User Reviews

I've never seen more than a couple of episodes of the Andy Griffith Show. But for some reason, I saw probably the entire run of Mayberry RFD in reruns during the mid-70s. Mainly because it happened to be on after I got home from school, most likely.

What surprises me looking back is how good an actor Ken Berry was. Generally a comic actor (and a fine dancer to boot), as Sam Jones he was essentially a straight man and his performances here were always nicely understated (too much so for some people, judging from other comments here) and very believable. From time to time, he showed quite a bit of depth.

I'm thinking right now of a couple of episodes. 1) Sam's struggling with a mild depression after some of his crops fail. 2) He and Millie are in Los Angeles (don't remember why), they have a fight and make up. Something about the emotion Ken Berry delivered in these - not too much, always knowing just how far to step outside his character's ordinary range - made then unexpectedly powerful.

I also remember an episode in which Sam does a very funny eccentric dance as part of a talent show of some kind.

The secret to a really good sit-com is that it convinces us we're watching real people, even when some of the characters are a bit outlandish. Ken Berry in this show always kept me believing I was watching real people.

Andy Griffith made an end to his TV show but the citizens of Mayberry still had a couple of years of life left in them with Mayberry, RFD.

Sheriff Andy Taylor and school teacher Helen Crump married and moved away from Mayberry. To give the new show a central character Ken Berry fresh from F Troop plays Sam Jones, a farmer just elected to the Mayberry town council is brought in. He's a widower like Andy Taylor was and raising a small son Buddy Foster. He even hires Aunt Bea to be his housekeeper now that Frances Bavier no longer had to keep house for Andy and Opie.

All the other Mayberry regulars and semi-regulars were retained and the show did well for two seasons. But at that point CBS pulled all its rural based shows to get a different market. And at that point those Mayberry characters like Paul Hartman, George Lindsey, Jack Dodson etc. all went to television Valhalla.

Sad the show ran into CBS's determination to get younger viewers. It's the seniors who watched this and other rural type shows and the seniors least likely to respond to advertising pitches.

Other than reunion movies this ended our look into Mayberry, North Carolina.

I remember watching this series on re-runs in the early and mid 70's. I now, as then, liked the original THE ANDY GRIFFETH SHOW better but was still entertained. I had not seen an episode of Mayberry R.F.D. in probably over 20 years as it is not shown in syndication like TAGS is. However, last year and this year I was able to watch and tape most of the episodes off of TV Land and in doing so have gained a new respect for the show.

I remember as a kid watching TAGS and always knowing when the episode stories and characters were going down the tubes. I could tell this by the episodes that were in color. The color episodes meant that Mayberry was a town no longer lost in time but now it had a more up to date feel. Also, key characters would leave the show such as Barny & Floyd. I really missed these guys and somehow Emmet and Howard did not replace them. Lastly, the final season of TAGS was less about Andy and more about Sam Jones and this was somewhat disappointing.

Now watching M-R.F.D. I feel differently. The final season of TAGS was a good way to bridge the two shows. I think it would have been harder on the fans if all of a sudden Sam Jones showed up on the scene while Andy fell by the wayside. Oddly enough I find myself now liking the new characters such as Howard and Emmet. I don't view them as replacements for other missing characters. Somehow in this series they seem to belong. I do wish that there had been more of Aunt Bee in M-R.F.D..

So even though Mayberry no longer seems quite as rural and laid back and even if some of the plots are borrowed from TAGS it is still a good show and makes me and probably others feel good. I look forward to visiting Mayberry no matter if its via TAGS or M-R.F.D..

When TV viewers were introduced to Mayberry in 1960, they were instantly immersed into this idyllic small town. A place to tune out the troubles of the world and easily transport yourself among the "real" characters that became friends. And I've seen real-life friendships made between strangers discussing "The Andy Griffith Show". Most of the country lives "in the country"- rural settings that make the show all the more relatable. Other fans live in bustling cities where their TV connection to Mayberry is the link to escape to that quieter place. I've lived in both... and returned to the rural setting, lucky enough to share similarities to Mayberry.

