137 Fun Facts About The Andy Griffith Show

Unusually for a TV lawman, Sheriff Andy Taylor of The Andy Griffith Show rarely carries what?

A gun: Andy keeps the peace by talking, and a magazine story on 'the sheriff without a gun' backfires when it lures crooks posing as TV producers, who reckon his bank will be easy to rob.

Why is Sheriff Andy Taylor raising Opie on his own in The Andy Griffith Show?

He is a widower, so when housekeeper Rose leaves to get married in the first episode, Andy's Aunt Bee moves in to run the house, and Opie at first refuses to accept her.

Who played Opie, Andy Taylor's young son?

Ron Howard, billed as Ronny, played Opie in all eight seasons, and as an adult moved from acting to directing, winning an Oscar for directing A Beautiful Mind.

Who played Andy's Aunt Bee, his housekeeper and Opie's surrogate mother?

Frances Bavier was not Aunt Bee at first: in the 1960 pilot she played another townswoman, Henrietta Perkins. Recast as Andy's aunt, she stayed all eight seasons and won an Emmy for the role in 1967.

Which president was elected five weeks after The Andy Griffith Show premiered?

Kennedy won on November 8, 1960, five weeks after the October 3 premiere. The show outlasted his presidency and bowed out in 1968 as the top-rated series on American television.

What title did The Andy Griffith Show's whistled theme take once lyrics were written for it in 1961?

"The Fishin' Hole" is the title: actor Everett Sloane, who guest-starred on the show, wrote the words after learning the tune had none, and Griffith recorded the vocal version himself.

Who portrayed Helen Crump, Opie's schoolteacher and later Andy's girlfriend, then wife?

Aneta Corsaut played Helen Crump, who first meets Andy in 1963 by scolding him: a careless remark of his had Opie's class deciding history homework didn't matter. The row turned into a courtship.

Which actor was known for playing the naive gas station attendant Gomer Pyle?

Jim Nabors played Gomer Pyle, a part written for a single episode; the sweet, slow-witted pump attendant went over so well that he stayed two seasons and was then given a series of his own.

Where must Deputy Barney Fife keep the single bullet Andy allows him on The Andy Griffith Show?

In his shirt pocket: Barney's revolver went off by accident so often that Andy made him carry it empty, with the one bullet held back 'in case of an emergency'.

In a 1963 episode of The Andy Griffith Show, the town panics after a farmer's goat eats what?

Dynamite: with the goat liable to go off at the slightest bump, Andy and Barney have to coax him gently out of town, and Barney's harmonica playing does the trick.

Who played Otis Campbell, the town drunk of The Andy Griffith Show?

Hal Smith played Otis, then used the character against the bottle: he later revived him in commercials for Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show is said to be based on which real North Carolina town, Andy Griffith's own hometown?

Mount Airy, where Griffith was born in 1926, has made the most of the link: visitors can ride through town in a replica Mayberry squad car and tour the Andy Griffith Museum.

Who was Barney Fife's long-term girlfriend on The Andy Griffith Show?

Thelma Lou, played by Betty Lynn, was Barney's steady girl for five seasons, yet the pair did not marry until the 1986 reunion film, two decades later.

Andy doubts Opie's tales of Mr. McBeevee, who walks in the treetops and jingles, until he meets him doing which job?

Telephone lineman: Mr. McBeevee works up among the wires and calls the jingling tools on his belt his extra hands, so Opie had been telling the plain truth all along.

In a 1963 episode of The Andy Griffith Show, what does Opie accidentally kill with his new slingshot?

A mother bird: Andy opens Opie's window so he has to hear her orphaned chicks calling, and the boy raises the three nestlings himself until they are big enough to set free.

On The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer makes a citizen's arrest of Barney Fife for which traffic offense?

An illegal U-turn: Barney had just ticketed Gomer for the very same move, so when the deputy swings his own car around, Gomer turns the tables and arrests the lawman.

A big-city businessman fumes when his car breaks down in Mayberry on which day, with nobody willing to fix it?

A Sunday: Wally the mechanic will not work on the Sabbath, so the Taylors take the stranger in, and an afternoon of porch-sitting and singing slows him down despite himself.

