60 years of Mayberry
Anniversaries are very special, and they mark important events in our lives. On August 1, my wife and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our celebration was tranquil with little fanfare.
October 3, 2020, marks another exciting milestone. It was 60 years ago on October 3 when The Andy Griffith Show
first aired on national television. Little did the producers and writers of that iconic show realize that Mayberry’s quintessential fictitious town would endure in viewers’ hearts for the next 60 years. Mayberry was similar to many small rural communities found throughout the United States. So the storylines were based on the problems and events of small-town life. Of course, the most crucial element of the program dealt with the day to day life of Sheriff Andy Taylor and Deputy Barney Fife. Over the years, viewers came to love the bumbling antics of Barney Fife and the common sense approach to small-town law enforcement, as demonstrated by Sheriff Andy Taylor.
T he writers of The Andy Griffith Show made sure that each episode included a vital life lesson. The stories centered around problems such as raising young Opie without a mother, gossip by both the men and women of Mayberry, jealousies, and romances gone wrong. But perhaps the most important stories were about the eternal friendship between Andy and Barney.
The Andy Griffith Show aired during the challenging decade of the 1960s. Our country was dealing with the assassinations of President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. There was racial unrest and the Vietnam War. People needed a distraction.
For eight years, The Andy Griffith Show gave Americans a wonderful distraction from America’s hate and violence. Sadly, we are once again going through some challenging times. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and great political divisiveness, Americans once again are searching for positive distractions. Maybe, just maybe, The Andy Griffith Show can once again be that much-needed distraction.
Fortunately, The Andy Griffith Show has continuously been on the air since its debut back in 1960. So that means people of all ages can still enjoy the wholesome and humorous antics of Mayberry. And, who knows? It may even allow you to forget all about the pandemic and politics, and it might even lower your blood pressure.
Ken Anderson, the “Mayberry Guru,” can be reached at themayberryguru@gmail.com and www.themayberryguru. com
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G UEST
KEN ANDERSON “THE MAYBERRY GURU”
