now Sawyer) has come from Raleigh to be the interim Mayor of Greenwood. Would have been horrendous without the old castmates. Show lasted 10 episodes.

Completely bizarre idea, what was Andy Griffith thinking?

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by vitoscotti

I think bringing in Sam Jones (Ken Berry) and Mike (Buddy Foster) was a huge mistake. I normally really like Ken Berry's work but he had no chemistry with the carryover cast members. The final 4 TAGS season 8 episodes with Sam Jones shoehorned in were simply dreadful. I just watched the first RFD episode and Ken Berry did seem more relaxed. But, Sam & Mike couldn't generate any laughs. They just weren't funny. I've always thought that they made a huge mistake dumping Warren (Jack Burns). He and the remaining cast would have been better sharing the RFD lead than lifeless, dull Sam Jones doing a bad Andy Taylor impression.

Maybe Don Knotts as Barney returning to take over the Sherrill position?

It seems by that point his movie career had about run its course.

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by Duster76

Part of the answer to your question is the simple fact that it was a good business decision. He spun his series off from himself creating a two prong effect, he would continue to make money on the Mayberry concept while developing other acting projects for himself and makes money off of those efforts. The film career didn't work out so it was back to TV, this is where things start getting strange.

The original new Andy Griffith show was called Headmaster and it bombed, but when did it bomb? The fact that Andy and his team developed a completely different new New Andy Griffith Show and had it ready to go by midseason is nothing short of astonishing. It's a new cast, an entirely different premise less than four months after the premiere of Headmaster! One can only assume that Andy and his team knew it was a bomb well before the first episode aired. There is no way they would have been able to secure network approval, cast the new series, develop whatever sets they needed, prepare scripts and film episodes so it was ready to air at the beginning of January. An even bigger question, the network was readying the axe for all their rural based series at the end of the TV season, with that as their strategy, why greenlight a new rural series! It makes no sense. Why didn't the network ask Griffith to try to fix the Headmaster series which at the very least seemed more in line with the direction the network was going in. If not that, then why not just pay off whatever deal they had with Griffith rather than starting a new series that was not only a rush job, but not at all in line with the direction CBS was heading in.

Is it possible that somewhere in CBS there was a hope that Griffith might be willing to bring Don Knotts into the series as a Deputy Mayor and recreate the magic of the original series. That's the only reason I could think of for greenlighting The New Andy Griffith Show in the first place.

Definitely Don Knotts in the New Andy Griffith Show or perhaps bring him in on the second season of Mayberry RFD as the new Sherrill, finally replacing Andy.