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Posted: 2/1/2023 4:12:24 PM EDT
[#1]
My Mom grew up in a small town in the Florida panhandle that was very Mayberryish.
She and her siblings were very poor , being raised by their Grandparents, the town took care of them . All three graduated college. My great Grandfather lived in a house rented from the town banker for $40 a month until he died in the late sixties, next door to the banker’s big house. After he died, the house was bulldozed and the bankers yard got bigger. My mother received free piano lessons, and her piano teacher paid her college tuition if she agreed to become a music teacher, which she did . Mrs. Blair’s Legacy, passing on the gift of music. My uncle returned after college to become the town high school’s State champion basketball coach, retiring as the Principal. My Aunt retired as a neighboring towns High School librarian. I never heard tell of crime, or bad things happening there. I’m sure it did, but it wasn’t much. Very much like Mayberry when I visited as a child in the sixties, everyone knew each other and waved on the street. |
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Posted: 2/1/2023 4:22:44 PM EDT
[#2]
Sit-coms were never about being funny, they were/are didactic. That's the draw, they present a situation and then tell you what to think about it. Of course there was always a social agenda.
Early television had a profound effect socially, you can say it's aspirational and that's certainly often true but giving whole generations of people the same aspirations and expectations had consequences, especially since we were going through profound social changes anyway. The generation that grew up on black-and-white television tends to like the good guys to wear white hats, the bad guys to wear black hats, and the white hats to always prevail, and that's fine, but it isn't at all how the world actually works. I think every generation gets nostalgic for the time before they'd learned enough about the world to recognize they were being protected from it's reality. |
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Posted: 2/1/2023 4:32:23 PM EDT
[#3]
Quote HistoryQuoted: My Mom grew up in a small town in the Florida panhandle that was very Mayberryish. She and her siblings were very poor , being raised by their Grandparents, the town took care of them . All three graduated college. My great Grandfather lived in a house rented from the town banker for $40 a month until he died in the late sixties, next door to the banker’s big house. After he died, the house was bulldozed and the bankers yard got bigger. My mother received free piano lessons, and her piano teacher paid her college tuition if she agreed to become a music teacher, which she did . Mrs. Blair’s Legacy, passing on the gift of music. My uncle returned after college to become the town high school’s State champion basketball coach, retiring as the Principal. My Aunt retired as a neighboring towns High School librarian. I never heard tell of crime, or bad things happening there. I’m sure it did, but it wasn’t much. Very much like Mayberry when I visited as a child in the sixties, everyone knew each other and waved on the street. My first boss was about 5'11", and probably weighed an easy 300 pounds. He got a scholarship to play football at the University of Alabama, and his little town chipped in to buy him a beater to get there and back. He played on the line with Bart Starr as QB. |
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Posted: 2/1/2023 4:32:49 PM EDT
[#4]
In the modern world, we make the mistake of idealizing the real.
we should work to realize the ideal. Mayberry was the ideal small American town. Let us work to achieve it. |
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Posted: 2/1/2023 4:37:17 PM EDT
[#5]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Sit-coms were never about being funny, they were/are didactic. That's the draw, they present a situation and then tell you what to think about it. Of course there was always a social agenda. Early television had a profound effect socially, you can say it's aspirational and that's certainly often true but giving whole generations of people the same aspirations and expectations had consequences, especially since we were going through profound social changes anyway. The generation that grew up on black-and-white television tends to like the good guys to wear white hats, the bad guys to wear black hats, and the white hats to always prevail, and that's fine, but it isn't at all how the world actually works. I think every generation gets nostalgic for the time before they'd learned enough about the world to recognize they were being protected from it's reality. Culture changes with time, and that has real impact.  1940-1964 was a relatively nice time in America. Actually, recently ~2000--2013 was as well (this was brought to an end by BLM and their enablers). The pre-1900s were even better. Homicide rate is a good proxy for how well a society behaves. |
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Posted: 2/1/2023 4:51:21 PM EDT
[#6]
Andy Griffith show reminds me of my dad's hometown in central Alabama, as I remember it as a child. My grandfather was the town Police Chief just before WW2, and then got into construction after the war. Everyone knew everyone, and got along well. Sure, gossip, busybodies, etc., but still a nice place. Probably because of that, I prefer small towns way over bigger ones and cities, mostly due to the people.
