Simply Perfect

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Excellent but underrated film

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I grew up on the Mayberry shows. They're along the best shows ever created for television and everything since has been pale in comparison to warmth, charm, and responsibility.The Andy Griffith Show was a hard act to follow but Ken Berry and company followed through just fine.It's the cast and the stories that taught morals and responsibility like it's predecessor that makes this show remarkable. CBS should run it again just to set our moral compass right.Buddy Foster did a great job. Same with everyone on the cast who are now legendary and beloved. The scripts, the directing and storytelling just what the doctor ordered.When the rural shows were pulled off television our country took a moral nosedive.We need more shows like this.

"Mayberry R.F.D." is basically "The Andy Griffith Show" without the key performers, the direction, the writing or the story-lines. What we are left with are city councilman Ken Berry and a sparse group of holdovers (Frances Bavier, Paul Hartman and Jack Dodson). Surprisingly the public did not seem to care as the show ran the better part of four years and completed 78 episodes. By the late-1960s "The Andy Griffith Show" had become stale though (even Griffith admitted to this) and losses like Don Knotts, Ron Howard, Howard Morris, Denver Pyle, Betty Lynn and Hal Smith were way too much to overcome. CBS held on to the idea out of respect, good manners and consistently above-average ratings, but the writing had been on the wall for quite some time when "Mayberry R.F.D." went the way of the dodo in 1971. Personally, I think this detracts from the original program and I have ended up dismissing it. But that is just me. 2 stars out of 5.

So "Mayberry R.F.D." was to "The Andy Griffith Show." M-R.F.D. was a pale imitation of the original, merely an attempt to keep TAGS rolling without Griffith & Co., who made the show what it was. I disliked M-R.F.D., and felt that there was no reason (save sheer greed) for the TV Execs to prolong the format with this thing. And Buddy Foster was no Ron Howard, blond hair and plaid shirt or no.

I was really happy to see that Mayberry RFD is back on the air. I have never really seen this show except for a few episodes but am anxious to start watching it. As a die-hard fan of The Andy Griffith Show I know this show isn't as good but It's interesting to watch the next generation of Mayberrian's. My favorite episode I've seen so far is the Wedding of Andy and Helen.