People liked the Andy Griffith show because it represented a simplistic, wholesome place. Considering what was going on in the world at the time, it's obvious people watched the show as a form of escapism.

I grew up in the South in the 60s, and we made frequent trips to my grandmother's hometown as well as to other small towns. The same old men sitting outside the courthouse on the benches who held their chew when white folks passed by, spat at us when we Natives or any Black folks walked by. The clerks who were all smiles with white customers were surly to us. The same officials who were helpful and chatty with whites were rude and dismissive to us. The police and courts who were professional, solicitous, and desiring of helping people straighten up if they were white were the exact opposite when dealing with Natives and Blacks even if it was for the most minor of offenses. I watched the Andy Griffith Show growing up, have watched the reruns. Mayberry never existed for me or mine. And as for that trolley rider's desire that we all treat everyone alike, I still can't walk into a store in a mall to go shopping without being followed by store security and I'm a 61 yr old 5'1" tall grandmother who has never stolen anything in my life - but apparently my ethnicity makes me an automatic suspect, not to mention an unwanted presence in some other places, and a simpleton when dealing with still others.

OK, this could’ve been a fluff piece. I think almost everyone expected this to be a fluff piece. This was actually fascinating-an intriguing commentary on values and nostalgia. Great work, Sunday Morning.

This was an excellent and insightful segment. I grew up with the Andy Griffith Show and I understand why it's depiction of a simpler time is alluring to people now. What I don't understand is modern day people still believing boldface lies even when presented with undeniable facts to the contrary.🇺🇸

As a southerner who grew up watching TAGS (mostly in reruns), the lasting appeal for me is its entertainment value, its innocence and, to some degree, the nostalgia it evokes of my own childhood, although I grew up in the suburbs of a major metropolitan area. Even as a child, however, I understood Mayberry to be more fantasy than real. I watched it simply because it made me laugh, and it still does. The likable, quirky characters and their relationships were disarmingly fun, warm and honest without being cloying, in particular the father-son dynamic between Andy and Opie, as portrayed by Andy Griffith and arguably the greatest child actor of all time, Ron Howard.

I watched this show when I was a little kid. It was during the 60's and for some reason, although there seemed to be no Black people in Mayberry, you didn't feel as if you would be discriminated against if you moved there. It was on during the height of the Civil Rights movement, as Mr. Koppel pointed out, but the town of Mayberry was like Fantasyland. Regarding the people on the Trolley, the fact that BLM is being accused of what took place on January 6th, while sprouting how loving they seem to be for their fellow man speaks volumes...and not in a good way.

I still watch the reruns with my mom. I only started watching in the past 10 years, but I love it. Would love to visit here. ♥️

Black Southerners have a sense of place that the rest of the country finds difficult to understand and complex. We all know the bad about it, but it is not as clear cut as Ted Koppel indicates here. We have a sense of family. We can tell you storie generations of our families here. We know who we are and whose we are. We had to stick together in order to survive, and we enjoyed the simple pleasures that nature had to offer. So this is why some of us return. As for Andy Griffith, I think of how my grandmother in Mt. Pleasant SC would serve me and my cousins boxes from the Kellogg's Variety packs in the late 60s when it came on in the mornings, and we would go outside to play when that show was over.

I liked when the older Black lady said that it was her home. That her family doesn’t discriminate against her. I think that’s always been true while being black in America. It’s home, even with the hate we survive because it’s all we know to do and it’s true that home is where the heart is. My mother grew up in the segregated south and even though she moved away, she always missed it because it was her people where from.

The visitors on the trolley, had me shaking my head and rolling my eyes. Those people are detached from reality.

As Mark twain said its easier to fool people than it is to convince them they have been lied to🤯

My husband and I watch the show almost every day on METV. Did I hear that woman say the attack on the capitol was staged???? 🤦🏻‍♀️

I still watch the show. I know the dialogue by heart. It was wonderful show and the casting made the show come to life. It'll still on TV decades from now.

One of the best pieces of television journalism I've ever seen. Congrats Ted Koppel (who I profiled back in the day for a TV Guide cover story).

"Portrait of a typical American small town: friendly neighbors who wave from their porches, grocers who always extend credit, the newspaper boy always throws the paper before sunrise. But just beneath this warm and fuzzy exterior is the feeling this sweetness is covering something hard and bitter, or the sense of dirt swept under a homespun rug. That feeling will become fact when a big city reporter looking for local color gets on a streetcar whose last stop...is the Twilight Zone."