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Posted: 2/1/2023 5:04:35 PM EDT
[#7]
Ernest T Bass is one of my all time favorite TV characters...
 Earnest T Bass serenades Charlene Darling Andy Griffith  Instructional Flagging Video (updated) Triva: Howard Morris who portrayed the character directed several episodes of the Andy Griffith show. When they were casting for the role of Ernest T, Morris attempted to show the actors how he wanted the character portrayed. None of them were to his satisfaction so he ended up playing the role himself. Ernest T only appeared 5 times during the shows run |
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Posted: 2/1/2023 5:08:19 PM EDT
[#8]
Murder, rape, arson, kidnapping were all more prevalent back then. Good times.
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Posted: 2/1/2023 6:40:16 PM EDT
[#9]
I grew up in small town NC in the 50's & 60's
It was like but not like Mayberry We didn't have Barney  And to the poster who asked if there were any black people on the show? As far as I can remember I saw just one. A lady walking down the street, dressed just like the white ladies. Wearing a dress, hat, carrying a purse on her wrist and I think wearing gloves |
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Posted: 2/1/2023 7:07:38 PM EDT
[#10]
I was born in Sanford NC a smaller town and slightly south or Mt Airy this is in the late 1950’s.
We lived there until I was 5 but we went back every summer to stay with my grandma who had a Hugh house overlooking Main St. Very hot down that way. From my recollection it was indeed the utopia as shown. Racing was big, I remember somebody in Sanford was a known driver. |
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Posted: 2/1/2023 7:16:47 PM EDT
[#11]
They had good music.
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Posted: 2/1/2023 7:34:18 PM EDT
[#12]
I just put locks on our doors last week. Wife says, "what are those for?" Kids were pissed they couldn't get in.
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Posted: 2/1/2023 8:10:01 PM EDT
[#13]
From the stories my dad tells of the 50's in little town NWGA the real thing was better than Mayberry. My dad spent the first 10 years of his life living in the house he was born in and hanging out at his father's general store. It was the gathering place for old men and where all the lies and life stories were told.
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Posted: 2/1/2023 8:23:03 PM EDT
[#14]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Yes it was a lie. It projected America as the producers wanted Americans to view itself. There were other shows that depicted the ideal American middle class family where only the father worked, the mother stayed at home raising the kids in a very nice middle class home. Leave it to Beaver, Dennis the Menace come to mind. Someone already mentioned single parent families and there were a lot of shows in the '50s and especially the '60s showing how happy and functional they were. This would include The Rifleman, The Beverly Hill Billies, Flipper, Bonanza, My Three Sons, etc. Today its not single parent family inasmuch its grooming for kids to be ghey. Modern TV shows tend to have young folks who have a nice apartment filled with the most modern of sh*t. No college loan or struggling to make credit card payments. Actually I don't know what modern shows have since I haven't watched TV in decades.  What happened was: 1) Americans fell sucker to chasing the dollar. All of a sudden the "average" home wasn't good enough. The "average" car wasn't good enough. The "average" vacation wasn't good enough. All these indulgences were not really feasable on a single income household so the lady of the house had to get a job. Which led to: 2) The empowerment and eventual dominance of the female in our society. We are enjoying the consequences now. |
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Posted: 2/1/2023 8:25:06 PM EDT
[#15]
Lol! Yes it existed. It still does. My town was the same until very recently when drugs started coming in. Those people are maintained pretty good though, so we are still pretty much Mayberry.
We do have more californians comijg in tho. With the drugs and big ideas. Ugh. |
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Posted: 2/1/2023 8:29:20 PM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Rural living is so terrible and Mayberry RFD failed to capture the absolute heinous suffering that happens endlessly. FYI - Mayberry RFD was a spin off/continuation of the original Andy Griffith show. It didn't last. There were small towns like that around me up until the 80's and 90's. The sheriff around here didn't carry a gun either in the early to mid 2000's. |
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Posted: 2/1/2023 8:30:35 PM EDT
[#17]
There are still plenty of places like this today.
