The original andy griffith show was always better than any colorized version or the new andy Griffith show, it just wasn’t the same….

Had they just brought Andy Taylor back to Mayberry as the new mayor it might’ve worked.

Wow! I never knew this show even existed. As a kid I watched the Andy Griffith show and ending up seeing a few episodes of Mayberry RFD but that was it. This show was never even known to me till now.

He should've just stayed in Mayberry to begin with.

The New Andy Griffith Show was confusing, it was like halfway connected to the old show and halfway not

For me, any show had to be Andy, Barney, and Mayberry. I didn't know there was a new AGS.

Just found the new Andy Griffith show after watching the original Andy Griffith every day of my life for 42 years. Was nice to watch season new even though it wasn't really good. And it definitely was the town concept that Sold original Andy show. They should have kept him as the old sheriff he going into the show. I truly believe it would have helped. People wanted Andy Griffith again with the Mayberry.

It’s very simple. The Original Andy Griffith show was developed and produced by a group that included Danny Thomas, Sheldon Leonard, snd others. The didn’t have the rights to those characters for the new series, so they got as close as they could without being sued.

I am definitely a Mayberry groupie! I loved Andy and all of the residents..it was Def a simpler time!!!❤ thanks for keeping it alive!!

As a kid I remember this. I don’t think I realised he wasn’t Andy Taylor.

I think "The New Andy Griffith Show" failed for a few reasons: 1. Audiences didn't like the "New" shows very much back then, with the exception of "The New Price Is Right", preferring the original instead; 2. "The New Andy Griffith Show" was hastily put together after Griffith ended "The Headmaster", so it just wasn't very good; and 3. CBS decided to ax all rural shows in 1971.

Calling a show new to begin with is asking for trouble. Dick Van Dyke's program lasted longer. But his earlier show still held strong memories. He told of a woman hitting him with an umbrella for leaving "that sweet Laura." Ironically, CBS nixed plans to make Mary Richards a divorcee'. They were concerned viewers would think she divorced Dick Van Dyke. One biography of Andy Griffith said that Universal wanted to team him up with Don Knotts in a movie. This was after Angel in My Pocket didn't do so well. The book also said that this episode didn't call Knotts' character Barney. But he wore the same suit, along with acting like Barney. My personal theory was witness protection. Yet if so, Andy would have been sent to another state, with a different job. Oh yeah, Helen and Opie would have gone with him. You're right about jealous Helen. Many fans don't care for the character. I never saw the great chemistry. Now we know there was something going on off camera. Ellie was good, but seemed too young. Like some other fans, I preferred Peggy, played by Joanna Moore. CBS replaced The New Andy Griffith Show with reruns of Headmaster. Maybe that show deserved more time. It might have even survived the rural purge. Andy Griffith wouldn't have another hit series until Salvage 1. Then came Matlock.

I don't remember that show because it was playing while I was overseas in Okinawa in the Army. I don't think I missed anything myself.

I was in high school at that time, but I don't recall ever having heard of the "Headmaster."

I loved it all. All of the charactrs made this show great. All of them!!!

"Matlock" was Andy Taylor with a new name.

What is really bizarre is the fact that these characters went to Andy and Helens wedding just a couple of years earlier. Did Andy take his new wifes name? Im guessing that these are her kids. You would think that Goober, Emmit and Barney would have noticed Andy with two ready made kids, and where is Opie? Better yet, what happened to Helen? I was about ten years old when this show came out and have no recollection of it, and I was an avid tv watcher. Kind of like the Mike TV in my family.

If they would have done a petticoat junction/ Andy Griffin show mashup it would have worked

I so agree with you about Helen Crump. Or is it Helen Grump? I always liked Ellie so much more. I would loved to have seen your Helen meets Andy's wife scenario.

They even had Milly Halper, Laura Petrie´s next-door neighbor from from The Dick VanDyke show.

Frank Bond wrote there is no place like home.

Some things I never knew before, very interesting. Thanks.

I believe "Petticoat Junction" was already heading towards cancellation by CBS prior to the "Rural Purge." It was brought back for the 1969-1970 season for syndication purposes of having more episodes in color. Then it was dropped in 1970 (with "Mary Tyler Moore" taking its spot).

We will pretend the New Andy Griffith show was just a dream.

You want to know what really happened. We were lied to about Mayberry RFD. Andy left and everyone was angry. To see him come back in a unrelated show made everyone even madder no one wanted to see him n that show we wanted him on Mayberry so no one watched it. It just never made sense to anyone why they took him off the show..

