WHAT WAS MAYBERRY WATCHING

[tantric38]

You folks do realize that you're not only discussing what these imaginary people in a fictional town may have been watching some fifty years ago, but speculating on where the programs may have originated.
Where can I get some of that stuff?

 

[radiorob2.0]

You folks do realize that you're not only discussing what these imaginary people in a fictional town may have been watching some fifty years ago, but speculating on where the programs may have originated.
Where can I get some of that stuff?

There is this guy named Otis Campbell who can hook you up. If he can't help you there are these two older women that have a flower making machine that might be a source. It might involve a small road trip but head on over to Walton's Mountain and seek out the Baldwin Sisters and ask them about "The Recipe".

 

[BRNout]

Gentlemen, I do believe that I could use some of poppas 'recipe'. If that's what y'all are having, I'd like some too!

To me, the most interesting bits here were the factoids about how NC did not observe EDT until 1967 (I didn't know that) and how Pixley would have most likely been in Missouri (that, downstate IL or AR have been my best guesses for decades). Good stuff.

Fascinating thread, in a geeky train wreck sort of way...... ;D

 

[fortmill]

Though Andy Griffith was a CBS program, the good folks of Mayberry were almost certainly predominately NBC viewers since WSJS/12 (Winston-Salem, now WXII) would have provided a city grade signal to the area from their transmitter atop Saurtown Mountain. WFMY/2/CBS was about 60 miles away from a low tower (at that time) but they were still in the mix, as were WDBJ/7 and WSLS/10 Roanoke.

 

[bpatrick]

True. Someone at WFMY once gave me a graph showing how
viewing breaks down in each county in the Greensboro/Winston-
Salem/High Point DMA, and Surry County (where Mt. Airy is)
definitely favors Ch. 12 since the transmitter is closer. I, too,
would expect that in those pre-cable days Mayberry would have
gotten WFMY, WDBJ, WGHP (after '63), WSLS, and WSJS/WXII;
if conditions were just right they might also have occasionally
picked up WCYB Bristol/Kingsport/Johnson City (NBC).

Hooterville and Pixley probably got KYTV/3 (NBC) and KOLR/10 (CBS)
Springfield, MO. KDEB/27 (Fox) and KSPR/33 (ABC) were not on in
the '60s, I don't think.

 

[catfishal]

Hooterville and Pixley probably got KYTV/3 (NBC) and KOLR/10 (CBS)
Springfield, MO. KDEB/27 (Fox) and KSPR/33 (ABC) were not on in
the '60s, I don't think.

KOLR was known as KTTS-TV back then and was CBS primary and secondary ABC until 1968 when KMTC/27 signed on as a primary ABC affiliate. KMTC later changed it's calls to KDEB and are now KSFX. KSPR/33 signed on in 1983 and became the ABC affiliate in 1986.

 

[ftballfan]

Sorry for resurrecting this thread, but if Mayberry was Mt. Airy, here is what a hypothetical cable system from back in the 1960s (Andy Griffith ended its run in 1968) might have been:
2 - WFMY (CBS 2 Greensboro)
3 - WBTV (CBS 3 Charlotte)
4 - WBRA (NET 15 Roanoke) - signed on in 1967
5 - WCYB (NBC 5 Bristol)
6 - WHIS (NBC 6 Bluefield)
7 - WDBJ (CBS 7 Roanoke)
8 - WGHP (ABC 8 High Point)
9 - WSOC (NBC 9 Charlotte)
10 - WSLS (NBC 10 Roanoke)
11 - WJHL (CBS 11 Johnson City)
12 - WSJS (NBC 12 Winston-Salem)
13 - WLVA (ABC 13 Lynchburg)

 

[Oscar Madison]

The only TV station mentioned was in Siler City. more than 80 miles from Mt. Airy. More often, they talked about listening to a radio station in Mt. Pilot, in particular the "masked tenor," Leonard Blush.

Silver City is also known as to where Frances Bavier moved when she retired and later where she died.

Various people involved in the show have said Mayberry was a deliberate anachronism and events depicted on the show took place some time before the "present day" when the show was first aired.

 

[joebtsflk1]

Various people involved in the show have said Mayberry was a deliberate anachronism and events depicted on the show took place some time before the "present day" when the show was first aired.

Even though the crank telephone was an anachronism for nearly everyone by 1960, there were a few small towns that used the crank systems. The last one in Iowa converted by 1970. The last reference to an operating crank system in the US that I could find was in early 80's Maine:
http://www.csmonitor.com/1982/0917/091742.html

Otherwise, the "feel" of Mayberry seemed to be a few decades before 1960.

 

[LKellerIII]

I grew up in an out of the way suburb of Los Angeles that was a bit isolated in the years before the freeway system connected everything. There were a lot of local phone companies in the 50s - most were sucked up by the late 50s by either Pacific Telephone (AT&T) or General Telephone (GTE). So in the 50s, we didn't have crank phones...actually, I don't recall any crank phones on Andy Griffith. In my town, you could dial any local number in the town, but if you wanted to call somebody outside of town - even 10 miles away, you had to dial the operator. And this was in a big city. So I don't think the portrayal of the phone company in fictional Mayberry was that different from reality - especially in a rural small town.