Fans widely agree that "The Andy Griffith Show" began a steady decline when Don Knotts left the show following the fifth season. But, the ratings never dropped, and it ended it's run as the number one rated TV show on air (a feat only shared with "I Love Lucy" and "Seinfeld"). The characters were less interesting; the plots weaker. But, the viewers kept tuning in. They had long become residents themselves of Mayberry. It was home.

"Mayberry R.F.D." (Rural Farm Delivery) allowed these "citizens" of Mayberry a little longer in their beloved, fictitious escape. The sequel was essentially a continuation of "The Andy Griffith Show". The sitcom follows life in Mayberry after Andy (Andy Griffith), Helen (Aneta Corsaut), and Opie (Ron Howard) depart the spotlight for a new life. Widower farmer and town council president Sam Jones (Ken Berry, "F Troop", "Mama's Family") raises his young son Mike (Buddy Foster) as he grows through life lessons. The father and son are cared for by their housekeeper Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier, and later Alice, played by Alice Ghostley). Sam also balances his love life with his girlfriend Millie (Arlene Golonka). As the series progresses, plots increasingly revolve around Goober (George Lindsey), who now owns Wally's Filling Station, county clerk Howard Sprague (Jack Dodson), and handyman Emmett Clark (Paul Hartman) who still runs his fix-it shop. The series ran for three successful seasons (1968-71) before falling victim to CBS's "rural purge".

"Mayberry R.F.D." had some good episodes, but generally carried on the steady decline. A few episodes stand out for its comedy, namely Don Knott's sole appearance in the very first episode. The tone in the series is much softer than "The Andy Griffith Show". The stories are often light and not very developed, and the laughs few and far between. It's just a sweet little visit with old friends. "Mayberry R.F.D." merely allows us to mingle in the most idyllic town ever created for a little longer, and for that we're appreciative.

I am about to say something that no-doubt will annoy many. While "The Andy Griffith Show" was one of the best shows in television history, after a while it really outlived its usefulness. Without Barney as a series regular, the show tried a variety of either annoying replacements (Warren!!!) or insipid ones (Howard and Emmett)--none of which gave the show the wonderful comedic balance it once had. To make matters worse, after the show limped through three mediocre such seasons, the powers that be at CBS decided to continue the show even when Andy left!!! The 'clever' plan was to introduce a widower, Sam (Ken Berry), who would move to town with his son AND apparently buy Aunt Bee! Talk about a contrived premise--and a poor copy of the original. So now without either leading man, the show was nothing but insipid characters...period. That, in a nutshell, is "Mayberry R.F.D."--like the original show but with none of the humor or interesting characters. Now this isn't to say that the show was bad--it just was bland and inoffensive and that still made it better than some shows. But who wants to live on a steady diet of bland toast--which is, metaphorically speaking, "Mayberry R.F.D.".

When Andy Griffith decided to leave his own show in 1968 to focus on a movie career, the show continued on under the title Mayberry RFD. Instead of Griffith, Ken Berry, a year after F Troop ended, portrayed a similar character Sam Jones. He was also a widower with a young son, played by Buddy Foster, the brother of actress Jodie Foster.

Also returning were the familiar characters of Goober, Emmett, Howard Sprague and Aunt Bee. Also returning was Arlene Golonka as Sam's love interest Millie. She brought beauty to the show. After the second season, Frances Bavier, who played Aunt bee since The Andy Griffith Show began in 1960, left the show and was replaced by Alice Ghostley as Aunt Alice.

Even without Griffith and Ron Howard, Mayberry RFD didn't miss a beat and turned out to be a very popular rural sitcom. Unfortunately, with ratings still high, CBS canceled the show as part of the Rural Purge in 1971. It's a show that hasn't had a long run as Andy Griffith and it deserves to be rerun on a network such as METV. Mayberry RFD continued the tradition of wholesome, rural sitcoms and shouldn't have been canceled while it was still on top of its game.

