TCNW 119: African-Americans in Mayberry
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- Опубликовано: 16 янв 2011
- Two Chairs No Waiting - Andy Griffith Show Podcast can be found at www.TwoChairsNoWaiting.com
In this episode we'll be talking about African-Americans living in Mayberry. This is a topic that comes up from time to time in The Andy Griffith Show fan community and since this episode is being recorded on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the topic came to my mind.
The only primary African-American character to appear on The Andy Griffith Show was in the 7th season episode "Opie's Piano Lesson." Volunteer football coach Flip Conroy, played by Rockne Tarkington, has to show Andy that Opie can do two things and do them both well. To illustrate his point, Conroy, an ex-New York Giant, sits down and plays a classical work on the piano.
We'll talk about "extras" walking around Mayberry and the fact that there are African-Americans in Mayberry. Of course this isn't the same as having primary characters but we need to remember that this was a television show done to entertain, to escape to a better place for 30 minutes. Mayberry wasn't the "real world" but I believe it did, and does, represent a world many would like to live in. A world where everyone, black, white, gypsies....whomever would be treated fairly and with respect.
I believe that we saw enough of Andy Taylor's character to know that whoever was around him would be shown caring respect. Let's all try and show each other that same caring and pretend that we do live in Mayberry. If we do, I think this world would be a better place for us all.
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== Links ==
Opie's Piano Lesson (TAGS Episode) - www.mayberry.info/history/inde...
Mayberry Band, The (TAGS Episode) - www.mayberry.info/history/inde... 
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I'm a 53 year-old black man. The Andy Griffith Show is easily one of the 3 greatest shows I have ever seen. I don't care about the race of the characters. People should stop all this divisiveness.
It was and still is a wholesome and encouraging show. Andy's character is how ALL people should be. It is a WONDERFUL escape which l use as emotional medicine. I watch it almost EVERY DAY and I LOVE it!
Byron, thank you so much for your comment and I agree 100%...one of the greatest show ever! Thank you for watching! - Allan
@@AllanNewsome 👍
I’m a 58 year old white man that use to watch Soul Train every Saturday growing up and loved watching all the dance moves and being a resident of a Detroit, loved that Motown music. I hate the fact the division of blacks and whites these days is far worse than it was in the 70’s. Some of my best friends in the Navy were black. I hope we can all find common ground again someday.
There is one Black Lady. See "Barney Gets his Man" 1961. She is in the background on the city sidewalk in front of a store with other town members. I was surprised. I am Black and love the Andy Griffith show. It was good to see that.
I feel you ✨✌️
Just mentioned the same lady/episode on another post.
She had no speaking role.
The Andy Griffith show of the 60s did a better job of showing black people on the air than the 90s comedy "Friends"
Fact's
Pretty much!
Director Michael Moore once sarcastically defended "Friends" as "an honest TV sit-com," which gave an unalloyed, realistic portrayal of all-white group relationships.
I am a 67 year old black man and love The Andy Griffith show and I watch the show every day.
Thank you for leaving that message. I'm glad you get as much enjoyment from watching Andy, Barney and the gang as I do.
You covered this very well. Thank you for this. I loved the Andy Griffith show. I still watch it today. This video was very nicely done!❤ God bless you!❤😊
Thank you very much. It means a lot.
Cynthia Hull, a young mixed race lady, was in the TAGS episode The Senior Play. She played the young female lead of the play.
Im watching this in 2023 and i really wish we could get back to a Mayberry state of mind, where everyone is working together and loves each other.
She was also in the episode called Barney's Replacement.
There is a black person when Gomer joins the marines
Apparently, Opie also didn't know (or mysteriously forgot) that he was the starting quarterback for his neighborhood football team when he so eagerly consented to become one of Clara Edwards' new pupils.
Either that, or he thought very little of his role on the team . . .
until the emergence of former hometown NFL player Flip Conroy, who offered his services as a favor to the boy's coach 🏈
Thanks for pointing this out!
The was a tall African American man in the show when the band had to convince the governor that they were good enough to go on a trip. The African American man was seen walking on the sidewalk wearing a apron..
There is a black gentlemen that walks by Newton Monroe (Don Rickles) and Barney Fife arguing on the street in "The Luck of Newton Monroe" and a black lady in the crowd latter in the scene.
Their is a black man with the group that disconnects barneys side car when they began to laugh I love this show and nothing will ever change it ,,,real southern folks get it
Great video!!!!
Thank you. Someone used Andy Griffith out of character and I asked myself. Were there African Americans in the Andy Griffith show? Yours was the first link. I copied and paste it into Facebook, to show the true character of the show. Great job! Very thorough and an excellent representative of the America I believe we could become.
2 hrs a day on a piano for a kid that age. LOL!! That is the quickest way to make a kid not want to play any instruments.
I’m pretty sure I saw a black lady briefly in the Citizen’s Arrest episode
Good show. Great to suggest kindness to others and not preach the gospel of hate. We shall overcome.
GREAT VIDEO!!!!
this guy seems like a good hearted Christian.
He really is.
❤
I thank you so much for bringing out about Andy Griffin had Black America and also Twilight Zone hey Black America I know back in those days they had a very hard time to put them in there what they went through and what was said
Hi! You seem like a chill dude, and although I have never seen the show, I have never heard a bad word spoken about it. So it must be pretty good. There are black rappers today who say this is their all time favorite show.
