She wore the pants in Mayberry.
“I liked the Griffith show better than anything else I’ve ever done,” Joanne Moore told the Akron Beacon Journal in a late 1962 interview. “Everyone on the program is so nice. The show is well organized and there is no rush. The people discuss their problems openly and the difficulties just seem to disappear. I was shocked by the honesty on that show, but it was a refreshing kind of honesty.”
The feeling was mutual, especially with the viewers. To this day, Mayberry fans argue about which woman was better suited for Sheriff Andy. Moore’s character, the well-heeled nurse Peggy McMillan, often thumps Helen Crump (Aneta Corsaut) in these debates. Of course, Andy actually married Helen. Peggy only appeared in four mere episodes. Why? That’s a great question without an answer.
Georgia native Moore had a fascinating life filled with fortune and misfortune. Early in life, she was orphaned when her parents and sister all perished due to a car crash. Her storybook marriage (the third one, technically) quickly led to tabloid fodder and divorce.
But in Mayberry, she will forever be Peggy McMillan. Let’s take a close look at this fan-favorite.
1. She was the first woman to wear pants on The Andy Griffith Show.
Between Ellie Walker and Helen Crump, Peggy is the overlooked lover of Sheriff Andy. She does have one claim to fame, however. She was the first female character wearing pants, as seen here in “Opie’s Rival.”
2. She lost her hearing before becoming Andy’s girlfriend.
Moore continued to work throughout the 1961-62 television season despite her hearing loss. “She couldn’t hear a phone ring and a radio turned up full blast sounded like a distant, blurred noise,” wrote the Long Beach Independent Press-Telegram in July 1962. Moore would have a director tap her on the shoulder when a scene began and read lips to get through her dialogue. “It was hereditary deafness and I didn’t realize what was happening until I lost my hearing completely,” she explained. The condition is known as otosclerosis, a bone growth in the middle ear. A surgery corrected her hearing loss in the summer of ’62. After the procedure, Moore left the hospital into a busy street. A passing truck honked at her. “I was thrilled,” she recalled.
3. A role on Route 66 scarred her, literally.
In a 1962 guest role on Route 66, Moore got a gash on her leg as she got caught on a submerged rock while filming a scene in the Pacific Ocean. The injury left her with a six-inch scar.
4. She is the mother of Tatum O’Neal.
Outside of Mayberry, Moore is likely best known as the wife of Ryan O’Neal and mother of Tatum O’Neal (and, thus, step-mother to tennis great John McEnroe). Tatum, of course, would become the youngest actor to ever win an Academy Award, which she nabbed in 1974 at the age of 10 for her role in Paper Moon.
5. She was in an Elvis movie with another Mayberry resident.
The year 1962 was clearly a big comeback year for the actress. In addition to her appearances on Route 66 and The Andy Griffith Show, she had a memorable role on the big screen, opposite the one and only Elvis Presley. Moore played the seductive Alicia Claypoole in Follow That Dream. The movie also cast Howard McNear — better known as Mayberry’s
6. She had a romance with Andy Griffith behind-the-scenes, too.
According to Daniel de Visé’s insightful 2015 book Andy and Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show, “[Aneta Corsaut] wasn’t Andy’s first affair with a Griffith costar. He had told Don [Knotts] of at least one other: Joanna Moore, the Georgia beauty and future mother of Tatum O’Neal, cast in four episodes at the start of season three as a potential girlfriend for the television sheriff.” Sounds like it was more than potential.
7. She flirted with John on an episode of The Waltons.
In “The Departure,” John Walton packs a suitcase (much to Elizabeth’s dismay) and heads to the city to seek “adventure.” He lives in a boarding house overseen by Laura Sue Champion (Moore). The landlady has eyes for her new tenant, and the two share some rather innocent adult bonding. John-Boy shows up in the last act to bring dad home. Oh, and that episode was directed by Ivan Dixie, a.k.a. Kinchloe from Hogan’s Heroes!
8. Her final television role was a TV movie with Harry Morgan and Gary Coleman.
The last television audiences would see of Moore would be the 1980 Boy Scout lark Scout’s Honor. The corny flick was produced to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America. Gary Coleman, hot off Diff’rent Strokes, starred opposite Katherine Helmond, who plays a reluctant den mother. Classic TV lovers will be interested to find both Harry Morgan and Joanna Moore in small roles.