What did seasons six through eight of The Andy Griffith Show have that its first five seasons did not?

Color arrived with season six in 1965, just as Don Knotts left: Griffith had meant to stop after five years, so Knotts signed a film deal, and he kept to it when the show carried on.

Which actress played Ellie Walker, Andy Taylor's girlfriend in the first season of The Andy Griffith Show?

Elinor Donahue, already known from Father Knows Best, was billed ahead of Don Knotts in the first season's credits, but asked to be let out of her three-year contract after a single year.

What was the title of the 1986 TV film that reunited most of The Andy Griffith Show's cast?

Return to Mayberry sends Andy home meaning to run for sheriff again, only to find that Barney has already declared; he quietly drops out to give his old deputy a clear run.

Which bookish Mayberry character held the job of county clerk?

Howard Sprague, played by Jack Dodson, arrived in 1966 as a bow-tied bachelor ruled by his overbearing mother, yet the town milquetoast turned out to be a crack bowler.

Which company sponsored The Andy Griffith Show throughout its run?

General Foods already sponsored The Danny Thomas Show, which hosted the pilot, so it had first call on the new series and signed on at once; it stayed with Mayberry into the sequel series too.

When Don Knotts left The Andy Griffith Show in 1965, Barney supposedly joined the police force of which North Carolina city?

Raleigh was where Barney went to be a police detective. Knotts came back for five guest episodes, and two of those visits won him his fourth and fifth Emmys for the role.

Whose office sat upstairs in the Mayberry courthouse?

The mayor's office was upstairs, though no stairs to it were ever shown inside; downstairs, Andy's desk shared the floor with two jail cells and a small back room.

What was the name of the spin-off series that continued after Andy Griffith left the original show?

"Mayberry R.F.D." kept the town and most of its people but gave the lead to Ken Berry's farmer Sam Jones; Andy and Helen marry in its first episode.

Hope Summers, Aunt Bee's friend Clara on The Andy Griffith Show, joined a coven of Manhattan witches in which film?

Rosemary's Baby cast Hope Summers as Mrs. Gilmore, a member of the witches' coven at its heart, in 1968, when she was still a familiar face in Mayberry.

On The Andy Griffith Show, what is the name of Andy and Opie's favorite fishing spot?

Myers Lake was also where Mayberry went courting, and in the 1986 reunion film a local businessman fakes a monster in it to drum up trade.

Which movie star did Goober impersonate with the line "Judy, Judy, Judy"?

Cary Grant was the target, though Grant never actually said 'Judy, Judy, Judy' in any film; the line belongs to his impersonators.

Besides sheriff, which office did Andy Taylor hold in Mayberry?

Justice of the peace: in the pilot an indignant Danny Williams demands to be taken before one, and Andy simply produces a sign showing that he holds that office too, then hears the case himself.

What kind of business did the miserly landlord Ben Weaver run?

A department store: Weaver's was Ben's, and in the 1960 Christmas episode the old skinflint has a man jailed on Christmas Eve, then tries to get arrested himself so he can join the party in the cells.

On The Andy Griffith Show, Aunt Bee's nickname is short for which name?

Beatrice is her given name, which makes the spelling a small mystery: the show always wrote the nickname 'Bee' rather than the usual 'Bea', and never said why.

Who replaced Barney Fife as Andy's deputy in season six of The Andy Griffith Show?

Warren Ferguson, played by Boston comic Jack Burns, arrived as the town barber's nephew and lasted only eleven episodes before the show dropped the character.

Which exclamation was Gomer Pyle's trademark?

Shazam! was Gomer's cry of wonder at the simplest things, and he took it with him into the Marines on his own series, where it grated on his sergeant no end.

Which real bluegrass band played the Darling family's musicians on The Andy Griffith Show?

The Dillards were signed within weeks of arriving in Los Angeles and soon booked as the Darling boys, who never say a word on screen unless they are making music.

The lakeside walk in The Andy Griffith Show's opening credits was filmed at which real location above Beverly Hills?