However, I watched your video and was surprised when you said that you never grew up in a time where racism was prevalent. The 60s are known for rampant racism, it is in fact what MLK was assassinated over. I only came on here to say that we cannot solve the issue of racism, that you alluded MLK fought against, by ignoring it like The Andy Griffith Show did.
I know the show had real reasons why it couldn't prominently feature black characters, but I hope you and your fellow fans realize that there is a difference between having black characters in the background vs having full time cast members that get to portray black characters stories and lives on tv.
I didn't do this to start any problems. Quite the opposite! I saw you responded to someone else quite recently, and I am just offering you the chance to have a real conversation over issues like racism without being hateful.
Again, you sound like a chill person without hate in your heart. And it seems that is what a lot of The Andy Griffith Show fans are trying to show. But, there are people who do not think like you do, and I hope you are well informed enough to be able to counter that hate in real life.
That is what I am disappointed about. That a show like this never got to look racism in the eye and tell the world that this is bad. I'm sorry for the long post, but I felt like this needed to be said by someone.
Exactly my thoughts.
I really feel like most of the scenes when there was a crowd, there were black people there...in most seasons. Was I seeing things?
No, I believe you are correct.
It may have been sad that it wasn't any main black actors, but It didn't really bothered most blacks back then. I'm an African American man, and that show was just absolutely funny. I loved it!
Steven, thank you for your input on this topic. It means a lot to hear from you as you have a better insight than I would. Thank you, again....-- Allan
Great commentary. Wanted to let you know I saw a episode where Howard Spragg was dreaming about his retirement. He wound up on an island with others who spent time doing absolutely nothing all day. There was a black guy in this episode also. And if I'm not mistaken he had a one word speaking part.
Im surprised they used an actor to play flip conroy I assumed he was a real football player.
I was common back then to use actual sports people to play themselves on a tv episode.There was popular tv comedian called flip wilson I wonder if thats where they got the strange first name.
ima black person and I LOVE the Andy Griffith show. i watch it still 2 THIS day. i own the whole series. but i dont have mayberry rfd 😟 but i will. Anyway. whether there's black people or not. i totally understand why they didn't have blacks featured in most of the series. it was like the man said.... this show was filmed during the civil rights movement and if it wanted 2 b successful and stay on the air. ..they probably didn't wanna take a chance and offend white people by featuring blacks. so they did it in a suttle way and put blacks as background extras. now mined u..... they didn't have 2 do that. they could have just left blacks out COMPLETELY but they didn't😀 so i do give the casting person credit 4 doing that. then towards the later years of the show.... They finally decided.... fuk it. lets make a black person a feature n the show to show we're an opened mined show. i love Lucy did the same thing. she featured a black guy tap dancing on her show.😀 it was one of her spin off shows.
Barney gets his man episode, there is a black woman in the crowd right behind Barney. Never bothered or occurred to me.
you grew up on Sand Mountain? My mom graduated at Section 1979.
alright I will
Wasn't the team all white?
Loved the show
In the episode where ernest t bass tries to join the army their is a black man in the background enlisting and laughing at ernest. Not a lot of colored folk passing though mayberry lol.
The actor Rockne Tarkington looks A LOT like the famous Welsh singer of the 1960's - Tom Jones. Look up both people from when they were young and you'll see the resemblance. Even though Tom Jones is white, they both look as if they could've been half-brothers.
Rockne Tarkington is my Grandpa 😊
It must have been heaven living there.
Why there was no African Americans? Simple, at that time, African Americans were not present in many small towns which was the setting for this show. This so-called debate should stop there. However, the question keeps on being asked by so-called pioneers who think they can go back and re-write history apparently or ignorantly turn it in to a racist accusation or debate. It wasn't that blacks were not welcome but rather they just were not there. Shows have to be realistic and that is what this one gave to its audience which in fact was part if its charm. The one black actor, Opie's football coach, could have just as easily been a white person also with no thought to race which then was not a consideration when the part was given. You can go forward and enjoy the natural evolution flow and natural beauty of life or you can continue to have issues like race be thrust upon us in a manner where talent and abilities are taking a back seat now to someone(s) with their race meter that counts the number of people in each race in any situation on TV in advertising and every place else seemingly now. It isn't natural but rather a force fed push anymore while claiming racism if compliance is not met. The basis of which is unfounded yet the racist accusations ignorantly flow. Very dumb and sad indeed.
It's more likely that the black people who lived in the area around Mayberry didn't live in Mayberry because of segregation and Jim Crow era laws. As a person who's lived in the south all of my life, lives near Pilot Mountain/Mt. Airy, and has met Andy Griffith, I will say I love the show but that to say having black people in the show wouldn't be realistic is ridiculous. They would have just had to show them in menial jobs which would have been what most POC had at the time in the south. Of course it's also possible Mayberry had sundown laws.
I always assumed we were seeing the town through andy's eyes and he would certainly be "color-blind" so everyone looked the same.
Now we have to tear down our history. Tear down our statues and monuments. Stop having prayers, It doesnt matter how much you want to treat others with respect , that small group is calling for tearing down the history and desecreating graves. Where is Andy when you need him?
Gee there are sitcoms where there is no Chinese or Jews or blacks or......whatever. Who cares?