Mayberry now, Mayberry forever!
Everyone loves a good reunion, and The Andy Griffith Show was kind enough to give viewers a few different get-togethers over the years, in various forms. These include moments like Don Knotts appearing as a guest star in Andy Griffith’s new series, Matlock, as Ben’s neighbor, Les Calhoun, which provides an opportunity to see Griffith and Knotts interact on screen once more. Then there are more structured events like the 2003 special, The Andy Griffith Show Reunion: Back to Mayberry, which likely gave the cast a rare opportunity to take a walk down memory lane and revisit their characters.
However, there were many reunions between cast members of The Andy Griffith Show that the cameras didn’t catch that were nonetheless just as special as any taped gathering could ever be. Even after the show ended, cast members of the series would come together during certain milestones, proving that they were still just as close as they were during the original run of The Andy Griffith Show.
This is demonstrated in The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family, a book written by Ron and Clint Howard. In it, Ron Howard recounts his wedding to longtime girlfriend, Cheryl. The two would go on to raise four children together and live a happily married life. But before that, they became married in a small and intimate ceremony, with only their closest friends and family. This included Howard’s parents, his brother, as well as a few of his Happy Days castmates who served as his groomsmen.
But those weren’t the only famous faces at the altar. Howard recounted, “Andy Griffith and Don Knotts also came, which moved me to no end.” While Howard acknowledged that in his adult life, he didn’t see as much of Griffith or Knotts as he would have liked, but was undoubtedly touched by the gesture. He wrote, “I no longer saw much of them, but, like the de facto family that they were, they showed up when it mattered.”