Franklin Canyon supplied the 'North Carolina' lake: it is a reservoir park in the hills above Beverly Hills, miles from the Culver City backlot where the town itself stood.

Goober Pyle's trademark beanie resembled the cap of which comic-strip character?

Jughead Jones wears the same crown-shaped cap, a style boys once cut from an old felt fedora; George Lindsey kept Goober going for another twenty years on Hee Haw.

Who cons Barney Fife out of his $300 savings by selling him his first car, a hopeless lemon?

A sweet old lady, or so she seems: Mrs. Lesch swears the car was only ever driven to church, but she is really the ringleader of a gang that unloads worthless wrecks.

Which catchphrase did Deputy Barney Fife repeat on The Andy Griffith Show?

Nip it in the bud! was Barney's answer to any hint of trouble; when Andy protests that the culprits are only eight years old, he warns that today's eight-year-olds are tomorrow's teenagers.

In the 1965 episode "Opie's Newspaper", what does Opie print that embarrasses Andy, Barney and Aunt Bee?

Local gossip they had shared: told by Barney that a paper needs 'hot copy', Opie and his friend eavesdrop on the grown-ups and print their unflattering remarks about the preacher and the neighbors.

What kind of shop was Walker's, where Mayberry went for a soda?

A drug store: when the owner's niece Ellie arrives to help run it, she refuses to hand a regular her pills without a prescription, and the old lady goes straight to the sheriff to complain.

Which unexpected talent does Mayberry farmer Rafe Hollister reveal?

Singing: Rafe wins the audition to sing at a ladies' musicale, and the horrified mayor orders Andy to make the farmer presentable before he embarrasses the town.

Which never-seen diner waitress did Barney regularly phone as his secret sweetheart?

Juanita, the waitress at the Bluebird Diner, is never seen: Barney sweet-talks her down the phone behind his steady girl's back, and the calls always end in his embarrassment.

Mayberry's streets were first built as a set for which 1939 film?

Gone with the Wind: the Atlanta streets built for it on the Forty Acres lot became Mayberry twenty years later, on ground where old sets were torched to film the burning of Atlanta.

Who played Emmett Clark, the repairman whose fix-it shop replaced Floyd's Barber Shop?

Paul Hartman, a veteran Broadway dancer and comic, joined for the final season: failing health had forced Howard McNear to give up the barber's chair, so the shop became Emmett's.

What is the name of the annual festival that celebrates The Andy Griffith Show in its star's hometown?

Mayberry Days is staged each September by the local arts council, which fills a week with a parade, stage shows, special guests and even a professor's lecture on the series.

Which wild mountain man of The Andy Griffith Show announced himself by hurling rocks through windows?

Ernest T. Bass, played by Howard Morris, threw rocks to catch the eye of whichever woman he was courting; Andy tried schooling and good manners on him, and neither took for long.

What does Barney Fife buy at an army surplus auction to chase speeders on The Andy Griffith Show?

A sidecar motorcycle: Barney's roaring new patrol vehicle soon has the whole town complaining, so Andy gets him to give it up by persuading him it is a priceless antique.

When Otis Campbell lets himself into the Mayberry jail after a binge, where does he find the keys?

On a nail by the cells: Otis has his own key to the courthouse door, so he can walk in, lock himself up, hang the keys back within reach and let himself out once he is sober.

In the 1960 Danny Thomas Show pilot, what did Sheriff Taylor arrest Danny Williams for?

Running a stop sign: Danny protests that there is no crossroad, and Andy explains the town planned one but could only afford the sign. The star then goes to jail sooner than pay the fine.

Besides Seinfeld, which sitcom shares The Andy Griffith Show's feat of ending its run ranked No. 1?

I Love Lucy bowed out on top in 1957, and Griffith did the same in 1968, choosing to walk away from a series that had never finished a season lower than seventh.

Which cable network unveiled a bronze statue of Andy and Opie in 2003?

TV Land put the statue in a park in the state capital, to the annoyance of Griffith's hometown, which felt it belonged there and got a statue of its own the following year.

Earle Hagen, who whistled the Mayberry theme, also wrote the theme for which sitcom?

