If you could live anywhere in TV on DVD Land... (1 Viewer)

[JohnMor]

I always wanted to live in the Petrie house on the Dick Van Dyke show and have a wife named Laura.
I did get the second one!

Does she mambo in the living room in capri pants?

 

[MarkA]

She certainly does!

 

[David Weicker]

She certainly does!

but how is her "Oh Maaaarrrrkkk?"

 

[MarkA]

David...I just laughed out loud!

 

[Harry-N]

I actually had a chance to visit in "Mayberry" this past week. On a trip to North Carolina, we found ourselves looking for someplace to eat. Some searches turned up a restaurant called "Mayberry's" in a little nearby town called Brevard, NC. I believe that there are a number of these small towns in the Carolinas that like to claim some part of the Mayberry legacy left by THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, and Brevard is probably just one of them.

As we arrived in town, there it was - a courthouse-looking building on a corner. A barbershop that looked like it could have been Floyds; the local diner where we ate (called Mayberry's - loaded with signs and memorabilia from the show and recent celebratory events) and the local sheriff and his deputy came in to grab a bite to eat; the toy store across the street that was simply called "O.P.Taylor".

It all just felt like Mayberry. Would I want to live there? I'm not sure. Now that I live in Florida, I kind of like the weather that we get. It was pretty cold up in North Carolina last week. But the people were friendly, and the town was indeed inviting.

Harry

 

[Gary OS]

Interesting, Harry. The actual town that Mayberry was structured on is Mount Airy, North Carolina in the northern part of the state where Andy was born. I've been there several times and they have numerous buildings and locations that match up the series (on purpose at this point no doubt to cash in on tourism). There actually are nearby locations that were mentioned on the series like Pilot Mountain (Mt. Pilot on the show) and Fancy Gap, Va (a town just to the north of Mt Airy on the NC/Virginia border). It's worth a half-day stop for anyone traveling in that part of the country, and isn't too far from a major interstate (I-77).

The town has a couple of restaurants, like the "Snappy Lunch" and "Bluebird Diner". It has a Floyd's Barbershop, a recreation of the jail, Wally's filling station, and an Emporium. Pretty neat little town, imho. I'd like to go again some time in the near future.


Gary "also living in Florida - but I'd be okay with the cold weather if I could hang out with the folks there in that era" O.

 

[Gary OS]

One more point about the real Mt Airy and the fictional, onscreen town of Mayberry. Andy's actual birthplace is situated in the Blue Ridge mountain range and really is a nice, hilly area. Of course they couldn't duplicate that feel while shooting in Hollywood and Culver City even though there are some beautiful locations there in L.A. vicinity of California. But those places simply don't have the same look and atmosphere as the Blue Ridge mountains on the east coast. Both are majestic and gorgeous mountain ranges, but they aren't really all that similar to me (having visited both on multiple occasions).


Gary "but it's not the geography that makes Mayberry - it's the people" O.

 

[Roy Wall]

I tell you what Gary...you sure are schooling this native Tarheel on "Mayberry"....mmmm boy. Now where did i put my Big Orange???

 

[FanCollector]

I think there was an evolution of the specificity of Mayberry in the course of the series. The initial idea was to make it as vague as possible in terms of location or geography, but Griffith himself championed the idea of making Mayberry a version of his own Mount Airy. As the seasons went on, and Griffith's own influence grew, the details given started to match Mount Airy more directly.

 

[Gary OS]

I think there was an evolution of the specificity of Mayberry in the course of the series. The initial idea was to make it as vague as possible in terms of location or geography, but Griffith himself championed the idea of making Mayberry a version of his own Mount Airy. As the seasons went on, and Griffith's own influence grew, the details given started to match Mount Airy more directly.

I believe you are correct in terms of the conception of the show. But I think they gave "hints" early on by referring to a very small, yet real, Fancy Gap in a season 1 episode. Not positive that it was S1, but I think it was. And of course, any time we heard a mention of Mount Pilot they were pinpointing the setting pretty straightforwardly.


