mayberry trivia (4CE reprint, June 2010)

10 things you didn’t know about Mayberry

(1) The name game...In Mayberry people's names change around a lot. Take Aunt Bee's best friend, played by actress Hope Summers. In the first season she's Bertha Edwards, in the 2nd season she's Clara Johnson, then in later seasons she's Clara Edwards. (She has an unseen son Gale and a sister in Saberton, West Virginia...the once-mentioned "Flora Edwards" perhaps?) Barber Floyd Lawson is first called Floyd Colby. Millie Swanson is introduced as Millie Hutchins. Barney has at various times 3 different middle names: Oliver, P., and Milton. Andy has 2: Jackson and Samuel.

And on and on...when Opie got older, he had girlfriends named Sharon McCall, Sharon Porter, Karen Burgess, Karen Folker, and Ethel: all played by the same actress, Rhonda Jeter! The most famous is Goober Pyle, who is once referred to as Goober Beasley. Here's a quiz for genealogy buffs: Goober and Gomer are cousins (first cousins?), both named Pyle, so you'd assume they're related through their fathers, but how could they be cousins only on their mothers' side instead?

(2) Weirdest cross-over in TV history...A cross-over is when characters from one series appear on another. Remember Napoleon and Illya on "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" from my column a couple months ago? Now several Mayberrians appeared on "Gomer Pyle USMC," many characters spilled over into "Mayberry RFD," and Barney Fife was once on "The Joey Bishop Show," the sitcom, not the talk-show. But then...

After leaving his series in 1968, Andy returned to TV with "The Headmaster" in 1970, about a private school in California. It sunk quickly in the ratings, and was replaced by "The New Andy Griffith show." Now Andy was back in the Tar Heel State, as Mayor of Greenwood, and in the first episode, Goober and Emmett visit him from Mayberry, as does Barney from Raleigh, in his salt-and-pepper suit and sporting mod side-burns. And of course they're all happy to see each other, old friends, etc. Trouble is, Andy Griffith is playing a completely different character! He's now Andy Sawyer, married to Lee Meriwether as Lee (not Helen), with a son T.J. and a daughter Lori. Anyway, 12 episodes and out. That summer, CBS chose to air reruns of "The Headmaster." (BTW, the theme song is sung by Linda Ronstadt!)

(3) Herpes? In Mayberry? Yes, but not THAT kind, for heaven's sakes. The other kind, the blisters you get on your lips. When Andy breaks up with Nurse Peggy (this is before Helen Crump came along), Barney tries to fix him up. One prospective date is Lydia Crosswaithe, but she's a real wet blanket, throwing cold water on every idea they suggest for an outing. A picnic is out because, as she says, "When I go out into the sun, I get the herpes."

(4) Muslims in Mayberry? You'd be surprised. When Jennifer and Clarabelle Morrison sell their moonshine "elixir" only for special occasions, Lars Hansen buys a jar to celebrate Muhammad's birthday. Says one of the sisters, "I could of sworn he was a Lutheran."

(5) Blacks in Mayberry? They are seen in the background and in crowd scenes more frequently than is commonly thought. This website has many screen captures: bookguy.com/Mayberry/BlacksInMayberry.htm. But only Rockne Tarkington had a speaking role, playing Flip Conroy, an ex-football player who returns to Mayberry to run his father's business and coach Opie's team.

(6) Marijuana in Mayberry? Strange but true. In a first season episode, Barney wonders what newly arrived farmer Sam Becker (played by William Schallert, the dad on "Patty Duke Show") is growing up on his farm. Says Andy: "This time of year? Barley or lima beans." Barney says "And/or." Andy: "And/or?" Barney: "And/or marijuana or some other illegal crop." Well I'll be flat dogged. That's far out.

(7) Did you know the mayor's office is in the courthouse, upstairs from the jail? It's specifically mentioned in several episodes, including the one about the goat that ate dynamite. But you'll notice there doesn't seem to be a stairway leading up to it from the ground floor. A separate entrance? Sure enough, it's along the street-side corner of the courthouse: Andy and Ellie come out this door after meeting in the mayor's office to plan the Miss Mayberry Pageant. Check out a cool blueprint at mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/anewsome/private/courthouseblueprint.htm, which shows how to get upstairs, and also speculates as to where the restroom is!

(8) Did you know Andy and Barney are cousins? It's mentioned exactly 3 times in the first season, episodes 1, 2, and 6, then never again, to the point where, when their respective families come up in conversation, they talk as if they are completely unrelated. TV fans call this a "retcon," short for retroactive continuity; not an accidental inconsistency, but a definite change in the "back story." Like when Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker were 2 people in the original movie, then in the next movie they were the same person.

The first time they're cousins, it's for the punch-line of a nepotism joke about how Barn got the deputy's job. My take is they're distant cousins, 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th, and the significance of that kinship fades over time, in comparison to their friendship since childhood and close working relationship as adults. (The game, sometimes called "fan-logic," is to treat these inconsistancies as if they are absolutely true, and then figure out how to explain them. The "real" explanation is: the writers didn't pay that close attention!)

(9) Even stranger, Andy and Thelma Lou might be related. They both have cousins with the same last names. Hers are Karen Moore and Mary Grace Gossage. His are Evin Moore (from Asheville ) and Ollie Gossage (from Raleigh), whom Ernest T. Bass impersonates in the lonely hearts dance episode. Someday I plan to start a Mayberry Genealogical Society blog and hash all this out. There's lots more, believe me.

(10) But strangest of all...Beatrice Taylor isn't really Andy Taylor's aunt! And there's incontrovertible proof, right on the show! So how ARE they related? Well, that's a topic for a whole other column...something to look forward to.

Quiz Answer: Their mothers could be sisters...let's call them Hilda Sue and Tommie Mae Beasley. And they both married men named Pyle, who weren't related to each other!...Till next time, Stolf says "Hey"...and rock on!


P.S. If you like old commercial jingles (and/or you just miss Cool Daddy and Stolf), check out stolfpod.podbean.com. And if you know anybody looking for a full- or part-time radio jock, direct them to home.rr.com/mastolfi. "It's goooooood. I 'preciate it, and good night."