Headmaster as far as I know never made it to Australia. The New Andy Griffith also never shown in Australia.

Sister Nora has a point. Jumping out unexpectedly like that can be dangerous. What if Nora was packing heat? Might not end well for Emmet and Goober

Just came upon your channel. I must say I did like some RFD episodes. But nothing replaces TAGS!

The nail in the coffin was Mayberry RFD.

The early to mid-sixties had some of the best t.v. shows ever made, in my opinion. The Andy Griffith show, The Munster's, Beverly hillbillies, Bewitched, I dream of genie, Adams family and so on were all great shows, creative, well-made, first filmed in b&w, transitioning over to color. The mid sixties to early seventies produced Adam 12, Gilligan's Island, green acres and the like, also great kid safe t.v. I think 1960 marked the beginning of this wonderful era with The Original Andy Griffith show starting it off right. This era was, in my opinion, the best television ever made.

Worked for "Pam Ewing" and "Dr. Bob Hartley!"😂😏😴🎤👨‍🎓👨‍⚕️💃B.W.

This is insane.

It’s like Andy was witness relocation and they gave him kids and a wife.

I think if they had waited long enough for the 90s to hit right as first-run syndication took off, Nick-at-Nite essentially making classic TV popular again, and the kids who had grown up watching the show to have children of their own, they could've actually gone somewhere. I'm picturing a Northern Exposure type thing where Opie, now a widowed father, laid off from whatever job he'd have, has to move back to Mayberry, living under the same roof as his father. You could have storylines where Andy embraces the joys of fatherhood again with his nephews and niece, but has to comes to terms with them growing up, Opie struggling to fit in again with the citizens of Mayberry after being out of town for so long, Barney trying to come to terms with his added responsibilities of being the mayor, Gomer becoming a war veteran, and all of these plotlines that could've worked so well

Andy did a great ABC TV Movie can't remember the title it was an update of The Most Dangerous Game he was a hunter who hunted his guide through the desert in Arizona the guide was played by Sam Bottoms I think it was really good very suspenseful.

The strangest attempt at creating a show I've ever seen.Don didn't even have a name in the first episode.

Alternate universe? Basically.

He should have just brought in some of the same writers from the original show and brought back the character of Andy Taylor as the new Mayor of Mayberry, with Barney now the Sherriff. As Mayor he would once again have the duty of cleaning up whatever mess Barney was in the middle of. They could have also brought in Gomer, out of the Marines and married to Luann. But, would that have fixed everything? Who knows. Andy's heart was not into doing the Andy Grifftth show anymore and that is why he ended it, but he later said that ending the show was a big mistake. And, he was right about Mayberry. the town was as much the star of the show as Andy, Don, or Ron. the name Mayberry has even become a synonym for an idealized place to live. When I was a little kid I wanted to grow up and live in Mayberry.

It's funny that almost all of the shows cast off in the "rural purge" survived as reruns gor a long time after. My opinion is it was a big mistake.

Good-and funny-analysis. 😄 I ran across some of these shows last year, and yes, I also was confused. Aside from the Mayberry-not Mayberry character weirdness, though, I thought the show really wasn't that bad. But of course, how do you follow the Andy Griffith Show? That was the main problem.

Man, that’s bizarre.

I remember growing up in a place like Mayberry. While I imagine I could be prejudice but my life was very much the same.

It's funny, the SECOND I saw the Title "The NEW Andy Griffith Show" I knew this was going to be the case. And I can see that even Mayberry RFD didn't quite cut it either. It seems that RARELY do Spin-Offs and NEW versions of tv shows "make it" successfully. It's just hard to re-capture the feel of MAGIC. Like a relationship - you can't re-capture a moment in time. It's just not really do-able. I know that SOME "New" versions of shows were great, but it's rare. One example (which is a little different than these examples) were the Twilight Zones! EVERY SINGLE version (apart from the newest Jordan Peele version - which is AWFUL!) were AMAZING! Same with The Outer Limits!

Thanks for this video! I stumbled across the new Andy Griffith Show the other day and I turned it off after about half of it. I just could not fathom goober and Emmett Etc appearing when Andy's name is Sawyer and not taylor. It was a real head scratcher. Or, as you say, and alternate universe. It made absolutely no sense. And I would have to agree with you about Mayberry being one of the Prime reasons for watching. In fact, when I want to watch an episode of The Andy Griffith show, I don't think of it as Andy Griffith Show but rather as, "I want to go to Mayberry."

