If I'm preaching to an already-knowing choir, please bear with me.
I downloaded a copy of the Make Room for Daddy episode(Danny Thomas Show) that was basically the pilot episode for the character Andy Taylor and the town of Mayberry. For those of you who haven't seen it, I'd like to share some of the storyline and characters: . The episode is titled Danny Meets Andy Griffith; the air date was 2-15-60. This was the 7th season of Make Room for Daddy (it aired for 11 seasons, 1953-64.) . Sheriff Andy Taylor arrests Danny for running a stop sign and brings him into the town of Mayberry. . The setting for Mayberry is simple: main street, courthouse and a couple of shops. It is not the same Mayberry set we all know so well. The interior of the jail is not at all like TAGS set. . Frank Cady (Sam Drucker of Green Acres), appeared as Will Hoople, the town drunk. His character was similar to Otis Campbell's. Frank, BTW, is still with us, age 92. Andy tells Danny that Will has been the town drunk since his father died. You see, his father held the position as town drunk up until his death and then son Will then took it over. . Danny finds that Andy Taylor is not only sheriff but also Justice of the Peace and editor of the Mayberry Gazette. . Danny uses the phone and Andy tell him the operator's name is Sarah. . While talking to his agent on the phone, Danny refers to Andy as "an imitation Wyatt Earp" and "a backwoods racketeer with a badge" because Andy increased his traffic fine to $100. Danny chooses to stay in jail rather than pay the fine. . Ron Howard appears as Andy's son, Opie. Opie enters the scene crying. His pet turtle (Wilfred) has been stepped on and "murdered" by Mrs. Boliver. Andy consoles him, saying that you have to "live with life's sorrows" and that he learned that when Opie "was a little bitty speck of a baby when I lost your Maw." Opie replies, "Who stepped on Maw?" Opie then tells his dad they should "give Mrs. Boliver a fair trial and then hang her." Andy tell Opie he'll get him a new turtle and Opie says, "no, I want Wilfred; you didn't get a new Maw." As Opie leaves, he tells him to go home and "tell Aunt Lucy to you a bottle of pop." . Frances Bavier appears as "Henrietta Perkins". She is a widow who has not paid her taxes in two years and they are about to "sell the place out from under" her. Andy has called her into his office to talk about this. She tells Andy that she has no money because her husband (Charlie) was accidently buried in a rented suit that she's been paying 50 cents a day for ever since, nearly 350 dollars. (She wanted him to look prosperous at this funeral because he'd never been so in life.) Andy tells her the suit couldn't have cost more than 50 dollars. She replies that the shopkeeper who rented the suit to her threatened to tell everyone that her dearly departed was "still piling up bills" in the grave if she didn't continue paying the daily rental fee. . At one point, Andy says that Danny came into town with an attitude, with "his nose up in the air; and that takes in a mess of sky." . Sheldon Leonard produced and directed the episode . As something of a mystery, the credits show two names that we all know: Rance Howard (Ron's dad) and Will Wright (the first Ben Weaver, three episodes on TAGS.and so many more appearances; a great character actor). The mystery is: they are shown on the show's credits (along with Ron Howard, Frances Bavier, Frank Cady)------BUT NEITHER RANCE OR WILL ARE IN THE SHOW. Possibly the show ran long and whatever scenes they were in were cut? Not yet a trained noticer, but working on it, Ken ".but I ain't gonna be beat to death with no spoon." _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