Also - most people had "party-lines:" which meant that you shared a phone line with at least one neighbor. So if you wanted to call somebody, but your neighbor was already on the phone, you were out of luck.

My big disillusionment with The Andy Griffith Show was when I learned that the beautiful lake Andy and Opie were walking to with their fishing poles in the show's opening - was actually Toluca Lake in Burbank - just a few blocks from Disney and Warner Brothers - and either on or near land owned by Bob Hope.

 

[Oscar Madison]

My big disillusionment with The Andy Griffith Show was when I learned that the beautiful lake Andy and Opie were walking to with their fishing poles in the show's opening - was actually Toluca Lake in Burbank - just a few blocks from Disney and Warner Brothers - and either on or near land owned by Bob Hope.

What? You thought they went to North Carolina to shoot that? The Mayberry exteriors were shot at Desilu-40 Acres (the former Selznick lot). Interiors at Desilu-Cahuenga.

The whole premise of "Pillow Talk" is Doris Day and Rock Hudson shared a party line - in Manhattan.

In the early 60s, there were still a large number of independent phone companies that did not offer dial service or private lines. Some even more primitive than Mayberry's. Where I went to school, the phone rang in code. Every phone on the party line rang but the operator would ring something like three-short or two long or one-short,one-long so you'd know by the code whom was being called.

 

[joebtsflk1]

I grew up in an out of the way suburb of Los Angeles that was a bit isolated in the years before the freeway system connected everything. There were a lot of local phone companies in the 50s - most were sucked up by the late 50s by either Pacific Telephone (AT&T) or General Telephone (GTE). So in the 50s, we didn't have crank phones...actually, I don't recall any crank phones on Andy Griffith. In my town, you could dial any local number in the town, but if you wanted to call somebody outside of town - even 10 miles away, you had to dial the operator. And this was in a big city. So I don't think the portrayal of the phone company in fictional Mayberry was that different from reality - especially in a rural small town..

You're right...the phones in Mayberry didn't have cranks, but they never used a dial, either. Andy would pick up the phone's earpiece and talk to the operator (was it Sarah?) to have her make the connection. Which begs the question: were there old phone exchanges that were from the pre-dial era that didn't require a crank?

Back to Iowa and my home town, the phone company didn't offer direct dialing of long distance calls until about 1971. It was the GTE-like Continental Telephone, which operated a lot of mostly small town exchanges. It seemed they were slower to modernize than the old Northwestern Bell or the small mutual phone companies.

 

[ThePowerCow]

Wasn't WZAZ also the local TV station where Richie did his live shots from Arnold's? Between Mayberry and Milwaukee, that is one Killah signal!

 

[joebtsflk1]

And Richie hosted broadcasts from Beer City on the Omaha radio station formerly known as WOW. A little known fact, WOW used a double-secret extra-experimental somewhat temperamental 750 kW transmitter when Richie was on the air, in order to deliver a near city-grade signal to Milwaukee.

 

[LKellerIII]

And Richie hosted broadcasts from Beer City on the Omaha radio station formerly known as WOW. A little known fact, WOW used a double-secret extra-experimental somewhat temperamental 750 kW transmitter when Richie was on the air, in order to deliver a near city-grade signal to Milwaukee.

This "mash-up" of comments regarding Ron Howard's two TV vehicles reminded me of the SNL show Howard hosted...probably 30 years ago now - in which Eddie Murphy kept referring to him as "Little Opie Cunningham."

 

[vchimpanzee]

Sorry for resurrecting this thread, but if Mayberry was Mt. Airy, here is what a hypothetical cable system from back in the 1960s (Andy Griffith ended its run in 1968) might have been:
2 - WFMY (CBS 2 Greensboro)
6 - WHIS (NBC 6 Bluefield)
7 - WDBJ (CBS 7 Roanoke)
8 - WGHP (ABC 8 High Point)
10 - WSLS (NBC 10 Roanoke)
12 - WSJS (NBC 12 Winston-Salem)
13 - WLVA (ABC 13 Lynchburg)

Or these stations might have been available with an antenna. Above are the ones I picked up, though I was a few miles east of Mt. Airy.

WLVA had no picture and WGHP didn't air "The Partridge Family" some weeks, so it was interesting to speculate on what the events I was seeing would really look like. I got to see the reruns a few months later.

WDBJ had "Tom and Jerry" on Sunday mornings while WFMY had Oral Roberts (moving the cartoon to Saturday), whose singers told us "Something good is going to happen to you."

Ironically, I had not yet discovered Mayberry. Or even Gomer Pyle. I got interested in that when I saw my father watching it.

 

[semoochie]

This "mash-up" of comments regarding Ron Howard's two TV vehicles reminded me of the SNL show Howard hosted...probably 30 years ago now - in which Eddie Murphy kept referring to him as "Little Opie Cunningham."

Here's something to ponder: Was Howard Cunningham named after Ron Howard? ...like son, like father.

 

[LKellerIII]

Here's something to ponder: Was Howard Cunningham named after Ron Howard? ...like son, like father.

Yes. If it was "like father, like son," he would have been Rance Cunningham.