I was there many years ago and I had a wonderful time, the couple that I was with was some of our best costumers at my dad's restaurant and it was a surprise trip for me since I used to watch Andy Griffith show and Mayberry RFD

The "fishing hole" at the beginning wasn't on a back lot. Was filmed at Franklin Canyon Reserve

Raised in NC and also grew up watching the show with my grandparents. Thank you for telling both sides of the story. Sadly, I was hardly surprised by many of the responses shared during the trolley ride.

The Andy Griffith Show certainly was a remembered show by my parents. Such simple times of television, as well as the atmosphere that surrounded the show itself.

I just watched this and it was so funny watching these people talk around the fact that they long for the Jim Crow Sundown town era. I'm Black and I love the Andy Griffith Show but the fan base is doing a lot of selective remembering of that history.

Love the vibe of the Andy Griffith show. Us humans are imperfect beings, as reflected by the ignorance and denialism of the people Ted Kopel interviewed on the bus. The retired blacks who grew up in the town had a pragmatic perspective of the beauty of the land, family, and the underlying flaws of ignorance and history segregation and racism that we’re all surrounded with. Good journalism.

I've been there before for a performance at a Coffee House. hahahaha I felt so good about being there since it was one of my favorite shows. hmhmhm I still watch the show when I can find it on television. I never get tired of watching this show. Like the lady said its a good moral show.

Easy to believe a lie, harder to admit a truth.

Mayberry, while entertaining and full of wholesome family values, was a fantasy... you want to know what North Carolina was like in the early and mid 60's, research Greenville lunch counter sit ins!

A great journalist is holding up a mirror. If the viewer is expecting only to be entertained or delighted, disappointment may be in store. If what is reflected back is grotesque, ridiculous, foolish or embarrassing, maybe it is time to say "Could that be me? Maybe it is time to let go of some of these cherished beliefs." If one's first impulse is to shatter that mirror and run away enraged or victimized, someone else will probably have to clean up that broken glass. Too bad that some of these myths and realities are uncomfortable or inconvenient. This segment has been long overdue. Bravo!

Having grownup in a small town I am well aware of both the myth and reality of small towns. The truth is people there are really not that much different than anywhere else. Many of them can be very judgmental. Yes, Everyone knows everyone. If you make a mistake as a kid it will never be forgotten by some. They also judgement by your family. There was a lot of alcohol and drug abuse in my family and I know that's how some people judged me and other members of my family. Look at how judgmental the people in this piece are. They regard others as " Godless". I guess they missed the part of the Bible about "judge not that ye be not judge." I do have a lot of good memories growing up in small town. But the idea that small towns are somehow superior to elsewhere and the people have better values is BS.

Wow! Kudos to the journalist. One of the best segments I have watched and I love this show. Watch it religiously every Sunday.

The Andy Griffith Show may have been cancelled 53 years ago, but it has never been “off the air.” I grew up with it in reruns, cable TV made it accessible on stations in Atlanta and Chicago and you can find it streaming someplace on the internet anytime. What put America on its way to greatness (we didn’t make it all the way) were the policies FDR enacted to combat the effects of the Great Depression, the Dustbowl, and to fight World War II - many of which have, since 1980, been stripped away. It’s ironic to me that the folks in this little town have completely flipped on the ideology that literally saved their town and their future in favor of cutting their own throats to return to “greatness.” Incredible.

I laughed out loud when that woman said, “I hope that when this airs southerners won’t be depicted as a bunch of dumb idiots.” Opps! Didn’t do much to help the cause, sweetheart.

Happy Sunday, from El Paso, Tx! Hope everyone has a great day! 🌞

“We find our truth in different ways…” And there it is, ladies and gentlemen.

I watched Mayberry when I was a child and loved every minute of it. I canceled my cable subscription almost 4 years ago and haven't looked back. I don't miss the evening news or the programming offered today by the networks. It's all commercials. Took a business trip the end of August and tried watching TV in my hotel room. I ended up turning it off. All network TV has become is one big commercial. Could not believe the number of commercials. It's like all the networks want people to do is buy buy buy and be angry. I'm a much happier person without network television and I know I'm not alone.

“The Andy Griffith Show” was not canceled. In fact, it was the No. 1 show in ratings when Andy Griffith walked away from it. A spin-off, “Mayberry RFD” ran for three years. Pretty sloppy reporting.

Such a fluff piece until Ted said it wasn’t great if you were black or a Vietnam Veteran. What a reporter 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

I'm 45 yrs old and I still watch the Andy Griffith show! Love it, how cld u not. It wld be something if we as a world wld have values like that again. If only! Imagine that, imagine the love and respect we wld have for each other and helping each other again. What a world we wld be!