Without a doubt a waste of a half an hour, Mayberry R.F.D is the absolute worst type of sellout. Oddly, Mayberry R.F.D makes the baffling desicion to bring back none of the character that made its predecessor funny. Instead vying to bring back such cardboard cutouts as goober, aunt bee, emmet, and others. They have also injected a new character (if he could be called a character), sam, who can I have given the friendly nickname of "oatmeal". Sam is played by Ken berry, who already has proved his incompetence as an actor in the television abomination known as "f-troop". Without question mayberry R.F.D can only be considered a profound waste of time. Ultimately, Mayberry RFD is to the Andy griffith show as afterMASH is to MASH: a bad show trying to Ride on the coat tails of its predecessor. All in all, I'd say that Mayberry RFD doesn't deserve the time of day. 2.5 out of 10 stars.

I grew up on the Mayberry shows. They're along the best shows ever created for television and everything since has been pale in comparison to warmth, charm, and responsibility.

The Andy Griffith Show was a hard act to follow but Ken Berry and company followed through just fine.

It's the cast and the stories that taught morals and responsibility like it's predecessor that makes this show remarkable. CBS should run it again just to set our moral compass right.

Buddy Foster did a great job. Same with everyone on the cast who are now legendary and beloved. The scripts, the directing and storytelling just what the doctor ordered.

When the rural shows were pulled off television our country took a moral nosedive.

We need more shows like this.

MRFD benefits from it's TAGS carryover good feeling. I'm more lenient in my 7 out of 10 rating because of this. Without it's TAGS ties on its own it merits no higher than a 4.

The biggest problems it had was it's two lead actors Sam Jones (Ken Berry) and son Mike (Buddy Foster) were mostly very bland and could be "dry as dust". The writing was a huge dropoff from TAGS. Sam's signature preachy teach a lesson shtick never clicked. Then, Alice Ghostley in season 3 was a disaster.

The pluses were the return from TAGS of George Lindsey, Paul Hartman, Jack Dodson, pretty Arlene Golonka, and Frances Bavier. The best episodes centered around this wonderful core. Also, many great lesser TAGS supporting actors returned which was a treat.

Quality was somewhere between the underrated TAGS color episodes and stinker TAGS reunion movies.

Goober was the unfunny creepy version of Gomer Pyle. Jack Dodson as Howard Sprague was the overly strict busy body that was always meddling in everyone's life. In the real world, those guys are usually serial killers. Ken Berry, the insipid moronic Lieutenant from F-Troop joined the Mayberry TV series as a farmer who lived in town and had no farm. In order to replace Opie, they found some fat-faced, buck-toothed kid that had all the charisma of an eggplant. Aunt Bee was given a recurring role as Ken Berry's house servant. Apparently when Andy Griffith took off he sold the house from under her, and left Aunt Bee homeless and jobless.

Mayberry TFD was the most horrible comedy show on television from 1968 to 1971.

For the first 10 years of my life, Mayberry was a part of my life. I was born a few months after TAGS premiered, I was 10 when RFD went off the air. Both shows were part of my childhood. The black and white episodes of TAGS were much better than the color episodes. Somehow it lost part of its charm. I tried watching TAGS color episodes in black and white, and it still was not the same. Sure Don Knotts leaving the show had an impact, but somehow Mayberry itself felt different. The first 5 seasons of TAGS I would give a 10/10 rating. I give the last three seasons of TAGS and all the seasons of RFD 7/10. When the first season of RFD came out on DVD, I bought it the instant I saw it on the store shelf. I liked and still like the show. Perhaps a little more now than when I was a kid. I waited and waited for Seasons 2 and 3 to come out on DVD. Then a few days ago, I saw the complete series on DVD in Walmart. I was thrilled. I have been binge watching it since I bought it. I loved Alice Ghostley in everything I have seen her in, including RFD. With that said, I miss Aunt Bea in the 3rd season. I have always been curious as to why she did not appear in the final season and I have yet to find an answer to that.