The Dick Van Dyke Show shared a producer with Mayberry, Sheldon Leonard, who had Hagen write original scores for his shows in an era of stock library music.

Sheldon Leonard, executive producer of The Andy Griffith Show, played Nick the bartender in which 1946 film?

It's a Wonderful Life used Leonard as the gruff barman Nick; with his thick New York accent he spent years typecast as gangsters and heavies before reinventing himself as a television producer.

Mayberry writers Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum later wrote dozens of episodes of which series?

M*A*S*H: the pair wrote 'Abyssinia, Henry', and its last page, the news of Henry Blake's death, was kept from most of the cast until just before the scene was shot.

In Andy Griffith's 1953 hit monologue, a bewildered country parson tries to make sense of what?

A football game: 'What It Was, Was Football' was first pressed by a small North Carolina label, then picked up by Capitol, and reached the national top ten in 1954, giving Griffith his first fame.

Andy Griffith and Don Knotts first worked together in which Broadway comedy, filmed in 1958?

No Time for Sergeants gave Knotts a small part beside Griffith's hillbilly draftee; when he later heard about the sheriff series, he phoned his old castmate to suggest the sheriff needed a deputy.

Andy Griffith made his film debut as a power-hungry drifter in which 1957 Elia Kazan film?

A Face in the Crowd cast him as Lonesome Rhodes, a jailhouse drifter whom radio and television turn into a demagogue sneering at his own audience, a long way from the gentle sheriff to come.

Andy Griffith died in 2012 at his home on which North Carolina island?

Roanoke Island is where the young Griffith acted in The Lost Colony, the outdoor drama about the vanished English settlers, and where he was buried within five hours of his death.

Several Mayberry regulars later joined Andy Griffith on which legal drama, his second long-running hit?

Matlock found room for old friends: Don Knotts recurred as the lawyer's pesky neighbor Les Calhoun, and the actress who had played Helen Crump came back as a judge.

In 1971's The New Andy Griffith Show, Griffith played the mayor of which fictional town?

Greenwood was the town: after his 1970 series Headmaster was replaced within months, Griffith went back to Mayberry-style comedy as Mayor Andy Sawyer, and Goober and Emmett dropped by in the premiere.

Don Knotts later played landlord Ralph Furley on which sitcom?

Three's Company needed a new landlord in 1979 because the original pair, the Ropers, had been spun off into a series of their own; Knotts filled the gap as the would-be swinger Ralph Furley.

The actress who played Aunt Bee retired to which North Carolina town?

Siler City became her home when she gave up acting; a New Yorker by birth, she said she had fallen in love with North Carolina, 'all the pretty roads and the trees', and she is buried in the town.

Whose official car does Barney Fife ticket for illegal parking on The Andy Griffith Show, then refuse to tear the ticket up?

The governor's: Barney is sure the governor's visit to Mayberry means a dressing-down, but the great man has come to commend the deputy for doing his job without playing favorites.

George Lindsey reportedly turned down which Star Trek role before finding fame as Goober?

Mr. Spock: Leonard Nimoy himself said on television that Lindsey had been Gene Roddenberry's first choice, and a friend of Lindsey's wrote that he turned it down, though Nimoy's joking tone left some doubt.

Howard McNear, Mayberry's barber Floyd, was the original radio voice of Doc Adams on which series?

Gunsmoke ran on radio from 1952 with McNear as the town doctor; when the Western moved to television the parts were recast, and he found his own screen fame in a barber's smock instead.

The actor behind Otis, Mayberry's town drunk, was the longtime voice of which Winnie the Pooh character?

Owl was his part in four of Disney's Pooh shorts, and when Sterling Holloway stepped down he took over as Pooh himself; cartoon voices made up much of his 300-odd screen credits.

Ken Berry, who took over as Mayberry's lead when Andy Griffith left, had earlier starred as Captain Parmenter in which sitcom?

F Troop made Berry's name as the laughably clumsy Captain Parmenter; in the Army his Special Services sergeant, Leonard Nimoy, had urged him to try his luck in Hollywood.

Which Gilligan's Island star played Charlene Darling's husband, Dud Wash, on The Andy Griffith Show?

