The Andy Griffith Show

The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom television series. The series won no awards, but it was very popular in its day. It was #1 in its final year on the air.

Cast
Andy Griffith as Sheriff Andy Taylor
Don Knotts as Deputy Barney Fife
Ron Howard as Andy's son Opie
Frances Bavier as Andy's aunt and housekeeper Aunt Bee
Elinor Donahue as Andy's girlfriend and drug store owner Ellie Walker
Jim Nabors as garage mechanic Gomer Pyle
Howard McNear as town barber Floyd Lawson
Aneta Corsaut as Andy's girlfriend and Opie's schoolteacher Helen Crump
Betty Lynn as Barney's girlfriend Thelma Lou
Hope Summers as Aunt Bee's friend Clara Edwards
Jack Dodson as county clerk Howard Sprague
George Lindsey as Gomer's cousin Goober Pyle

Story
The series is about a sheriff in fictional Mayberry, North Carolina, a friendly, backward town with colorful characters. Andy is a widower with a young son named Opie. His paternal Aunt Bee, lives with them and maintains the home. Andy's friend/cousin (or cousin-in-law), Barney is his oddball deputy/ sidekick.

Production
The show aired on CBS between October 3, 1960 and April 1, 1968. Griffith, Howard, and Bavier were introduced in an episode of The Danny Thomas Show. The show transitioned to color with the sixth season. The broad, cornball comedy was toned-down and the show was allowed to touch on serious themes.

Awards
Don Knotts and Frances Bavier won a combined total of six Emmy Awards. Knotts left the show at the end of its fifth black and white season.

Spinoffs
The series had two spin-off shows and one spin-off movie:
Mayberry R.F.D., a sitcom series starring Ken Berry as Sam Jones, a councilman and farmer, and featured most of the characters from The Andy Griffith Show
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. with filling station worker Gomer (Jim Nabors) becoming a Marine
Return to Mayberry, a 1986 NBC TV movie that reunited most of the cast members from the show

Category:1960s police television series
Category:1960s American sitcoms
Category:1960 American television series debuts
Category:1968 American television series endings
Category:American English-language television shows
Category:American television series about families
Category:American television spin-offs
Category:Black and white American television series
Category:Columbia Broadcasting System original programming
Category:American police television series
Category:Television series adapted into comics
Category:Television series about widowhood
Category:Television series by CBS Studios
Category:Television series set in North Carolina