October 3, 1960: "The Andy Griffith Show" Premieres

Left to right: Andy Griffith,

Ronny Howard (as he was then billed),

Don Knotts and Jim Nabors

October 3, 1960: The Andy Griffith Show premieres on CBS, after Andy Griffith had played Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry, North Carolina on an episode of The Danny Thomas Show that served as a "backdoor pilot."

Andy Samuel Griffith -- his birth certificate really did say "Andy," not "Andrew" -- was born in Mount Airy, North Carolina, on June 1, 1926 -- the same day as another beloved show-business legend, Marilyn Monroe. He became famous in 1954 with a comedy recording, "What It Was, Was Football," starred in the comedy stage and film version of Ira Levin's No Time for Sergeants, and played a villain in the 1957 film A Face in the Crowd. 

Don Knotts also appeared in the 1958 film version of No Time for Sergeants, beginning a lifelong friendship. Knotts played Sheriff Taylor's well-meaning but bumbling deputy, Barney Fife.

The show ran for 8 seasons. The opening theme, "The Fishin' Hole," was written by Earle Hagen (who also did the whistling) and Herbert Spencer. What few people know is that is has lyrics, written by Everett Sloane, who played Mr. Bernstein in Citizen Kane.

The show went to color in 1965, and, as a result, a new version of the opening sequence was shot, with Ron Howard (then listed as "Ronny") as Andy's son Opie Taylor now 11 years old instead of 6, appearing much taller.

By that point, Anita Corsaut had debuted as Helen Crump, Opie's teacher, and Andy's girlfriend and eventual wife. Also, Jim Nabors had left to star in the spinoff Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., and Gomer had been replaced as Mayberry's mechanic by his cousin Goober, played by George Lindsey. In 1968, Griffith left, and the show was continued as Mayberry, R.F.D. until CBS' "rural purge" of 1971. By that point, Howard McNear, who played barber Floyd Lawson, had died (in 1969).

In 1986, the TV-movie Return to Mayberry aired -- on NBC. Francis Bavier, who played Beatrice "Aunt Bee" Taylor, was retired from acting, and did not appear. She died in 1989. The other surviving major actors did: Griffith, Howard, Nabors and Lindsey (the cousins now running the service station together), Corsaut, Don Knotts as Deputy Barney Fife, Betty Lynn as Barney's girlfriend and now wife Thelma Lou, and Hal Smith as "town drunk" Otis Campbell.

Smith died in 1994, Corsault in 1995, Knotts in 2006, Griffith and Lindsey in 2012, Nabors in 2017, and Lynn in 2021. Howard later starred as Richie Cunningham on Happy Days, and became one of Hollywood's top directors. 

The cable network TV Land dedicated statues of Andy and "Ronny" in Griffith's hometown of Mount Airy, on which Mayberry had been based.

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October 3, 1960 was a Monday. Baseball was between the end of the regular season and the World Series, which the Pittsburgh Pirates would win over the New York Yankees. Football was in season, but there would be no Monday Night Football for another 10 years. And it was too soon for the basketball and hockey seasons. So there were no scores on this historic day.