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Permalink Reply by Allan "Floyd" Newsome on January 6, 2012 at 8:55am

I had watched The Andy Griffith Show off and on for most of my life and I knew some of the characters but it wasn't until college that I got "hooked." 

My roommate, Rob, was a fan of the show and had joined The Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club.  Rob even had a chapter of TAGSRWC (the name of that chapter escapes my memory) back in our home town and he had every back issue of "The Bullet" (The Official Newsletter of TAGSRWC).

Every night, at 10:05pm, The Andy Griffith Show came on a local station and no matter what was going on or how much studying we had to do, Rob and I stopped everything to watch the show on TV.  It was a great stress release from the pressures of engineering classes.

I'll never forget the "first" time I watched...I mean really watched and absorbed..."Opie's Charity."  When Andy is in the courthouse, Opie walks in and Andy says: "Well ... If it ain't Charlie Moneybags, the big philanthropist. How d'y' do?" A smile was on my face from that moment and with every comment made by Opie in response to Andy's questions ..."I could ask 'em to give back two cents",  "I never seen one, paw", "A half-boy", "Poor Horatio",  and more..

By the time Opie got to "Poor Horatio" I was sitting in the floor in front of the chair I had started out in. Tears filled my eyes and breath was hard to come by.  Opie wouldn't stop with the one liners though and by the time he said "A sock in the head" followed by "I enjoyed it..." I was actually rolling on the floor.

I envy folks that are just discovering The Andy Griffith Show and that they get to enjoy "for the first time" scenes like Poor Horatio having never seen it before. 

I'll never forget that "first" time and how hooked on The Andy Griffith Show I became.  That rush of happiness and joy in my heart created by watching my friends in Mayberry has done me well in my life.

Note: You can watch that scene for yourself on YouTube or read the dialog at The Mayberry Historical Society.

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Permalink Reply by Emmett Clark on January 14, 2012 at 3:22am

I know just houw you feel, Floyd.   I don't remember watching TAGS in it's first run, but I really got hooked in '96 when they opened up the Mayberry Cafe in Danville, IN.    I was living there at the time, and they had a big story in the local paper about the Mayberry Cafe opening up, and I KNEW I had to go see it.    LOVE that place, and that's what got me hooked.   When we got our first computer in '07, TAGS was the first thing I searched for, and I joined WBMETBB, and the rest is history.    I have never had so much fun while awake.    Thanks for all you do for all TAGS fans.

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Permalink Reply by albert wbmutbb on January 6, 2012 at 3:03pm

Looking wayyyy back to when I was a squirt, my earliest recollections of TAGS was watching it at my grandparents house. It came on in the afternoon with a block of other repeat syndicated shows and was called Andy of Mayberry. And of course, the whistling intro!! Once you hear that, you never forget it!

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Permalink Reply by HistoryBuff on January 10, 2012 at 12:41pm

I agree about the memorable whistled intro. I think that's probably my earliest memory of the show. I'm old enough that I started watching TAGS with my family when it first aired, when I was entering high school. I continued to watch it, in the dormitory TV rooms along with many other girls, through four years of college. I seem to remember that I graduated about a week after the final episode "Mayberry R.F.D."  aired. Those of us college coeds who were there to earn more than a Mrs were pretty derisive about the portrayal of women in Mayberry. I still remember the hooting & catcalls that erupted when Aunt Bee asked Andy's permission to buy herself a car! But I think all of us still loved the essential goodness that permeated the show and its characters, and that's what kept us watching every week. Now that I think about it, I guess that sums up why I'm still watching it today too!

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Permalink Reply by johnna santos on January 13, 2012 at 9:29pm

I don't remember the first time I watched TAGS, I just always have.  I like the fact that everyone cares about each other from the town drunk on up and goes out of the way to prevent hurt feelings.  Also I like the slower way of life that is represented on the show.  As my husband says I like living in my "Mayberry Worlld" as opposed to the the real one.  Well real life reached up and slapped us in the face 3 yrs ago when we lost our son on Christmas moring to an illness we didn't even know he had til 2 wks before he passed.  He was almost two.  Now the show is a comfort when I am having Danny moments at night and can't sleep.  I can just escape to my "mayberry world"  where everything is always right with the world.

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Permalink Reply by albert wbmutbb on January 19, 2012 at 12:58pm

Hmmmm.... Mayberry thinking... What with lunch time fast approaching, I was thinking how nice it would be to have a pound steak right about now. You know, the kind that's pounded right on the premises. I'll pass on the violin serenade though... I don't have a spare quarter to cover that kind of a nicety.

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Permalink Reply by Grady Edward Akridge on February 4, 2012 at 7:31pm

I know why Mayberry was such a happy place to live... Nobody was MARRIED! Well except Otis. Now we know why he stayed drunk all the time & refused to go home!!

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Permalink Reply by Andy Paul Lawson on January 29, 2012 at 1:32pm

 When I was in the USAF, my bunkmate would laugh all night long reading No Time For Sergeants. Then, when the movie came out, I fell in love with Andy's comedy, so of course, I couldn't wait to see his new television program. Been a fan ever since. My father and I loved watching it together. In fact, we were like the Mendelbright sisters talking about it.

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Permalink Reply by Allan "Floyd" Newsome on January 29, 2012 at 4:52pm

Did your feet fall asleep?  I wonder what causes that?  Maybe I should go see their doctor.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra Sils on January 30, 2012 at 4:43pm

Can't remember when I saw my first episode, probably while I was a baby since I was born in 1964 (I don't care if people know my age), but seems like I've watched it practically all my life.  I remember when personal tape recorders became popular in the 70's and my sister and I got our parents' one out to record some of the songs the Darlings were playing, we just thought that was the coolest thing--we didn't get out much  :)  Still love the show today, and whenever I feel the need to just get away from the hustle & bustle of real life I can always count on my good neighbors from Mayberry to provide that little respite.

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Permalink Reply by albert wbmutbb on January 31, 2012 at 10:46pm

The only other show that I saw more of, than The Andy Griffith Show, was I Love Lucy. Seems that Lucy has been on KTTV (channel 11) in re-runs since the early 60's. I had a good TV childhood. I was spoon-fed a steady diet of Lucy and Andy throughout my formative years.

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Permalink Reply by Jimmy Lee Young on February 1, 2012 at 12:38am

Hello, how are all of you. My name is Jim Young. I am in Tacoma Washington where I retired as a nurse. I was born in Mt Airy, Nc and grew up on Willow street. I miss my hometown sometimes and its good to see this site up and running, Thank you, and bless you all.

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