Here’s a thought....

Last night I mentioned that maybe Mr. Schwamp’s identity is buried deep in the CBS archives.  Well, I did a little bit of snooping and discovered that, in 2011 and 2012, Production Supervisor Ronald Jacobs donated all of his “papers” from his television career to the UCLA special collections library.  The bulk of this collection is listed as script files, and includes his time with TAGS.  According to IMDb, he was production supervisor for all of the 26 TAGS episodes listed for Mr. S. on the TAGS Wiki site.  I’d like to think that somewhere in those files lies the answer to the secret of Mr. Schwamp.  Although I don’t live anywhere near UCLA, I’d love to someday browse through those files (without over-expecting) to see if the secret would be revealed.  

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  • It would be fun to find out...but if not, the mystery is kind of fun, too. I think I spotted him as one of the extras in the dance scene of the movie, Christmas in Connecticut! He seemed exactly the same- typical Mr. Shwamp! :) (I'm a trained noticer)

  • Why would you want to catch ole Sam and take him out of the lake?  here's another fun fact.  Of all the times he was called out. he was always called Mr Schwamp.  Think of how many other characters were called different names.  

  • you know, I had given up hope that we'd ever solve the one last great mystery of The Andy Griffith Show....Mr. Schwamp is our Loch Ness Monster, our Bigfoot, our Area 51.

    I remember what seems like 20 years ago there was discussion of taking out an ad in a Hollywood trade magazine asking for help to solving this case.

    and now....a glimmer of hope gleams in the night sky of Mayberry.  I believe I'll go rub the head of a red haired boy for good luck.

  • Bernie, you might be on to something here.  Your education was worth every penny!  I too have been known to spend hours and hours going through old records on microfilm and would love to see something like this.

  •  https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8sn0h3r/entire_text/

    It would not be too hard. The folders are identified by episode. And https://mayberry.fandom.com/wiki/Mr._Schwamp gives the episodes.

    Jacobs (Ronald) papers
    • Absolutely!  And, as Keevy pointed out, it could be quite interesting.  Of course we’d have to wait for the library to open again.  Hey, between research sessions there could be photo-ops, like holding stars’ newspapers.  

  • Absolutely worth checking out! Sure wish I lived there, I love digging through stuff like that. A couple years ago I used an entire week of vacation exploring the papers of a local man who operated an amusement park here for decades and had donated all the papers pertaining to the park's operation to a local university.

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