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Mayberry My Home Town


RottieGrrrl
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I can't be the only TAGS fan here. (the andy griffith show for you backwoods darlin type!) What are some of your favorite shows. Geez, I don't know where to start. I KNOW the only ones that I will watch are the b/w ones with barney. After barney left and the show turned color, it changed for the worse!

Anybody remember how Barney was referred to as Andy's cousin in a couple of the very first episodes? And in the first few episodes, Aunt Bee had much more of an accent? Clara was a different name too.

I loved the one where the dead guy came walking into Andy's office. He actually had left his wife a few years earlier and his wife made up some story about how he was run over by some milk truck or somthing and she gave him a burial. Andy told the "dead guy" that he just can't be walking around town like that."It just aint decent!" LOL!

OMG, I'm splitting a gut here.

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I always thought that Barney's girlfriend (forgot the name) was hot.

:redface2:

I can smell Aunt Bee's pie now.

That's Thelma (Jucier than a barrel full of corn squeezens) Lou!

And I take my fried chicken recipe straight from the official Aunt Bee cookbook.

Sudo I hear ya. There was a church in Georgia a few years back that was holding adult bible classes based on an episode on TAGS they would watch. They wouldn't show the shows like Otis raising hell on a cow he thought was a horse (he bought it while he was drunk) but those shows had a message. Which from what I read is just what Andy intended.

Here is an interesting piece on Aunt Bee from findadeath.com (love that site)

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We all remember her for her role in The Andy Griffith Show, and thanks to my friends Cathy and Dave Bradford of North Carolina, we now can SEE where she lived her final days. Here's the buzz on Bee:

The show that won her an Emmy ended in 1968, and in 1972 - Frances retired to Siler City, North Carolina. She’d visited the town previously during local celebrations, and fell in love with it, and bought a house on West Elk Street.

During her time in Siler City – she avoided fans and interviews like the plague. This aside, she supposedly made many friends in the area, and a lot of them called her, "Aunt Bee." Inevitably, some idiot would come and knock on her door, looking for Sheriff Andy or some such nonsense. I don’t blame her for being a bit apprehensive, but I think she was losing her marbles.

Andy Griffith once did an interview with Ralph Emery, and the subject of Frances came up. He said that both he and Ron Howard tried visiting her in Siler City. Unannounced. She flipped. Later, a mutual friend of theirs called Andy, and said that Frances wanted to talk to him. Andy called her, and she told him that she was sorry they never got along better. She told him that she had suffered two heart attacks and cancer. Andy said in the interview that it wasn’t that they didn’t get along, it was just that she didn’t always feel up to playing the role. Hmm.

She was admitted to the Chatham Hospital, the day before Thanksgiving, 1989. She was kept in the coronary care unit for two weeks, and finally discharged on Monday, December 4. She died in this house on Wednesday, December 6. Heart Failure. She was 86 years old.

Upon her death, whoever went in the non-curtained house found it reeking of cat ...., which is one of the worst smells on the planet. The plaster was peeling, the carpets frayed, and the upholstery worn. She didn’t keep a tidy home. She had 14 cats (ugh.), and their litter box was the basement shower. Not in it, it was it.

Supposedly, Frances spent most of her time in a large back room, sparsely furnished with a bed, a desk, a television and an end table. The only mementoes they found were a few hats and dresses that she wore on the show. In the garage they found a blue 1966 Studebaker, with four flat tires. (This just in from Findadeath.com friend Bill Gregory Terlecki, "Aunt Bee drove a 1964, I think that was the year, Studebaker Lark. Way after that date, she would drive herself to the studio in it. It was pea green. This I know as fact, as I use to be in the Studebaker Packard club in Vancouver area, and the monthly magazine did an article about it.") Supposedly it was the same car that she drove in Mayberry, RFD. Cool. The last time she used the car was in 1983 – for a trip to the grocery store. In all, her estate was worth $700,000 (not too shabby) and her possessions were worth just under $32,000.

I have no funeral information for Frances, but I do know that she is buried in the nearby Oakwood Cemetery. Her tombstone says "Aunt Bee" on it.

In her will, Frances bequeathed her house to the Moore Memorial Hospital, in Pinehurst. The contents of the house went to the University of North Carolina Center for Public Television. The cats were found homes, well, except for one that got away.

On Saturday, June 2, 1990 – there was an auction held of Frances’s belongings. Fans lined up to pick over things like velvet hats and white gloves (which Frances really wore), and even her old contracts from The Andy Griffith Show. All in all, there were 800 items for sale. Boy, I bet they wished that Ebay existed then. They could have made a killing.

Findadeath.com friend Kay sent in this piece of trivia: Aunt Bee--Frances--whatever...in light of her...eccentricities, shall we say, it is perhaps surprising that she filmed her last movie, Benji (yes, the dog story), in the Dallas, TX area in 1974...she played the old lady whose cat Benji chased every day..

Trivia from Findadeath.com friend Jim: I was told that Howard Morris (Ernest T. Bass) couldn't abide Frances Bavier. Their feud supposedly came to a head during an episode he was directing.

Morris was placing actors on the set. He said: "Frances? I'd like to move you over here." Frances was sensitive about her considerable girth, and real or imagined slights. She turned on Morris and snarled, "Nobody will `move' me!!!! I am not a sofa! I am not a dining room table!! How dare you?!!!!!"

She did this in front of cast and crew. Morris told my friend it was all he could do to hold himself back from slugging her in the jaw.

Edited by RottieGrrrl
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Great links all! Thanks! :)

There was a radio show in LA called, Mark and Brian. It was on the FM ABC station. Every year on either of their birthdays, they would throw these outrageous Birthday surprises. Both were Huge TAGS fans.

One year, they took the company's back parking lot and recreated the main street of Mayberry. And recreated some scenes from the show. The topper was that either Andy Griffith or Don Knotts showed up for the event.

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I always wanted to live in Mayberry!

One of my favorite episodes is when Clara convinces Aunt Bea that she's standing in Andy's way to happiness, so Aunt Bea tells Andy that she has a new boyfriend, the milkman. Of course its not true, but Andy doesn't know that, so he investigates and finds out the milkman is married! WOW! Quite scandlous for Mayberry!

Remember the one where this old man comes to town, and does handyman work, but gets everyone to do his work for him?

And anything with the Darlin family was wonderful.

I remember Barney being Andy's cousin on the first show, the same one when Aunt Bea came to stay. I don't remember her accent, but I remember Andy's changing.

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