Bob Denver played Dud Wash in 1964's 'Divorce, Mountain Style', in which Charlene walks out on Dud and sets her cap at Andy; Gilligan's Island premiered that autumn.

Which future sitcom star played Ellen Brown, the manicurist who soon had Mayberry's men lining up for their nails?

Barbara Eden played Ellen Brown in 1962, three years before I Dream of Jeannie: the men flock to her for manicures until their jealous wives and girlfriends put a stop to it.

Which actor, later Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane of The Dukes of Hazzard, played Mayberry guitarist Jim Lindsey?

James Best played Jim Lindsey, a gifted but self-doubting guitarist; Andy jails a touring band on petty charges so they have to sit and hear him play, and the bandleader signs him up.

On The Andy Griffith Show, who played Leon, the toddler who silently offered people a bite of his sandwich?

Clint Howard was two when he first wandered through Mayberry as Leon in a cowboy suit; four years later he turned up on Star Trek as the child-faced alien Balok.

Colonel Harvey's 'Indian elixir' leaves Aunt Bee giggling at the piano because it is really what?

Strong liquor: the Colonel's cure-all is just repackaged booze, and Andy has to run the charming salesman out of town without hurting his aunt's feelings.

What was the weekday job of Otis Campbell, Mayberry's town drunk?

Glue dipper at a furniture factory: Otis held the job down by working Monday to Friday and saving his drinking for the weekend, which is why his nights in jail ran to a timetable.

What had Otis Campbell, Mayberry's town drunk, become by the 1986 reunion film?

An ice cream man: sober for years, Otis now drives the town's ice cream truck.

On The Andy Griffith Show, Ernest T. Bass boasts that he is saving up to buy what?

A gold tooth was Ernest T.'s idea of how to impress a woman; when Andy tries polish instead and passes him off at a society party, the evening ends with a vase broken over a rival's head.

Mayberry's Bernard Fox later played Dr. Bombay on which fantasy sitcom?

Bewitched made him the witch doctor Dr. Bombay; Mayberry's 'English' valet Malcolm Merriweather was in fact played by a Welshman, born in Port Talbot to two stage actors.

In The Andy Griffith Show's 'The Haunted House', what is really behind the ghostly goings-on at the old Rimshaw place?

A moonshiner's hidden still: the moans and the portrait with moving eyes were staged to keep people away from the cellar, until Andy stays behind in the house and turns the spook tricks on the culprits.

Nirvana's grim song 'Floyd the Barber' appears on which album?

Bleach, Nirvana's 1989 debut, uses a take of the song cut a year earlier with a borrowed drummer, Dale Crover of the Melvins; attempts to re-record it with the band's new drummer were abandoned.

In Mayberry, what is the elusive 'Old Sam'?

A fish: Old Sam is Mayberry's legendary catch, and when a non-fisherman who only tagged along is the one to hook him, every seasoned angler in town is put out.

Barney Fife's steady girlfriend was celebrated for which homemade treat, his particular favorite?

Cashew fudge was her specialty: Barney describes their standing Tuesday date as the two of them on her couch, a pan of it between them, watching a doctor show on television.

What does Mrs. Mendelbright catch Barney Fife cooking on?

A hot plate: her rules banned cooking and bright light bulbs alike, but once Barney is out she falls for a smooth-talking stranger who proves to be a con man.

On The Andy Griffith Show, what nickname does Barney habitually call Andy?

Ange was Barney's pet name for his boss, usually dropped in mid-lecture: after bluffing his way through the Emancipation Proclamation he adds, 'I'm surprised at you not knowin' that, Ange!'

What did Andy and Barney secretly call Aunt Bee's pickles?

Kerosene cucumbers: to spare her feelings the men swap her jars for store-bought pickles, then have to eat every last one when she decides to enter 'her' batch in the county fair.

On The Andy Griffith Show, which larger nearby town do Mayberry folks often visit or mention?

Mount Pilot was the bigger town down the road; its name is thought to flip that of Pilot Mountain, a real peak and town in the county where Griffith grew up.

