Today in Television History: On this day in 1960, “The Andy Griffith Show" began airing on CBS.

It ran four eight seasons and 249 episodes came starring Andy Griffith, Ronny Howard, Dob Knotts, Frances Bavier, Jim Nabors, and George Lindsey. The series originated partly from an episode of The Danny Thomas Show.

The Show follows Andy Taylor, a widower sheriff of the small, sleepy North Carolina town of Mayberry. Andy and son Opie live with Aunt Bee, who takes care of the family.

Andy's deputy is his bumbling but neurotically hilarious cousin, Barney Fife. Among Andy's Mayberry friends is the town's resident barber, Floyd.

The series never placed lower than seventh in the Nielsen ratings, ending its final season at number one.

The only other shows to end their runs at the top of the ratings are I Love Lucy (1957) and Seinfeld (1998). The series spawned its own spin-off-- Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (1964-1969) and a reunion telemovie, Return to Mayberry (1986).

After the eighth season, when Griffith left the series, it was retitled Mayberry, R.F.D., with Ken Berry and Buddy Foster replacing Griffith and Howard in new roles alongside the return of recurring characters of Howard Strague, Goober Lindsey, and Emmett Clark.

Comments

A great story about a little bit of 'humanity' during a terrible war.

A great story about a little bit of 'humanity' during a terrible war. In April 1945, 2nd Lt. Peter During was a South African fighter pilot (N.7 Squadron) running missions over Italy when his Spitfire was shot down by German AA fire. He managed to crash land his plane behind enemy lines where he was immediately captured. Whilst been escorted to a German Lufwaffe Prisoner of War (POW) camp (he was a pilot and thus his interrogation and imprisonment was the responsibility of the German airforce), he opened a conversation with his captors. He was quickly able to establish that they could already see the writing on the wall, that the war was at an end and Germany would lose it. ...

French woman accused of sleeping with Germans during the occupation has her head shaved by vindictive neighbors in village near Marseilles.

French woman accused of sleeping with Germans during the occupation has her head shaved by vindictive neighbors in village near Marseilles. Antony Beevor wrote: "... In Paris, there were cases of prostitutes kicked to death for having accepted German soldiers as clients. (...) A large number of the victims were prostitutes who had simply plied their trade with Germans as well as Frenchmen, although in some areas it was accepted that their conduct was professional rather than political, others were silly teenagers who had associated with German soldiers out of bravado or boredom. In a number of cases, female schoolteachers who, living alone, had German soldiers billeted on them, were falsely denounced for having been a "mattress for the boches. (...) Women accused of having had an abortion were also assumed to have consorted with Germans. Many victims were young mothers, whose husbands were in German prisoner-of-war camps. During the war, they often had no means of supp...

US executes first woman Lisa Montgomery on federal death row in nearly 70 years.

US executes first woman Lisa Montgomery on federal death row in nearly 70 years. Montgomery was the first female prisoner to be executed in by the US government since 1953. Montgomery, 52, was put to death by lethal injection of pentobarbital. The US government executed convicted murderer Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, on Wednesday, after the Supreme Court cleared the last hurdle by overturning a stay. Challenges were fought across multiple federal courts on whether to allow the execution of Montgomery, 52, who was put to death by lethal injection of pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate in the Justice Department`s execution chamber at its prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. The U.S. Supreme Court, with its conservative majority, cleared the way for her execution after overturning a stay by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Kelley Henry, Montgomery`s lawyer, called the execution "vicious, unlawful, and unnecessary exercise of authoritarian power." ...

WORLD OF ALL

Search This Blog