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Posted: 2/1/2023 8:31:16 PM EDT
[#18]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I don't know, but I do love the pork chop sandwich from The Snappy Lunch. Thirsty Souls kicks Snappy Lunch in the ‘nards. |
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Posted: 2/1/2023 8:33:36 PM EDT
[#19]
My grandmother lived in a small Central Louisiana town, population less than 1800, and it was just like that. No one locked doors at night, not even when leaving for a few days. She kept her keys in the car ignition and no crime. She paid a guy 50 cents to cut her yard and then fed him lunch when he was done.
Everyone looked out for everyone. Spending summers there in the 60's and early 70's was fantastic. If you had extra cucumbers and tomatoes from your garden, you brought them to the neighbors, same went for eggs and other supplies. Her house had no air conditioning and the only thing to be concerned with coming thru the window at night were her cats |
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Posted: 2/1/2023 8:34:57 PM EDT
[#20]
It was the first show starring an openly gay couple.
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Posted: 2/1/2023 8:48:50 PM EDT
[#21]
Quote HistoryQuoted: When has any sitcom been realistic? Absolutely! Three's Company was spot-on real!!!!!
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Posted: 2/1/2023 8:49:16 PM EDT
[#22]
Quote HistoryQuoted: true story: in a intro/anthropology freshman college class, the professor was talking about how everyone aspires to a higher class. this black girl there was *adamant* that wasnt the case. while I guess she was right after all, I wondered what she was even doing in college. Are you intimating the entire trailer park has aspirations? She was right. And just more in touch than others |
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Posted: 2/1/2023 8:52:26 PM EDT
[#23]
Quote HistoryQuoted: America was a better place when it was still a majority white country. There, I said it. Let's talk through that, I think you are missing the real problem, but you aren't far off. The white country pretty much killed off the Indians, imported the negros then let white women vote. They used pussy to sway the weak among the white males to vote their way. Heart strings liberals. They voted to open the border which further changed the dynamics. It may have been better in tht good old days, but the white men who let women vote have nobody to blame but themselves. The, I said that. |
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Posted: 2/1/2023 8:53:12 PM EDT
[#24]
Quote HistoryQuoted: It was the first show starring an openly gay couple. Who's that? |
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Posted: 2/1/2023 8:56:05 PM EDT
[#25]
I know y'all didn't ask about Mayberry or Mount Airy as is the real name of the fictional town that claims the fame.
Then as is now it wasn't what the tv show portrayed. It's a nice place to visit but don't think it's "Mayberry." The pork chop sandwich at Snappys is good. Anymore it's a tourist trap living off the TV show and "better times." Odell's has better burgers and dogs (cash only.) Not sure who's running "Floyd's" now, but you would be better served if you want a haircut getting Bill at the Palace to do it. Better be early. Most of the so called local stuff isnt. It's generally made elsewhere as was the TV show. The lady that played Thelma Lou moved to the area near my family and was robbed. https://www.charlotteobserver.com/entertainment/article9035891.html If anyone is curious about visiting I can give some tips if you PM. It's just an old factory town with similar crime rates. The tv show didn't show that part. Most folks will be decent to you |
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Posted: 2/1/2023 9:06:08 PM EDT
[#26]
I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s in a very small Iowa town, Mallard. It was a lot like Mayberry.
