History WMG / TheAndyGriffithShow

** In Opie's Piano Lesson there's Flip Conroy a Former New York Jet who moves back to Mayberry So there's more then one
*** There's also a ton Of African-American Extras in the background since the show's very first episode

* Howard McNear would give this exact explanation when asked about the first Floyd by fans.

[[WMG: For all his bravado, what happened in Season One 'The Inspector' episode really shook Andy up.]]
Andy might have seemed to be triumphant by the end of the episode, but it's clear that he wasn't the same afterwards. Inspector Case made a strong argument that Andy wasn't taking the job seriously enough and Andy clearly listened. No more folksy jokes, lackadaisical adherence to protocol or "country boy tomfoolery" after this, Andy was far more solemn and judge-like in his approach to the law. He still teased Barney in the privacy of the office, but when he was in public Andy was all business. He would let his hair down occasionally and he still showed compassion and kindness, but he was less Will Rogers and more Solomon after Season One and even more strident in the color episodes after Barney departs. Would Season One Andy have reacted so angrily to Gomer or Goober assembling a car in the middle of the courthouse, or would he have laughed and been suitably impressed?

[[WMG: Opie is a [[TheTwilightZone time traveller.]] ]]
And like his alternate universe counterpart in TheTwilightZone episode "Walking Distance", he came back as an adult to visit Mayberry again. After having a piece of Aunt Bea's pie, and a down-home chat from Andy, he decided to move on with his life and went back to the future. (No, not [[Franchise/BackToTheFuture that future.]])

[[WMG:This show is the prequel to {{Matlock}}.]]

And like his alternate universe counterpart in TheTwilightZone episode "Walking Distance", he came back as an adult to visit Mayberry again. After having a piece of Aunt Bea's pie, and a down-home chat from Andy, he decided to move on with his life and went back to the future. (No, not [[Film/BackToTheFuture that future.]])

*** There's also a ton Of African-American Extras in the background since the show's very frist episode

[[WMG: Where is Opie's mom?.]]

# There are no people of color seen in Mayberry ''at all''.
* Yes there are. Try actually watching the show.

* Or maybe it's just that it's set in Appalachia, where people did not have slaves and the black population is low. The Dillards are from "back in the hollers."
** Mayberry is an idealized version of Mount Airy, NC. Andy Griffith's home town. Because it's idealized, there is no racial strife. However, North Carolina in RealLife did see a lot less of the violence seen in the rest of the south (Mostly just sit ins and peaceful protests).
** Or maybe, like many small country towns, black people just never lived there in the first place. My hometown of 600 people and most of the surrounding area have almost no black people, without some sinister racist intent.
** It's not unheard-of for some small towns in the South to have all-white or all-black populations, although it's less common than it used to be.
* Was there ever even one black person on the show?
** There have been a small handful of black people in crowd scenes, but I don't think the show had any black people with speaking parts.
** There was at least one. In ''Opie's Piano Lesson'', Opie is the quarterback of the football team. A black man named Flip Conroy is in Mayberry. Apperantly, he's an ex-NFL star and the new football coach. Not only is he accepted in Mayberry, but he is also revered.
** The real reason though is just that southern networks would probably have been less likely to air the show if it had regular black actors on it. Executive meddling is more the case.

All signs point to an AlternateUniverse with no slavery, meaning no mass forced immigration from Africa, meaning these conditions can exist.
* The logical explanation for the divergence is that the idealistic, yet proud of his heritage, Andy went back in time to prevent slavery from coming to the United States.

As the above Guess shows, Mayberry is a lily-white Southern town. There is no mention of people of color, segregation, or civil rights. The explanation is that the white people of Mayberry ran all of the black residents out of town. Maybe Sheriff Andy, or one of his predecessors, had them killed. There's no evidence of hate crimes because they were all committed years before - the people just don't talk about them.
* This qualifies for PoisonOakEpilepticTrees. But it's ''possible''.
** More than [[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=sundown+town+site%3Adneiwert.blogspot.com&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq= "possible"]]...
** Likely, if you leave out the part about Sheriff Andy personally. Most of the really ugly ethnic cleansing happened decades before he was even born, although he may have had a hand in maintaining what he inherited.

