No doubt, it can be difficult to leave a group like that behind after so much time, but thankfully, Andy Griffith was onto something when he said he’d be back down the road. See, the series finale, “Mayberry R.F.D.” (R.F.D. stands for “Rural Free Delivery”), was titled as such because it was meant to be a backdoor pilot for an Andy Griffith Show spin-off. The famed CBS series had already spun off before with Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (which starred Jim Nabors as Goober’s cousin Gomer, yes, the namesake of that Full Metal Jacket nickname), so ending the show with yet another series was an exciting prospect. Although many would’ve likely wanted to see Andy and Opie’s adventures continue into a new show, Sam and Mike were solid placeholders for the town of Mayberry.
Mayberry R.F.D. aired only five months after The Andy Griffith Show ended, centering on Sam Jones and his family. Strangely absent from the series was the Vincente family, who had been such a big part of the series finale that we thought they would be a shoo-in for the spin-off, but evidently, it proved too tiresome to bring them back to town. However, returning characters included Aunt Bee, Goober, Howard, and other Mayberry favorites, which helped make Mayberry R.F.D. feel like more of the same. In many ways, the Sam Jones-centered show was more of a sequel series than a traditional spin-off like Gomer Pyle, and that was to its benefit. Still centering the story in Mayberry helped bring in fans of the original series, and bringing back old-time favorites certainly didn’t hurt.
But no matter how much it wanted to be, Mayberry R.F.D. wasn’t The Andy Griffith Show. Sure, Andy Griffith returned as Andy Taylor in a handful of appearances in the first season (and only once more thereafter), but he and Opie were no longer the central focus of the town’s happenings. Bringing back cast members from the original series may have helped get Mayberry R.F.D. off the ground, but it also prevented the show from finding its own identity apart from the original. Of course, the series was successful in the ratings for its first two years, though it was ultimately canceled after its third season as another victim of CBS’s infamous “rural purge.” After that, we didn’t see much of Andy Taylor or his friends again. But what happened to Andy following The Andy Griffith Show?
In the premiere episode of Mayberry R.F.D., after dancing around it for years, Andy and Helen finally get married. That’s right. Rather than end The Andy Griffith Show with a wedding, the writers opted to push audiences to the spin-off to see what happened next. Aptly titled “Andy and Helen Get Married,” the premiere brought back all the familiar faces who returned for the Mayberry continuation, as well as Ron Howard’s Opie and even Don Knotts, who returned as Barney to celebrate his friend’s happiness after an extended absence. While Andy and Helen’s marriage is the event the episode centers around, the episode is really more about Aunt Bee after Sam tries to convince her to live with him and Mike on the farm, an offer she decides to take up by the end.