CBS Sunday morning never disappoints

As someone who lives 5 minutes outside of Mount Airy and does all my business there nothing in this video was inaccurate. It honestly could have been a lot worse. Especially if they looked at surrounding areas.

"I hope when this airs it doesn't show us as a bunch of dumb idiots" LOL!!!

Oh My God, what a bait-and-switch episode!! It started out being just a sweet look at Mayberry and devolved into all these sadly, misguided, rooted-in-their position, misinformed well-intentioned people expressing their firm beliefs. I felt so depressed at the end of this. Every day I want to believe we're all emerging from the darkness, but segments like this are proving the opposite. Our country is deeply divided and there doesn't seem to be any way out into the light of truth. Andy Griffith and Don Knotts would be so sad.

Thanks to this segment, I don't need to visit this place in person. I will continue to watch the show re-runs on regular local tv.

This brings me back to watching the Andy Griffith Show. I watched it during the 1990s. This story is very incredible.

I moved to NC 10 years ago. I will never forget my very first visit to Mount Airy. I had a meeting scheduled with a veterinary practice in the area and was completely confused as I drove thru the town and made my way to the clinic. When I asked the Doc I was meeting with what this was all the Mayberry stuff was all about she laughed so hard. I’ve never lived this down.

Leave to Ted Koppel's keen and best line in this profound and insightful CBS Sunday Morning piece by him: "Strange to find so many people half a century later (after the show's cancellation) searching for what made America great, in a copy of town that never was." Ah, the dichotomy each of us...WANT TO perceive.

I loved Mayberry R F D. I would just laugh laugh. It came on years ago around 4:00 pm on a Sunday. I made sure I was there to watch it. Wonderful wonderful!!!!!!

I love the ending of the episode.

I believe we can live kinder, simpler lives without oppression

I was born and raised in Culver City. I often tell people I was born and raised in Mayberry, literally.

I really appreciate it was pointed out that the kindler and gentler time was only that for a certain segment of the population. When people say they want to go back to these times, there is a lot more to what they mean than what is apparent on the surface.

"We don't care what color you are" ... we never have cared about that. LOL!!

The lady on the trolley said that she hoped that her town wouldn’t come off as a bunch of “dumb southerners”. Well…so much for that.

I grew up in a small farming town in the California desert. It was a diverse community. The people there came from all walks of life, various cultures, religions, etc. One thing they all had in common was common sense and compassionate conservative values. All that has left. I'm now 60 years old. When people ask me where I grew up, I tell them "Mayberry RFD." Thanks for reading.

My home town. Born and raised. I live in south Florida now. My great grandfather had a church built back in the 1920s, one street over from Andy’s childhood home. Rockford St United Methodist Church. He attended church and Sunday school there as a kid. We have pictures of him in Sunday school way back when. It’s cool!

well this segment made a compete 180* turn.

Thank you. I found this much more thought provoking than I expected, and in really profound ways. The theme of longing for a life that never was runs strong.

I actually live here. Mount airy is a great town.

It never ceases to amaze me the lengths some people will go to avoid reality, or taking any sort of personal responsibility. I grew up in "Small Town America", Hazard KY. And it wasn't Mayberry like at all.

It’s shows like this and others like it that taught me my values and standards. It was a good time to grow up for me.

Well done Ted. You asked the tough questions that point up the hypocrisy so evident in too many today. All those "nice" folks on the bus at the end came to Mt. Airy to "get away from" politics and division." They just want to be "good neighbors and treat everybody alike." RIGHT, and go back to the "goode olde" days...as described by the African-Americans who lived through those days. How "goode" the "olde" days were depends on your perspective for sure! There is a lot to unpack in these 13 minutes. Unfortunately I found it very depressing. We have a lot of work to do!

I wonder if all those fans of the show on that trolley knew that Andy Griffith and Ron Howard were big supporters of Obama. Even did a campaign mayberry bit back in 2008.

That last line was such a slam dunk. Totally opened this whole thing up.

Thank you to Mr. Koppel, producers, and staff who put this report together.

Wish Koppel would have gotten a sense of where all those trolley tourists were from. 😆 The Betty Lynn fan is from Arkansas. The kid who watched hours of the show - Ohio. The pork chop sandwich gent - Louisiana. That group on the trolley...well I can guess I suppose.

Thank you, Ted and crew, for reminding us that, sometimes, even under the sweetest nostalgic notions lies a darker, more malevolent undercurrent. In the age of Trump, I've discovered to my chagrin that even the sweetest-seeming people are the same folks who wouldn't think twice about shoving 'undesirables' into boxcars if the 'right' people told them to.

