John mentioned seeing a sign advertising a bar in Mayberry. It is true that Mayberry County is a dry county, at least during the black and white years. The writers made it so for story purposes; just think of all the great episodes that involve moonshiners. However, Ben Weaver is apparently allowed to sell "spirits" at his store (see the Christmas episode), and later on in the color years Andy makes his own elderberry wine, so perhaps the laws were flexible.
It is true that signs for bars are visible in Mayberry in various episodes, but you must remember that the 40 Acres backlot, where the exteriors were filmed, was also used by many other DesiLu productions at the same time and that sets created for one series were sometimes left in place when a different show was being filmed. The perfect example is in the Star Trek episode The City on the Edge of Forever, in which Floyd's barber shop can very clearly be seen. In that episode, the building that served as Mayberry's movie theater, the Grand, was redressed as the 21st Street Mission (the marquee had been removed by then) and in one or two TAGS episodes the "21st street mission" signs can be seen. This same building would eventually become Sam Jones' office on MRFD. Paul Mulik _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
