Aunt Bee

The reruns give you a break from the hustle of everyday life.

The life lessons that Opie learned from Andy reminds us about our childhoods as we reflect on on the lessons that were taught to us, it was good, clean television that showed Andy, Aunt Bea, Opie, and Barney going to church.

And, you know, today's shows don't portray that.

That's very true, Larry.

I never really thought about that.

Even...

A lot of the shows that are classic TV shows, did the people, did we see them going to church? Leave it to Beaver or I Love Lucy? Did we really see them going to church? Was that ever a thing? That's a good question.

You guys that are actually more expert on those things, let me know the answer.

Yeah, like I said, that's an important message.

And, you know, the movie came at a time at the height of the Cold War, because even Frances Bevier, Aunt Bea, says, I know where those planes came from.

She's referring to Russia, that Russia is where Klaatuam, you know, came from, essentially, that it was the evil empire.

And, of course,

I looked at her, and all I could see was Aunt Bea.

Yeah.

She looked the same.

Oh, this was it.

Top-cap! Top-cap!

Co-starring Francis Bavier as Aunt Bee and George Lindsay as Goober.

Brought to you by General Foods, makers of Sanka freeze-dried coffee, post cereals, and all the other fine products of General Foods.

Uh, I'm stopping now.

We know that Andy's going to figure it out.

We know that Aunt Bea's good intentions are probably going to cause some kind of problems.

We know Opie is going to learn something.

And yet, again and again and again, I've often thought that the answer to the question why we watch this tells us a lot more about the Andy Griffith show than simply saying, oh, it's a funny show.

You know, Barney's about to say something ridiculous.

You know, Andy is going to give him that look, you know, sitting at the desk or something.

You know, Aunt Bea, something's going to go sideways for her.

And you're waiting for it.

In fact, he makes some joke about that, that, uh, Well, I wouldn't expect to catch this criminal on the main roads unless he's coming in on the bus.

Right, and we get a visit from Aunt Bea and Opie that is really embarrassing.

It's embarrassing to watch it because Aunt Bea has a roast in the oven and she wants Andy to come home.

I guess he gets real mean when he, which is hard to believe, but he gets really mean when he's hungry.

Yeah, we'd call it hangry now.

He didn't have them long.

Yeah, he didn't get to keep them long.

I guess, yeah, that's when he does the misfire, wasn't it? When Aunt Bea and...

Oh,

Aunt Bea.

Aunt Bea, yeah.

Aunt Bea, yeah.

So it's well put together, I think.

It is really well put together.

We have a special guest this morning, uh, which I'll introduce in a second.

But you know, many of us grew up watching the Andy Griffith Show with Andy and Barney and Opie and of course Aunt Bee.

We're gonna talk a little bit about Aunt Bee this morning, amongst other things.

So I'll be back to introduce our special guest after a quick break from one of our fine network sponsors.

All right, so, um, our guest this morning, and you know what? We're gonna have to ask him w- what, if he's the owner [laughs] or the manager, 'cause I'm not even sure.

Uh, but his name is Michael Snow and, uh, he's in charge of Aunt Bee's Room, [laughs] wow, from down there at Mayberry Motor Lodge.

So, uh, Michael, first of all, are you the owner, the manager? What's your position there?

Uh, owner, owner and manager both.

And I mean, you could see the trees, 'cause we always laugh, 'cause watch Combat every Tuesday night still.

And it's like, man, you keep waiting for Aunt Bea to come around the s- the corner [laughs] or the locations that they use.

'Cause little did we know, just like with Homicide: Life on the Street, being from that neighborhood is where my family's roots are, they did not shoot with any further than like an eight block radius.

There were some differences, of course, for scenes, but it's like they stayed right around that perimeter.

People might not get that.

Who played the role of Aunt Bea? And we're not talking about in the color episode where they went to see the movie.

We're not talking about that.

We're not going there.

And in my dorm room, I have a Mayberry pennant.

It's a pennant that has Mayberry, Mayberry Sheriff.

It was given to me by Aunt Bea herself, Cheryl Toraline.

And I also have a going-away gift.