Good segment. The conversations on the trolley were so telling.

I thought it interesting that there was a woman on the trolley showing concern for how Southerners are perceived. Koppel, merely out of journalistic curiosity of course, should have taken a poll to see where all of the trolley riders were from, then just leave that info hanging in the air.

Every time that I drive to Florida or Asheville I will stop in Mt. Airy. The drive up 52 is incredible- if you don’t get fog. There is a nice Vietnamese restaurant there. If you go time it to get there on the weekend.

The responses from the people on the bus are jarring to say the least.

Funny thing is that when they wanted to include black people the producers rejected it because they might lose their core fans.

Koppel epitomizes journalism at its best. After three decades of being a newspaper reporter, I am convinced that hard-hitting and courageous reporters like Koppel are very few and far between. Koppel just peeled back an ugly scar in American history in his report that many just want to pretend didn't exist and pray it will go away by just saying so.

2 Things that long time Andy Griffith Show fans usually say: 1. They love the show for the simple living values and the morality, and 2. Watch the earlier Black and White shows, not the later seasons in Color. And yet the values and the morality run all the way through into the color seasons! (so why not just watch them all?). ===What is curiously never brought up is that the show had very good WRITING, with characters that were interesting and subtle. The main characters would say little things, phrases, that really spoke to the types of characters and stereotypes one might find in small town America. THESE are the reasons that I love the show. The comedy timing of Andy, Ernest T Bass, Gomer, Barney, Floyd, Otis. There would be good music played at times (in earlier seasons). I am on the other end of the spectrum from a Trump supporter, and I have loved watching this show all of my life (52 years old). I love the quality of the writing in TAGS, same as I do with Arrested Development and Breaking Bad. (By the way, in the later (color) shows, not only was Don Knotts gone, but the writing and characters became generic, dull, flavorless.

Love the Andy Griffith show. I too grew up in a town just like it. Yes, life was simpler and folks were very amiable. I never witnessed prejudice. My dad owned a cafe and employed a Black cook. She was nice, friendly, made the best Hamburgers. There was no separate restrooms for blacks. Though I know now that those days (early 60's) had their share of discrimination, it just wasn't a noticeable part of that town in central Texas. Good memories. I am surprised that the CBS news editors allowed a good amount of time to those tourists on the bus. Really Appreciated that! ...they are the thinning threads of honest, neighborly, moral patriots who used to be the Denim fabric of America. ...what coming Calamity will it take for us to return to God?

That lady at the end said she hoped this segment wouldn't make her and the people on that trolley sound like a bunch of idiots. No help needed there!

Thank you for the best journalism I’ve ever watched. I am amazed at the responses from the people on the bus.

What is interesting is that all of these people who long for the Mayberry we saw on television loved it for the values it portrayed. They would be the first to decry the values of the "Liberal Hollywood Elites" who wrote and produced the illusion they loved so much. And the worst part is that the people who made these shows knew exactly how to give them precisely what they wanted. But the shows and those who wrote them were also a part of the culture at the time and they could not show Lucy and Ricky sleeping in the same beds. The America we grew up watching on TV never really reflected reality. It was only a fantasy that the ruling class wanted to believe in and tried to sell to the rest of us. Many years ago I heard Gene Rodenberry, the creator of Star Trek speak. He asked the audience what the purpose of television was. Some said to entertain or to educate or inform but he laughed and said, "The purpose of television is to sell toothpaste! The programs are there to keep you watching. They interrupt them for commercials. Then they give you some more because if you didn't get a break from the advertising you would turn it off. They don't care what they show you as long as you keep watching the commercials. That is why they tried so hard to stop Pay TV (what we now know as cable) because they can't sell ads when you are paying for the shows!" Of course we now all pay for a cable subscription that includes advertisements. But whatever it is we watch they will feed us more of it. Cable news has splintered into partisan camps because people like to watch channels that validate their beliefs. What I wouldn't give to see the CBS evening news with Walter Cronkite or the Huntley and Brinkley report again. The closest thing these days is the PBS Newshour. But cable outlets like Fox and MSNBC preach to their respective choirs and make up the minds of their viewers for them. Perhaps the most shocking thing in this entire piece is that individuals who consider themselves to be God fearing patriots could dismiss what they saw on their screens on January 6. Instead of reacting with horror they dismiss an attempt to overthrow a violent attempt to overthrow the election, the bedrock upon which our nation stands because it conflicts with their treasured illusion. When fantasy trumps reality we are all doomed.