In the 1986 reunion film, Andy Taylor comes home after retiring from which job in Cleveland?

Postal inspector: Andy had swapped his sheriff's badge for federal work in Ohio, and what brings him back to Mayberry is the news that Opie is about to become a father.

What had happened to Mayberry's original streets by the 1986 reunion film?

Bulldozed: the Culver City backlot was cleared in 1976, so the crew rebuilt the courthouse in Los Olivos, a small California town that stood in for Mayberry.

In the 1986 reunion film, what is the grown-up Opie Taylor's job in Mayberry?

Newspaper editor: Opie runs the town paper and is about to become a father, and the film ends with him accepting a newspaper job in a bigger city up north.

Don Knotts left The Andy Griffith Show after five seasons as Barney Fife to pursue what?

A film career was calling: Knotts believed Griffith would end the series after five seasons and lined up a five-picture deal with Universal.

In early episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, Deputy Barney Fife and Sheriff Andy Taylor are said to be what relation?

Cousins is how the two describe themselves in the first season, partly as a joke about how Barney got hired. Later episodes quietly dropped the family tie.

Trying to prove Mayberry's bank is easy to rob, where does Barney Fife accidentally lock himself?

In the vault is where Barney ends up after slipping past the teller in disguise. Real crooks then try the bank, and the same episode introduces Gomer Pyle.

In 'The Shoplifters', what does Barney Fife disguise himself as to catch a thief in a Mayberry shop?

A mannequin is Barney's cover on the shop floor, and it works. The thief turns out to be an elderly customer hiding goods under an oversized coat.

Which cartoon series had Don Knotts guest-star as himself in a deputy's uniform, policing a town called Juneberry?

The New Scooby-Doo Movies gave Knotts two guest spots. In 'The Spooky Fog of Juneberry' he turns up as a Barney-style lawman to help the gang.

How did Don Knotts land the part of Barney Fife after watching the 1960 pilot for The Andy Griffith Show?

He pitched the idea by phone, calling Griffith to argue that a sheriff ought to have a deputy. Griffith agreed and sent him to producer Sheldon Leonard.

By the 1986 reunion film, Barney Fife has moved back to Mayberry and holds which job?

Acting sheriff Barney is even running for the office in his own right, until he urges Mayberry to vote for the returning Andy instead.

Andy Griffith began The Andy Griffith Show as its comic lead, then chose to play what to Don Knotts?

The straight man is the role Griffith took after the second episode, 'The Manhunt', convinced him that Knotts should be getting the laughs.

Where does Deputy Barney Fife of The Andy Griffith Show take a room whenever he goes on vacation?

The YMCA is Barney's idea of a big-city getaway, a habit first mentioned in season three's 'Andy and Opie, Bachelors'.

Stanford law professor Pamela Karlan told which body there is no 'Barney Fife defense' for careless police work?

The US Supreme Court heard the quip during arguments in Herring v. United States, a case about evidence found through police negligence.

Which holiday is celebrated in just one episode of The Andy Griffith Show, a season-one story set in the jail?

Christmas comes to Mayberry only once. A Scrooge-like store owner has a family man locked up on Christmas Eve, so Andy moves the whole celebration into the cells.

In the first episode of The Andy Griffith Show, why does the Taylors' housekeeper Rose leave them?

She gets married, and Opie refuses to accept her replacement. He relents only when he decides that Aunt Bee cannot manage without him.

On The Andy Griffith Show, how does Andy get guitarist Jim Lindsey heard by a group of touring musicians?

He arrests the band, fining Bobby Fleet's players for a string of minor infractions until they choose a day in the cells. Jim is then hauled in to play for them.

In season one of The Andy Griffith Show, Otis Campbell is honored as the descendant of a hero of which conflict?

The Revolutionary War hero Nathan Tibbs is said to have burned a bridge to turn back the enemy. Barney is crushed to learn the heir is Otis, not him.

A rumor in season one of The Andy Griffith Show turns a visiting shoe salesman into what in Mayberry's eyes?

A talent scout is who the men take him for, after Aunt Bee plants the story to prove they spread rumors too. Half the town turns up at his hotel to audition.