TV was growing up as I was growing up. First came "That Girl" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." I loved the MTM show from the beginning, perhaps because of "The Dick Van Dyke Show." But my point being, after the infamous rural purge, most of my favorite shows including RFD went off the air. I think the only one left was "Here's Lucy." As I was growing up and losing my innocence, TV was growing up and losing its innocence too. We went from wholesome TV shows like the Paul Henning shows and TAGS/RFD to "All in the Family" and all the Norman Lear shows overnight, which I slowly learned to love and still do. However, as I said, TV lost its innocence overnight, it took me a little more time. I am not an old prude, but I look back on shows like RFD and the "clean" humor and I miss it. Norman Lear helped me grow up and helped to take away my innocence, and for that I am grateful, however also a bit sad about it. To this day, I love watching the old reruns of the Lucille Ball shows, and the rural comedies, and love it when I see an episode I am sure I have seen, but don't remember it, which at my age seems to happen more and more often. I think I am enjoying RFD more now than when I was a kid because I don't remember most of the episodes. Shows like RFD take me back to my wonderful childhood, not only are they still funny, there is a feeling of nostalgia watching them. Watching RFD now, I think it could have had at least 1 or 2 good seasons left, if CBS had not, as Pat Buttram said, "cancelled every show with a tree."

Mayberry RFD comes on the heels of the final 3 bland seasons of The Andy Griffith Show. I know TAGS ratings were still high, but surely it was obvious to all that those had to do with the general admiration of Griffith himself. The writing and plots had gotten very stale and somewhat silly. Why was there a need to continue the story from there? M-RFD is just sorta "there" with no real purpose and no real point of interest for the viewer.

As for greggondron, I would suggest a good psychiatrist. You need help.

For the purpose of the new 600 character requirement: Mayberry RFD comes on the heels of the final 3 bland seasons of The Andy Griffith Show. I know TAGS ratings were still high, but surely it was obvious to all that those had to do with the general admiration of Griffith himself. The writing and plots had gotten very stale and somewhat silly. Why was there a need to continue the story from there? M-RFD is just sorta "there" with no real purpose and no real point of interest for the viewer.

As many people know this show is essentially a sequel to the Andy Griffith Show. The producers decided that instead of canceling the show all together, they would continue it with essentially the same cast except for the leads. Ken Berry and Arlene Golonka were okay replacements for Andy Griffith and Aneta Corsaut, but Sam and Millie were no Andy and Helen. Also, even though this show was still popular at the time of the rural purge of 1971, I don't think that its cancellation hit people as hard as the cancellations of The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres.

Read a post on here said Sam Jones was sheriff no i heard Warren took over and we never saw the replacement for Andy

When Don Knotts left TAGS, things went downhill with the dreadful characters that remained behind. Howard, Floyd, Goober, and Emmett were not good, not entertaining, and hard to watch.

Sam was just as bad. Ken Berry isn't going to offend anyone, inspire anyone, and certainly was not interesting. The presence of Aunt Bee was actually the strongest connection to the past, but they gave her a kid actor who just wasn't interesting.

We as a family watched it to the bitter end but it was not a major blow when it went off the air. It followed other shows leaving the air too, mostly on CBS though everything about TV up to that time was also screeching to a halt.

Mayberry RFD was one of the quinessential follow-ups to one of the most beloved and most wholesome sitcoms of all time("The Andy Griffith Show") which ran for three seasons before it became the onslaught on the network's crusade of eliminating its rural programming(which it was on CBS-TV and ran from 1968-1971).

The series here picked up where TAGS left off leaving the fictional town of Mayberry,North Carolina-USA under a new sheriff Sam Jones(played by Ken Berry)and leaving Andy Taylor into another position. However,just like Andy Taylor,Sam Jones was also a single dad raising a little boy as well named Mike(played by Buddy Foster) who was taken care of by Aunt Bee(played by Frances Bavier)while his dad has job duties as the law and order of the town and just like Sheriff Taylor,Sheriff Jones also didn't carry a gun,and what he carry was a heart of gold. However,this show did very well without Andy Griffith(who was the executive producer of the series along with Bob Ross)and it still had the same characters everyone has grown to love..........