Mayberry is one of my favorites places Andy Griffith was my favorite show as a kid and my dad and me would watch it every day as we would eat lunch the worst memory of mine is the day of 9/11 and not getting to watch an episode of Andy Griffith which would be a comfort to me at that time. I was 4 years old when 9/11 happened

My kids grew up with it it’s is our family show.

The message of the Andy Griffith show was and is clear..to live by as set of moral and ethical beliefs that fosters love of family and community. It was filmed when segregation existed and if they tried to make it inclusive of all races and colors..the network wouldn't have allowed it...(research trek and gene Roddenberry ) I think most people are looking for a community like Mayberry where people get along and treat each other with love and respect. How can we take what fictional Mayberry has and make that a reality each of the neighborhoods and small towns we live in and start something positive in our country because we sure won't get that from ANY government in the white house.

Leave it to Ted Koppel to turn a nice community event into a controversy.

In the beginning of the show, Andy and Opie were not “actually strolling along a back lot in Culver City California”… it was filmed at a reservoir in the Franklin Canyon Park in Los Angeles en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Canyon_Park. About 10 miles from Culver City.

He asked the question and Ted received the answer!

Ted, it was very nice to have you back. I wish to see more of your reporting. It has been too long. All the best and continued success.

That took a turn...

I liked this segment and I enjoyed watching Andy and the gang mainly for honesty and values however the experienced Journalist Ted K. did well to show a honest dialogue with the tourists and it shows we still have a long way to go to include Everyone and let the JC mentality narrative die. The year is 2021

90% of the people on the Trolley made THEMSELVES look DAF 🤣🤣🤣 SHEEESH!

Very nice! I always wanted Andy to be my dad growing up.

I love 💕 the Andy Griffith show and I am glad to see Ted Koppel doing pretty good I haven't seen him in years

Lady in hat is crazy

Ted Koppel... what a true legend. ALL POLITICS ASIDE, can I get an Amen??

I want to respond to the folks regarding Ted Koppel’s reporting on Mayberry. I watch a lot of tv shows that are from 1940’s to the present day. The shows that had a partial or long tv series run, were the mirror of what was going on in society. A example would be The Andy Griffith episode, where the two older ladies were running a moonshine business. That same topic is how NASCAR got started. The media reflects what is going on in the world. The issues that concern you the viewers are rebroadcasted into comedy’s dramas, reality tv etc.. There is no tv show that can take you away and have you forget the world around you. Yet if CBS Sunday Morning was canceled, a lot of you would be writing CBS and your congressional representatives to keep the show on the air with the news segments. If the news segments irritate you, you do have options: 1)Wait till the show segments are on KZfaq. That will allow you to pick and choose what you want to watch. 2) Stop watching the show. Watch the Sunday news maker shows or a rerun of a tv show. 3) Do something else. Volunteer, read a book, dance. You are stressing yourself out assuming CBS Sunday Morning is going to drop their news segment. It is not going to happen. I will this post with two comments. You do not like Ted Koppel’s reporting but you know him from his days hosting NightLine. Before Andy Griffith passed away, he made a series of ads advocating for the Affordable Care Act. If you read to the end. Thank You.

They need a Sheriff with wisdom and common sense to teach those trolley folk a lesson.

The appeal of T.A.G.S. after so many years is simple. 1. The great writing 2. The comic genius duo of Don Knotts/Andy Griffith 3. The outstanding supporting cast of characters 4.. It was set in the south. And it was a positive Depiction . 5. The fantasy, who wouldn’t want to live in Mayberry:

Glad ole Teddy got his on the bus. 👍🏼🇺🇸👍🏼🇺🇸👍🏼🇺🇸👍🏼🇺🇸👍🏼🇺🇸👍🏼

The original Andy Griffith Show pilot was a spinoff from the Danny Thomas Show. I recommend it's KZfaq viewing and the lesson about responsibility. It's a goodun'!

Andy Griffith shows us how to be a good person in that show. It's golden.

Mt. Airy is a nice little town and I make it a point to stop there on way to Myrtle Beach.

Wonderfully balanced reporting. Thank you, Ted Koppel.

To the lady who said, Americans think southerners are dumb. Don't speak for everyone. I don't think they are. It was going good, till Trump and the voting/Jan rally ruined it.

That opening was not filmed on a back lot.

I preached at a church that gathered an hour before the service to watch Andy and talk about the scriptural lessons

…but Andy Griffith himself was a lifelong Democrat. Despite his Mount Airy upbringing.