In a message dated 7/27/2008 11:03:07 A.M. Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
The Mayor of Mayberry would not hold any sway over the county sheriff. Every county I have ever been to has a county courthouse located at the county seat where the county judges conduct trials, not the justice of the peace. I believe the answer is that it was never established where the county seat was located. You're right, and at first I always thought this was a plot hole in the series. But the more closely I listen, the more I hear lines like the mayor threatening to mention things in "my report to the governor." I'm guessing that's what they're hanging their hat on, a threat of telling on Andy, to the governor, who presumably would make some funding cuts in his proposed budget to the state legislature. (I guess the mayor thought the governor wouldn't bother to listen to Andy's side of things, but I know people who are like that.) I'm sure, as many times as they've mentioned elections, the writers never seriously thought the mayor was Andy's direct supervisor or could "fire" him (as he would be if Andy were a police chief instead). He might have threatened to have him removed, but he never indicated he could fire an elected official just on a whim. In real life, I've worked as a reporter for some 20 years and constantly see county sheriffs at odds with local police chiefs, local mayors, definitely the county commission, etc. so that would certainly line up with that. I know the writers have always been hazy about the boundaries between the town and county governments but remember when Otis hurt himself in the jail and hired Neil Bentley as his attorney, he didn't sue the town of Mayberry, he sued the county. This obviously means it wasn't the town's jail. Then again, the whole bit about Andy being both the sheriff and the justice of the peace was always supposed to be a joke about small towns, and not a serious civics lesson. Dixon **************Get fantasy football with free live scoring. Sign up for FanHouse Fantasy Football today. (http://www.fanhouse.com/fantasyaffair?ncid=aolspr00050000000020) _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