--Our town Marshall was Charlie Prochaska. He rarely carried a firearm. --Luella Kress ran the movie theatre. It was $.10 for kids and $.25 for adults. --Leroy Overstreet ran the weekly town paper. --Swede Duis and his wife, Darlene, ran one of 3 town taverns. Roy Orbison's "Pretty Lady" was always playing on the juke box, well into the 1970s. --Ella Conway ran the drug store. She was one of the first women, to be an Iowa pharmacist. She and her husband also owned the town lumber store. --The Schultz Brothers ran the grocery store/meat market. We kids, would watch them shoot and butcher hogs and cattle. -- George Keeney was the town Doctor. Yes, a Doctor in a town of 400 people. --Pete Forry was the town blacksmith. He was also a WWII army veteran, who fought at Remagen. --The local banker was a wino. I could go on............................ |
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Posted: 2/1/2023 9:10:33 PM EDT
[#27]
Quote HistoryQuoted: i think some was exaggerated but there is no doubt life was simpler / less dangerous / less confrontational think about it -- Elvis was a scandal because he wanted to shake his hips. shake his hips on TV. absolutely floored people at the time.  but then again -- Jerry lee Lewis married his 13 yr old cousin. so there's that... To some degree, it only felt safer. Rape went unreported because of shame. Chomos and pedos, if they got caught at all, got quietly run out of town to "be somebody else's problem" and "spare the family/child the trauma of a trial." And they could just do it over and over. Various kinds of perverts and weirdos kept it hidden better, and flew under the radar. The media didn't sensationalize certain kinds of crime, or report it widely outside the area, so people didn't think there was a candy-van on every corner ready to snatch kids on the sidewalk. The police had a lot more leeway for extra-judicial punishment, which probably had some crime suppression impact. Along with whoever got roughed up unfairly too. The violent crime rate peak in the 1990s was probably a combination of the last of the baby-boomers cohort plus the oldest gen-X'er males, aged about 15-35 overlapping in "prime crime" years, and the "War on Drugs" creating economic incentives for violence. Just like Prohibition did for alcohol in the 20's & 30's. And in the 50s & 60s, post-WWII, America was on top, the main nation that didn't take any significant damage in the war and needed rebuilding, or was removed from the world economy behind the Iron Curtain. Someone could afford a house, car, and a family on one income with just a high-school diploma and a factory job. So it was a mixed bag. It was better. Bad stuff was also just covered up or ignored because some crime was just too taboo to acknowledge. Freaks flew below the radar, making them offend less, but get away with it more too. The modern 24/7 cable news & Internet didn't exist making people subconsciously believe there's more crime/danger than there was. And in the 50's & early 60's the huge demographic swell that fueled the peak violent crime rate of the early 90's was sill kids or not yet born. |
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Posted: 2/2/2023 11:49:34 AM EDT
[#28]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The small towns in pre Disney Central Florida were all pretty much like Mayberry. |
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Posted: 2/2/2023 11:50:48 AM EDT
[#29]
Quote HistoryQuoted: America was a better place when it was still a majority white country. There, I said it.  Attached File |
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Posted: 2/2/2023 11:53:07 AM EDT
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: America was a better place when it was still a majority white country. There, I said it. It was at least a better country when immigrants assimilated to the American way. Now we are expected to cater to their customs and values. |
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Posted: 2/2/2023 11:56:49 AM EDT
[#31]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The secret to everyone’s happiness on The Andy Griffith Show is no one was married. All of the main characters were single and they were all happy. The only married character was Otis and he was the town drunk. Yep.... Total fiction..... |
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Posted: 2/2/2023 12:01:11 PM EDT
[#32]
Quote HistoryEvidence for my post on page 1. Haha, look how primitive and comical those rustics in flyover country are. How provincial. |
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Posted: 2/2/2023 12:05:24 PM EDT
[#33]
I remember seeing the opening credits thinking it was a fishing show. So yes, it was a lie.
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Posted: 2/2/2023 12:07:17 PM EDT
[#34]
Quote HistoryQuoted: there's a concept called F-I-C-T-I-O-N sometime in the last 10-15 years the idea has set in that works of fiction are to be judged by whether or not they are factual or not. it's a fucking stupid idea did you know that Gilligan's Island doesn't actually depict life on a deserted island in the Pacific?  Does this mean I'll never locate the Klingon embassy? Damn the luck! |
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Posted: 2/2/2023 12:08:04 PM EDT
[#35]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I remember seeing the opening credits thinking it was a fishing show. So yes, it was a lie. Well, they did fish a lot........ |
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Posted: 2/2/2023 12:12:02 PM EDT
[#36]
Not too far from the reality of small, rural towns in Georgia in the late 50s and early 60s.