Anyone else notice how incredibly similar the two shows are? In both shows, Andy Griffith plays a down-home hick in a Southern city with some pull in the legal system.

Clearly, Andy Taylor eventually got tired of being sheriff and wanted to move on to bigger and better things. So he moved to the big city (Atlanta), changed his name to Ben Matlock, went to law school, and eventually passed the bar in Georgia.

Matlock does say in one special that he grew up in a small town in North Carolina -- that is implied not to exist anymore. So we have motive.

At the end of ''Film/AFaceInTheCrowd'', "Lonesome" Rhodes suffers a breakdown as his fame collapses and he swears to win the public's love again. Unsure of where to begin, then, perhaps he decides to start from scratch in another Southern small-town jail - but this time, on the other side of the bars. He changes his name to Andy Taylor, adopts the same down-home good-natured facade that made him popular in the first place, and tries to jump straight into politics by running for sheriff. Because this takes so long to accomplish he finds himself settling down in the town for good. Eventually he [[BecomingTheMask pretends to be a decent person for so long that he actually becomes one]], and he blissfully forgets that he ever was the fallen megastar Lonesome Rhodes.
* He may have done this remembering that Marsha was practically engaged to Sheriff Bess until he came along.

[[WMG:Andy is either a closeted gay, bi or perhaps, asexual.]]
* Let see the evidence: The most eligible bachelor in a small Southern town and yet he only dates two women and then only in the most chaste manner possible. He makes no effort to remarry to provide a "mother" for his son and moves his spinster aunt in w/ them to give him a "beard."
He spends an inordinate amount of time in the company of men and seems to be visibly uncomfortable around women that express affection of any kind towards him.

Given that the show is set in a time where only children were rare and given that Andy didn't quickly remarry after his wife's demise one can reasonable assume that women hold only minimal or no interest at all for Sheriff Taylor,making him asexual,bisexual or even gay.

Let's not even bring up Barney Fife....
* Barney uses women as his own beard. He's something of a codependent who needs women to make him feel masculine.
* Or he could be, just, you know, missing his dead wife? I know, crazy idea...
* It is a crazy idea. Barney didn't have a dead wife. Andy is the one who had the dead wife.
** I was talking about Andy.
* Harlan Ellison once called Don Knotts "the ultimate morphodite (bi-gendered) nebbish".

He's just {{obfuscating stupidity}}.
* People do seem to tip-toe around him to keep from hurting his feelings or upsetting him.
* Andy goes to great lengths to make Barney happy.
** More likely, Andy sees Barney's potential and goes about keeping him happy/content with his job as deputy since he fears Barney might harm himself if he forced to see how pathetic he is. The townspeople go along with this, largely because they know Andy and Barney are best friends and moreso, know that Andy will keep Barney in check so things don't go out of control.

And like his alternate universe counterpart in TheTwilightZone episode "Walking Distance", he came back as an adult to visit Mayberry again. After having a piece of Aunt Bea's pie, and a down-home chat from Andy, he decided to move on with his life and went back to the future. (No, not [[BackToTheFuture that future.]])

At the end of ''A Face in the Crowd'', "Lonesome" Rhodes suffers a breakdown as his fame collapses and he swears to win the public's love again. Unsure of where to begin, then, perhaps he decides to start from scratch in another Southern small-town jail - but this time, on the other side of the bars. He changes his name to Andy Taylor, adopts the same down-home good-natured facade that made him popular in the first place, and tries to jump straight into politics by running for sheriff. Because this takes so long to accomplish he finds himself settling down in the town for good. Eventually he [[BecomingTheMask pretends to be a decent person for so long that he actually becomes one]], and he blissfully forgets that he ever was the fallen megastar Lonesome Rhodes.

And like his alternate universe counterpart in TheTwilightZone episode "Walking Distance", he came back as an adult to visit Mayberry again. After having a piece of Aunt Bee's pie, and a down-home chat from Andy, he decided to move on get life and went back to the future. (No, not [[BackToTheFuture that future.]])