- Almost Famous: When Sapphire first sees William, she asks, "Who brought Opie?" Later, when she and the other Band-Aids decide to sleep with William, they burst into the bathroom while he's talking with Penny, and Sapphire says, "Opie must die."
- Loving (2016): Mildred and Richard Loving are watching the Andy Griffith Show when Grey Villet snaps his famous photograph of them for Life magazine.
- White Men Can't Jump: When Sidney shows Billy the two guys they're going to be playing in the championship of a charity playground tournament, Billy decides to rile them up by talking trash to them. One of them tells Billy to go home to Aunt Bee.
- In My Dark Vanessa, Vanessa's dad watches shows from his childhood like The Andy Griffith Show in the afternoons after work.
- Breaking Bad: In "Granite State", Jack and his neo-Nazi gang are watching a confession video their captive Jesse Pinkman made for the police, where he describes Todd as an "Opie, dead-eyed piece of shit." This itself is a reference to the film Friday Night Lights, where Jesse Plemons' character (the same actor who played Todd) is said to look like Opie.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: In "Faith Hope and Trick" Mr. Trick marvels at Sunnydale's death statistics and the townsfolk's' state of denial. "Makes D.C. look like Mayberry."
- In the Happy Days episode "My Favorite Orkan", Ork is watching The Andy Griffith Show on TV in the Cunningham family living room. He comments, "I like that boy Opie", but then asks why an earth boy has a martian name.note
- Married... with Children:
- "Married... with Who": in the final scene, Al and Bud go fishing à la Andy and Opie on some polluted land that Al bought from Jefferson.
- "You Better Shop Around, Part 2": Bud thought Jerry Mathers played Opie instead of Beaver.
- Al is noted to be a fan of the show, citing Barney in "Kelly Breaks Out" when talking about great sitcoms. In another episode, when Al imagines his ideal life, this show's theme song can be heard playing.
- Step by Step: Don Knotts guest starred in "Christmas Story" as the Barney-like Deputy Feif. Frank initially calls him "Fife" and is immediately corrected on the spelling and pronunciation.
Music
- Drake makes a simile about making a girl's "pussy whistle like the Andy Griffith theme song" in his debut single "Best I Ever Had". This is referencing "The Fishin' Hole", the iconic whistling melody used as the theme song and closing music for the show.
- Kurt Cobain named one of his songs "Floyd the Barber", after the character from this show. It appears as on Nirvana's debut album Bleach.
- Half-Life, of all things. Security guard Barney Calhoun is named after Barney Fife, an artifact of the Alpha models that gave the guards bug-eyes, making them look remarkably similar to Don Knotts.
- Ben 10: Omniverse: Magister Patelliday is a walking reference to Don Knotts, and in one episode he mentions a girlfriend named Appida Lou, a reference to Thelma Lou.
- Doug: Mr. Bone, the persnickety vice-principal, is based on Barney Fife.
- Family Guy:
- In "Farmer Guy", Brian says that nothing is as innocent as it seems, leading to a cutaway of Opie tossing a stone to hit a black man and earning an "Attaboy" from Andy.
- At the end of "Family Guy Through the Years", Don Knotts pesters Peter about dark anecdotes from his career, including that Andy Griffith was a drunk who used to beat him.
- Freakazoid!: The theme song includes the line "Floyd the Barber cuts his hair", complete with a cartoon Howard McNear cutting Freakazoid's hair with a tiny lawnmower.
- The Simpsons:
- The huge Ensemble Cast concept was inspired by this series.
- In "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiali(Annoyed Grunt)cious", the family watches an episode of Before They Were Famous with a clip of when Charles Bronson replaced Andy Griffith on the show. In the clip, Bronson tells a horrified Barney that he shot Otis before leaving to "fix" Emmett.
- The episode "Bart the Mother" was partly inspired by "Opie the Birdman".
- "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge" features a quickie, as Homer (taking over the police department) frees Otis from a cell as an act of good will. In this version, Otis was actually arrested for exposing himself at the mall, to which Homer calls him quite a character.
- In "Pranksta Rap", Chief Wiggum has a vision of Barney giving him a pep talk to give him the incentive to crack a kidnapping case.
- In "Homer the Father", one of the classic shows Homer watches on Tube Town is Sheriff Wholesome, which parodies the show.
- In "Springfield Splendor", Homer and Bart take part in a parody of the theme song, only to get beat by another father and son up for stealing their fishing poles and skipping stone.
- Tiny Toon Adventures: The second gag credit for "Sepulveda Boulevard" is "Miss Elmyra's Hair and Make-up By: Floyd the Barber".