Ang is a combo of Andy's birth name: AN...Griffith. Ang...

The best thing was casting Lee Meriwether as Andy's wife...their chemistry together in the film ANGEL IN MY POCKET was raved over by what Robert Duvall calls "the holy goddam NEW YORK TIMES"

I watched this show. I even tried watching headmaster too. They tried to get the ratings going on the “new” show by bringing on the old characters. Before that show began they had heavy publicity!

Yeah I could see Helen going through a fit of rage by seeing Andy with Lee. I mean it may not hit boiling bunny on the stove level, but I would give anything to see Helen say “I won’t be ignored Andy”

It would have better if it had been an episode of "The Twilight Zone" or "Rod Serling's Night Gallery," which had just begun running when "The New Andy Griffith Show" was on the air.

Even the kid we see in that clip looks like Buddy Foster, who played Sam Jones' son on RFD

I think the country was changing with shows like All in The Family emerging, the audience saw Andy Taylor/Sawyer as part of that 60's rural era.

Never heard of it.

It wasnt just the town of Mayberry but the characters in the town of Mayberry we love, also TAG was a 60's show not a 70's show.

Andy tried a new show late 70's early 80's. Called salvage 360 or something like that

Andy Griffith thought that he was the star, the draw. Whereas, it was the town and all those characters, especially Don Knotts to made the show a classic. Interestingly, in looking back at late 50's and early 60's show several actors said how much they loved the Andy Griffith show and all wished that they lived in a town like Mayberry.

My husband and I always watch Andy Griffith show. I do recall the rfd spinoff show. Last week I discovered this show. Yeah, it was ummm different and couldn't get into it.

I would be curious to learn more about Headmaster, but I understand that per Griffith’s wishes all episodes are carefully hidden away.

Lucille Ball is the only person I know of who starred in her own successful sitcom more than once , three to be exact ,I love Lucy,The Lucy Show and heres Lucy

He was in the witness protection program and yes if Helen Crump would have shown up that would have been the best and you're absolutely right she seemed to be grumpy with Andy more often than not. Remember the first time he met her?? Wow , she went off on him. 😮😮😮 great videos 📹 👌

They appeared to boost the ratings for his new show.

Waiting until OP decides to look back at Andy Griffith in the series "Salvage 1".

Maybe if they made everything a hallucination that Otis had when they got him into the Raleigh Rehabilitation Center.

It was just a mid season replacement. It would be interesting to see what show it replaced. Shows like All In The Family killed the remaining ones "with a tree".

Youre welcome.💯💪

It was also set in North Carolina as was the original, Lee Meriwether used her first name as well....they should have made a clean break and it may have worked then.

"The perpetually angry Helen Crump." 😄 Yes, you got that right. She was a great actress. I just hope she wasn't angry like that in real life! Peggy was much more likeable.

Should've just continued the Mayberry storyline years later...keep the connection between those same characters the audience felt like they knew personally and cared about and the town of Mayberry.

Like he said. ... Mayberry itself was loved.

It's probably true. Lot of water had passed Under the bridge the town of Mayberry was the main reason of the success of the first Andy Griffith show sheriff Taylor was the glue that held it all together!; Then we have a new Andy as mayor or whatever lost its charm! Don knots wasn't the same Barney Fife kept it together now in civis. Coat and tie and a hat wasn't fun new wife and a person I guess was to be a replacement for Aunt Bea. No home spun feeling no Opie doesn't work either! However about Head master that was a fairly good show should have given it more of a chance of course Matlock once again captured Andy Griffith true sprit and dob knots as Les Calhoun' added flavor as well as cliff and billy and Michelle and LeAnn all played off each other quite EASY. Conrad as a private investigator gave a feeling of warmth !

Andy was 46 when he did this show. He lookef so old but like a true sitcom trope he snagged a much younger wife. 😂😂

Very bizarre,like a weird dream Andy Taylor may have had.

I wonder if the great writers of the original show, were part of the trainwreck.

That's bizzare

Thanks for this article! I watched a episode of the new andy griffin show and must say it wasn’t bad but it definitely lacked the humour of his previous show. Lee Merriweather was a well traveled actress but I don’t think she was really a comedy type although I know she tried.