In 'Quiet Sam', Barney Fife suspects a secretive Mayberry farmer of crime, but what is really keeping the man at home?

A pregnant wife is Sam Becker's whole secret. The stakeout ends with Andy delivering the baby, who is named after him.

In 'The Horse Trader', what worthless town relic does Sheriff Andy Taylor sell to an antiques dealer with a tall tale?

An old cannon gets a heroic past invented on the spot. Andy feels ashamed of himself when he catches Opie copying his sharp dealing.

On The Andy Griffith Show, the elderly Morrison sisters make illegal whiskey behind what respectable business?

A flower shop is their cover in a season-one story. The sisters even tip Andy off about rival bootleggers, until Opie describes an odd machine in their hothouse.

Season-one scripts for The Andy Griffith Show credited to 'David Adler' were really by a writer hiding from what?

The blacklist had shut Frank Tarloff out of Hollywood after a congressional committee branded him a hostile witness in 1953. He later shared an Oscar for Father Goose.

How many Emmy Awards did Don Knotts win for playing Deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show?

Five Emmys went to Knotts, three as a regular and two more for guest returns after he had left. Andy Griffith never won one for the series.

How many cells does the Mayberry jail have for Sheriff Andy Taylor's prisoners on The Andy Griffith Show?

Two cells and a back room are all the lock-up there is, tucked into the same building where Andy and Barney keep their desks.

How many episodes of The Andy Griffith Show aired during its original run on CBS?

249 half-hour episodes were made. Andy Griffith is the only cast member in every one of them; Opie appears in 202 and Barney in 141.

The Andy Griffith Show never finished a season lower than which place in the yearly Nielsen ratings?

Seventh was its worst finish in the yearly rankings. Few series have matched the way it bowed out, as the most-watched program on American television.

In 'Bargain Day', Aunt Bee crams the Taylors' broken freezer with roughly how many pounds of discount beef?

150 pounds of beef start to thaw because her second-hand freezer never worked. Andy ends up buying a brand-new one.

A century-old bond in 'Mayberry Goes Bankrupt' briefly makes the town's poorest man seem to be owed about how much?

$350,000, or $349,119.27 to the penny, is what a century of interest comes to. Mayberry cannot pay, and is relieved when the bond proves worthless.

How much money is in the lost purse that Opie Taylor finds and hopes to keep in 'Opie's Fortune'?

$50 becomes Opie's after a week unclaimed. When the owner finally turns up, he breaks open his piggy bank to pay every dollar back.

How many episodes did 1971's The New Andy Griffith Show last before CBS cancelled it?

10 episodes were all it managed. The premiere drew a respectable audience, but viewers drifted away within weeks and CBS canceled the series that March.

Where did TV Guide place Barney Fife on its 1999 list of the 50 greatest TV characters of all time?

Ninth place put Mayberry's deputy inside the top ten of TV Guide's all-time greats, more than thirty years after the series ended.

Mrs. Mendelbright bans Barney Fife from using any light bulb above how many watts in her Mayberry boarding house?

40 watts is her limit, and cooking is banned too. Barney is evicted for breaking both rules, then helps save his landlady from a con man who is after her savings.

Ellie Walker comes to Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show to help which ailing relative run the family pharmacy?

Her uncle Fred is too ill to manage alone, so the newly qualified Ellie steps behind the counter and promptly clashes with a customer over the rules.

Which elected office does Ellie Walker seek on The Andy Griffith Show, setting Mayberry's men against its women?

Town council had never had a woman member. The men's efforts to stop Ellie start a battle of the sexes that ends only when Andy comes round and backs her.

The actress who played Mayberry's Ellie Walker was already famous as Betty Anderson on which 1950s sitcom?

Father Knows Best ended its run in 1960, so its grown-up Betty moved straight to Mayberry, billed in the opening credits ahead of Don Knotts.

What do Andy Taylor and Ellie Walker stage at her pharmacy to rebuild Barney Fife's confidence as a lawman?

A fake robbery goes better than planned. The man Barney collars in the confusion turns out to be genuinely wanted, which makes him a real hero.

