The Mount Airy Connection While Griffith often dismissed any ties between his show and the sleepy little town of Mount Airy, North Carolina, even Andy can't deny the many similarities. For example, if you've wondered where the talented TAGS writers came up with the various names, it's apparent they didn't have to look far from Andy's hometown. The small towns surrounding Mount Airy - where Andy Griffith was born in 1926 - were a treasure trove for many of the now-familiar characters and locations seen on the show. Among the names too obvious to ignore are: Mulberry, NC (Mayberry), Pilot Mountain, NC (Mount Pilot), Taylorsville, NC (Andy Taylor), Lawsonville, NC (Floyd Lawson), Crumpler, NC (Helen Crump), Walkertown, NC (Ellie Walker), Jonesville, NC (Sam Jones), Warrensville, NC (Warren Ferguson), and Stoneville, NC - Mayor Stoner (That's 'Stoner,' for those who recall the "Barney and the Governor" episode). All of these little municipalities are less than 25 miles from where Andy grew up. Other TAGS characters were named after real people, including childhood friends, family and acquaintances such as Andy's best buddy since grammar school - Emmitt Forrest, and former Mount Airy mayor E.T. Clark (collectively "Emmett Clark"), Jim Slate (Jim Slater), the Beasleys (Juanita, and Goober in one episode), the Roundtrees (Miss Roundtree), Earl Gilley - and to keep his in-laws happy - Andy's then-wife Barbara 'Edwards' Griffith (Clara Edwards, who was in 21 episodes). In addition to the real North Carolina cities of Charlotte, Raleigh, Bannertown, and Siler City, there were many streets that were shared between fact and tv fantasy. There's Haymore Street (Andy and his parents, Carl and Geneva, lived at 711 Haymore), Rockford Street (where Andy's grammar school was located), Main Street, Turner Mountain (Turner's Grade - speed limit 35mph), Oak, Elm, Maple, Willow, Orchard, and River Road - all the rural byways of Mount Airy. Also check out this site http://www.jimnolt.com/contents.htm It's a Superman TV Show/George Reeves site, but if you scroll down to 40 acres, it has lots of TAGS related pictures as well. The entire article where I copied the above snippet from is there. Lots of Superman/Mayberry photos of same location shots. _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
