- Actor Leaves, Character Dies: Frances Bavier was too sick to appear in the film, so her character Aunt Bee was shown as having passed away. Frances would actually pass away three years later.
- Channel Hop:
- The film aired on NBC, instead of the series' original network, CBS.
- The film itself was produced by Viacom Productions instead of Mayberry Enterprisesnote or CBS themselves (the latter of which had produced reunion movies for other old CBS shows like The Wild Wild West); this is because The Andy Griffith Show was not produced by CBS and wasn't sold outright to CBS, and Viacom had since purchased the copyright to Andy Griffith from Mayberry Enterprises (though this happened in 1978, years after the show ended).
- The Other Darrin: Janet Waldo does a voiceover as Aunt Bee, replacing the ailing Frances Bavier.
- Real-Life Relative:
- Ron Howard's father Rance plays the minister at Barney and Thelma Lou's wedding.
- Don Knotts' daughter Karen plays Opie's receptionist.
- What Could Have Been:
- Ken Berry was set to return as Sam Jones, but couldn't appear due to his work on Mama's Family, in which he played Vinton Harper.
- The special was supposed to be the beginning of a periodic series of Andy Griffith Show TV movies, but the surprise success of Matlock made that impossible.
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