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Posted: 2/2/2023 12:15:13 PM EDT
[#37]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Not too far from the reality of small, rural towns in Georgia in the late 50s and early 60s. Yeah ,same with the midwest. Our local police chief used to be called the 'town marshall". He wore bib overalls with a badge on it. Sometimes he carried a revolver in them, sometimes he didn't. Everyone called him "pappy'. I don't know what his first name was, Pappy Rudd is what everone knew him as. |
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Posted: 2/2/2023 12:19:29 PM EDT
[#38]
My mom is from a small town in NC that the show referred to as a bigger town that was special to go to.
Aunt Bee lived down the street from my aunt and we went to see her one time. It was a dying town in the 70’s. Typical story of mills closing… I’m not sure my mom was all too fond of it and left to be a Navy nurse. On the other hand, my dad was from a small Ohio town that he dearly loved. Everyone in town knew each other. In WWII he would run into people from that small town throughout his travels. They looked out for each other like family. He wrote stories about these encounters. A few years ago, one friend from that town made a special trip to visit him. At his funeral there was a beautiful flower arrangement from his 5 surviving high school class mates. He left that town at 17 and only returned for brief visits, yet he never left it in his heart. |
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Posted: 2/2/2023 12:20:35 PM EDT
[#39]
MGTOW Paradise?
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Posted: 2/2/2023 12:22:03 PM EDT
[#40]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Who's that? Otis and Floyd the barber. I'm not 100% certain about Otis, but there's no way you can convince me that Floyd wasn't queer as fuck. Ohhh yeah, and Gomer too. Everyone in Mayberry knew about it and would gossip about his sexual preferences and perversions all the time. That's why he joined the Marines before the whole town was going to string him up from a lamp post when it was discovered he was diddling Opie behind the gas station. |
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Posted: 2/2/2023 12:24:42 PM EDT
[#41]
Quote HistoryAndy was a widower, Floyd had a son, so he was probably a widower, Claira was a widow, pretty sure Sam was a widower as he had children. Except in the case of Andy and Claira, it is not known for sure, but divorce was sort of taboo at the time, so I would guess that would be the implications. |
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Posted: 2/2/2023 12:45:57 PM EDT
[#42]
Even living outside DC we walked to elementary school, rode bikes until the street lights came on, etc. Depicted a bygone era, but not inaccurate for small town America.
Leave it to Beaver, Flipper, Lassie etc also depicted a simpler time. |
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Posted: 2/2/2023 1:32:53 PM EDT
[#43]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Its fiction. Growing up, many of us were unaware of what was going on around us. Alcoholism, spousal abuse, prescription drug abuse, adultery, racism, homosexuality, teen pregnancy, whatever. The show appeals to our child like and romantic view of the past. Like American Graffiti/Happy Days. Its this idealized view. Same, same with most westerns. They show us Little House on the Prairie, not white woman savagely raped by drunk drifters, or incest on the farm. That's the next Friday night lineup on ABC |
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Posted: 2/2/2023 1:35:40 PM EDT
[#44]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Went to Jr High and Sr High in a small north central WI farm town. In the late 50's and early 60's Mayberry values were pretty much our town's values. I spent a weekend in Polar WI a few years back and it was perhaps the safest small town I ever been to. Everyone was friendly |
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Posted: 2/2/2023 1:37:47 PM EDT
[#45]
Andy was a card carrying commie... Fuck him
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Posted: 2/2/2023 1:37:48 PM EDT
[#46]
It came in a box. Packaged
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Posted: 2/2/2023 1:38:16 PM EDT
[#47]
Quote HistoryQuoted: When has any sitcom been realistic? This.. It was a TV show, not a documentary. |
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Posted: 2/2/2023 1:42:49 PM EDT
[#48]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I'm pretty sure it was a documentary just like Mork and Mindy, and Good Times. Good Times was fake. The Jefferson’s was real though. Moving on up! |
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Posted: 2/2/2023 1:45:22 PM EDT
[#49]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Thirsty Souls kicks Snappy Lunch in the ‘nards. |
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Posted: 2/2/2023 1:49:52 PM EDT
[#50]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The secret to everyone’s happiness on The Andy Griffith Show is no one was married. All of the main characters were single and they were all happy. The only married character was Otis and he was the town drunk. Where do you think they got the idea for this music video?  NSFW Language.  Peaches - Fuck the Pain Away |
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