Strange thing, very strange, about Andy Griffith. Although he was the star of the show (by the way, to me the last three years of the Andy Griffith show do not exist. So when I say "the show", I'm talking about the first five years), even though he was the star of the show, and that wonderful first five years would not have worked without him, especially as he portrayed the Taylor character in its first 3 to 4 years, it seems that Andy Griffith simply did not "get it". He was clueless when it comes to what made the show wonderful and why it's fans loved and still love it so much even to this day. Other actors on the show, such as Betty Lynn for example, most definitely did "get it". But Andy Griffith was clueless on the matter. Strange. The old saying says, "You can take the boy out of the country but you can't take the country out of the boy". That did not seem to be the case with Andy Griffith. I think he let Hollywood take the "country" out of him. Pity.

The witness protection program didn't do a very good job relocating Andy Taylor... or even renaming him! Maybe Mayberry Multiverse?

👍👍

I never knew about this with his last name as Sawyer. no wonder it failed. we didn't know him as anyone other than Sheriff Taylor.

It was the truth about Mayberry, but the second thing was Don Knotts. I never cared much for the show after he left. Andy Griffith was a good actor, he fit the sheriff perfect, but had Don Knotts been on the show, I don't think it would have gone as long....

if I could find a little town like Mayberry where shops are within walking distance protected by a common sense sheriff from drifters crooks & cons with good internet access I'd be moving tomorrow.

That's a right spiffy sky old Barn is sporting

Andy Taylor had married Helen Crump and had another son, Andrew Jr. If they had wanted to reintroduce the Mayberry characters that is the format they should've used. It never made sense to me the direction they took instead.

That is low-key THE SCARIEST I’ve ever seen Lee Meriwether’s Catwoman (granted, out of the catsuit, and as Miss Kitka, but still…

It failed partly because it was marketed AGAINST the nostalgia most audiences want for that world. It is against itself. The NEW Andy Griffith Show title is just strange to a lot of people. I’m just glad Andy got back on his feet on television in the 80’s with Matlock.

They should’ve just started up the old show again with Don Knotts and the rest of the cast and let it play out another 5 years. Most of the cast were still around and could’ve came back as well., they could’ve cast actors from Hee Haw that would’ve been great.

Whoa, the far reach of that Mandela Effect! This didn’t exist in my universe back then.

The New Andy Griffith show brought to you by The New Coke. What could go wrong?

It looks like network execs saw the original pilot, didn't like it, and in desperation shot extra scenes that shoehorned in the Mayberry characters.

I never heard of this show. I watched Mayberry RFD with Ken Barry when new, which was a dull show. The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock are the only shows I knew of of Andy's. Any show Andy would be on and go back to Mayberry shouldve had Helen as his wife, they married in a reunion movie.

Yes, I'm surprised they got away with all that, having the same friends names, Barney, Goober and Emmet but I'm glad.

CBS had its head up its corporate butt when it did the rural purge to make room for trash like “All In the Family.” To this day, I cannot stomach that show. Thank God for MeTV.

The main reason that show bombed was because Andy Griffith played 'Andy Sawyer', married, with two children, living in 'Greenwood, N.C.'..HOWEVER, ......still engaged with the same characters from the fictional town of Mayberry from Griffith's old show. Not the best combination and that's why it didn't work. Viewers were left more confused than anything else. Basically, this show was an alternate universe of what 'The Andy Griffith Show' was. And Griffith's portrayal of 'Andy Sawyer' was exactly how he portrayed 'Andy Taylor'.

How would you rank Andy's love interests from the original show?

It was off putting to watch the first episode. It was watching an alternate universe version of characters we all loved. It made me start question if andy griffith was just a one trick poney. If they just brought Andy back to Mayberry with Helen, and Andy Jr, and had him as the Mayor of Mayberry, I think people would have been more receptive. Dealing with new challenges with a family and the administrative challenges of running a small town.

It is typecasting of a sort...look what happened to MTM; started a new show not long after her big one ended, which allowed her to do the things she loved to do like dancing...and it failed miserably. People now saw her as either Rob's wife or as 'Mary' making it after all.

Same reason the new Dick Van dyke show bombed,fans were used to the way the original shows were and the new ones just didn't work.

I've never understood Goober's hat. What in the world is that thing and why in the world was he wearing it? It looks like a children's headdress.

I know why Andy changed his surname, he was a polygamist… He had an entirely new family here. No Opie or Helen in sight. It’s that simple, really. 😆

What is weird is that Andy gets married in the first episode of Mayberry RFD then there is the new AGS. Helen is nowhere to be seen. Rural comedy was good until it was declared unhip. Y’all come back now, you hear. Hee Haw was syndicated.

They really didn’t think this show out at all. Made no sense.