Which newcomer to Mayberry makes Sheriff Andy Taylor fear he is about to lose Ellie Walker to a rival?

A handsome doctor rattles Andy into blurting out a proposal, only to learn that the man is already engaged. Ellie kindly lets him off the hook.

In 'Ellie Saves a Female', what does Ellie Walker give a shy farmer's daughter over her father's objections?

A beauty makeover leaves Frankie Flint so changed that her own father fails to recognize her. Andy wins him round by hinting at a future son-in-law.

In 'Irresistible Andy', Sheriff Andy Taylor wrongly convinces himself that Ellie Walker is scheming to do what?

Marry him is the plot Andy imagines after a simple invitation to the church picnic. He sends local bachelors to court Ellie instead, until Opie lets the scheme slip.

On The Andy Griffith Show, the pills Ellie Walker won't sell Emma Brand without a prescription are really what?

Plain sugar is all Emma's remedy contains. The town hypochondriac had been soothed with a placebo for years, so Ellie relents and hands the pills over.

What did Andy Griffith later blame for the lack of romantic spark between Andy Taylor and Ellie Walker?

His own awkwardness was the problem, Griffith admitted: he had a hard time showing affection on screen, which left the couple looking unconvincing.

In 'Opie's Ill-Gotten Gain', what does Andy Taylor buy Opie as a reward for a report card full of A's?

A new bicycle sits unridden in the yard, because Opie already knows something about that report card that his proud father does not.

Why does the perfect report card that thrills Andy Taylor in 'Opie's Ill-Gotten Gain' turn out to be wrong?

A grading mistake had hidden a failing mark in arithmetic. Opie cannot find the courage to tell his father, who has been boasting about him all over town.

Left to mind the phones on The Andy Griffith Show, where does Goober Pyle take apart and rebuild an entire car?

Inside the courthouse, parked in front of Andy's desk, the rebuilt car is passed off to a visiting sheriff as a lesson in road safety.

Buddy Ebsen guest-starred on The Andy Griffith Show in 1961 as what kind of bad influence on young Opie?

A hobo named David Browne charms Opie into ditching his school books to follow him to the lake, until Andy tells the drifter to keep away.

In 'Andy and Helen Have Their Day', what offense gets Andy Taylor hauled away from his picnic by a game warden?

Fishing with no license costs the sheriff a $25 fine in a neighboring town. His garbled phone call for cash convinces Barney that he and Helen are eloping.

What does mountain patriarch Briscoe Darling do when Aunt Bee turns down his courtship on The Andy Griffith Show?

Kidnaps her is the mountain answer to rejection. Andy has Aunt Bee order the Darlings to scrub their cabin until Briscoe calls the engagement off himself.

With Mayberry's jail full of bootleggers, where does Otis Campbell have to serve his time on The Andy Griffith Show?

The Taylor house proves tougher than any cell. Aunt Bee appoints herself warden and works Otis so hard at chores that he promises to stay sober.

Who holds Barney Fife and Floyd the barber hostage in a cabin outside Mayberry after their car runs out of gas?

Three escaped women convicts keep the pair as house guests, until Barney tangos ringleader Big Maude straight out of the door and into handcuffs.

Ashamed in 'Opie's Ill-Gotten Gain', young Opie Taylor leaves a note and sets off from Mayberry to do what?

Join the navy is his plan, so that he can come home once he has made his father proud again. Andy finds the note and catches up with him on the edge of town.

Colin Male, the game warden of 'Andy and Helen Have Their Day', held which regular job on The Andy Griffith Show?

Its announcer for the first five seasons, Male is the voice that reads out the stars' names over the opening credits.

Which comedian guest-starred on The Andy Griffith Show as Newton Monroe, a hapless peddler of shoddy goods?

Don Rickles plays against type as a meek salesman whose watches, radios and furs fall apart. Andy sets him painting the house to rebuild his confidence.

New state rules in 'Barney's Physical' threaten Barney Fife's badge because he falls short on which two measures?

Height and weight minimums have Aunt Bee fattening Barney up while Andy stretches him in a harness, all to get him past the examiner.