However,you had Howard(Jack Dodson)who was head of the town council, Emmett(Paul Hartman)who ran the fix-it-shop,and then there's the unpredictable and lovable Goober Pyle(played by George Lindsey)who brought out and now runs Wally's Service Station and the rest of the town's folks.

The episode that was my favorite was the wedding of Andy Taylor during the show's first season where audiences would see Andy Taylor finally walked down the aisle of the church with his sweetheart Helen Crump (played by Aneta Corseaut) along with the rest of the original cast of TAGS (guest stars Don Knotts,Jim Nabors,Ronnie Howard,and even The Dillard's--and even town regulars Ernest T. Bass and Otis were there!)since this was the episode where after the wedding the scenary goes from Mayberry to sunny Florida where the newlyweds Andy and Helen Taylor are having their honeymoon.

But still,the show did have some great moments,even though it didn't last long on the air. The series was cancelled in the spring of 1971. This show was one of CBS' changing(or primary assault) of its rural programming of that year(1971) which included"Green Acres", "The Beverly Hillbillies","Petticoat Junction","Hee-Haw","The Glen Campbell Show","The Jim Nabors Hour",and this series. Catch the episodes on TV Land!

So "Mayberry R.F.D." was to "The Andy Griffith Show." M-R.F.D. was a pale imitation of the original, merely an attempt to keep TAGS rolling without Griffith & Co., who made the show what it was. I disliked M-R.F.D., and felt that there was no reason (save sheer greed) for the TV Execs to prolong the format with this thing.

And Buddy Foster was no Ron Howard, blond hair and plaid shirt or no.

"Mayberry R.F.D." is basically "The Andy Griffith Show" without the key performers, the direction, the writing or the story-lines. What we are left with are city councilman Ken Berry and a sparse group of holdovers (Frances Bavier, Paul Hartman and Jack Dodson). Surprisingly the public did not seem to care as the show ran the better part of four years and completed 78 episodes. By the late-1960s "The Andy Griffith Show" had become stale though (even Griffith admitted to this) and losses like Don Knotts, Ron Howard, Howard Morris, Denver Pyle, Betty Lynn and Hal Smith were way too much to overcome. CBS held on to the idea out of respect, good manners and consistently above-average ratings, but the writing had been on the wall for quite some time when "Mayberry R.F.D." went the way of the dodo in 1971. Personally, I think this detracts from the original program and I have ended up dismissing it. But that is just me. 2 stars out of 5.

This show was cute and innocent like the original, but it lagged a bit in some episodes. But I found out that if the episodes centered around the trio of Goober, Howard and Emmett, then it was funny as anything!! It was hilarious how those three could play off of each other, as they picked up the void of comedy left by Ken Berry and Arlene Golonka (does she always sound like a little girl when she speaks??) Ken Berry was funny when he was on Mama's Family, but in this show, he is not funny at all. But it is still a good show.

I was really happy to see that Mayberry RFD is back on the air. I have never really seen this show except for a few episodes but am anxious to start watching it. As a die-hard fan of The Andy Griffith Show I know this show isn't as good but It's interesting to watch the next generation of Mayberrian's. My favorite episode I've seen so far is the Wedding of Andy and Helen.

I remember watching this show in the early '80s. Good show. I barely remember watching it in the'60s. Back then, I was on the road a lot. I used to travel in the summer and I didn't watch that much TV. The show was about Howard Dodson, the newly elected city councilman of Mayberry, North Carolina, (Andy Griffith's home town of Mount Airy, North Carolina.) The series premiere had Andy Taylor married his long- time girlfriend Helen Crump. Howard has a son named Mike. Millie was the local waitress at the local diner and Emmett ran the local fix-it shop. He fixed everything. Unfortunately, it was cancelled by CBS because Fred Silverman, then the president of CBS, in his "infinite wisdom", thought that only old people in rural areas watched it.