Gary "many family ties to that part of the country" O.

 

[smithbrad]

I spent 5 years in Charlotte NC in the early to late 80's. One thing I recall is that TAGS was always on the air. Towards the end I was working at this engineering firm and I recall a specific time when they ran this quiz in the Charlotte Observer newspaper on TAGS. Several draftsmen and engineers were going through the quiz when I passed by. I heard one ask "who was the actor playing the actor playing Andy in the episode about shooting a TV show about Andy". In passing I said the Love Boat guy, Gavin MacLeod. They just looked at me like I was crazy for knowing such a thing off the top of my head.

 

[Radioman970]

I would say Walnut Grove, but if I needed medical attention it would be a long train trip during which I'd probably die. So...

The starship Enterprise since Dr. McCoy could cure most things. Of course day one, i'd be issued a red shirt and immediately demand I be dropped off on the nearest class M planet. So...

Mayfield? Well... i don't want to be colorblind.

I'd just like to visit these places and others but be allowed to come and go. Maybe stay a week as a guest of the Ingals... well, sleep in the barn. And get to stay on the Enterprise and beamed back to my current boring existence without ever having worn one of those evil red shirts... I'd like to view some of my favs from a distance without interfering, like watching those kids run away from the house in "Kick the Can" from TZ as that old guy is yelling for them to come back (not the lame Speilberg treatment where there's not mystery at the end). Or see that little girl's grandpa turn into an alien. ... and that's just TZ..

 

[ponset]

I would choose to live in San Francisco at Hotal Carlton and have "Hey Boy" bring me
drinks and play Chess with Paladin.

2nd choice would be from the days of Radio, although this was also a short-lived TV show.
I would like to live in Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve(Hal Peary and later Willard Waterman) Neighbor.
Summerfield had all the charms of a medium-size town and they too had a Floyd the Barber played by Arthur Q Bryant.

 

[davidmatychuk]

Where I'd like to live: the Nelson home, or Twin Peaks (where every home is the Nelson home)
Where I'd never like to live: on the original "Law & Order", the two times I can think of where a series regular is shown at home, they get killed.
Where I actually live: Green Acres, and I am Oliver.

 

[Ron1973]

I tell you what Gary...you sure are schooling this native Tarheel on "Mayberry"....mmmm boy. Now where did i put my Big Orange???

Maybe one of those convicts running around in the striped shirt have it?

 

[shc57783]

My vote would be for Ojai, California, circa 1975 (The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman). Looks like a friendly, beautiful small town. Jaime Sommers' carriage house is the coolest! And who wouldn't want parents like the Elgins and a dog like Maximillion?

 

[JohnMor]

My vote would be for Ojai, California, circa 1975 (The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman). Looks like a friendly, beautiful small town. Jaime Sommers' carriage house is the coolest! And who wouldn't want parents like the Elgins and a dog like Maximillion?

Yeah, I loved her place... and the Elgins.

 

[Steve Armbrust]

I'll throw in a couple of references to modern shows:

St. Louis, MO in the 1950's. I'd definitely sign up to be a subject for Masters and Johnson if the women all look like they do on Masters of Sex.

Bluebell, AL (Hart of Dixie) where everyone is wacky, they all go to the Rammer Jammer for drinks, medical care seems to be plentiful and cheap, and all the women are good looking and interested in having relationships with pretty much anyone.

 

[Nebiroth]

I think I'd choose to live in the future world of Thunderbirds.

It's pretty peaceful for the most part, there is a real space program, everything runs cheap and clean on atomic power, there's no global warming, food shortages or overpopulation and there are loads and LOADS of cool machines for everything!

The down is that the internet and computers appear to have come and gone. I'm not sure when exactly the series is supposed to be set, but consensus based arounf the Century 21 comic places in in 2066 - in other words, 100 years into the then-future.

Amusingly, there's a blooper in the episode The Mighty Atom, where the Australian newspaper headlining the story about the "radiuation cloud" is dated 1968...

 

[Mark Collins]

Collinwood number 1 choice for me.