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The Andy Griffith Show --- Its Phones and Show Discussion

Started by WEBellSystemChristian, October 10, 2014, 11:17:55 PM

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andre_janew

Spoiler alert!  The folks in Mayberry do eventually get rotary service.  I think it happens about the time the show starts being done in color.  Of course, it has been several years since I've seen the show!

WEBellSystemChristian

Quote from: andre_janew on July 12, 2015, 01:32:17 PM
Spoiler alert!  The folks in Mayberry do eventually get rotary service.  I think it happens about the time the show starts being done in color.  Of course, it has been several years since I've seen the show!
Actually, in one of the last episodes of The Andy Griffith Show,  Andy's kitchen shows the Oxford Gray 554 as a manual phone, so Mayberry stayed a manual town. Sarah the Operator stayed an imaginary character throughout the whole show as I recall, so Mayberry never did get dial service.
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

andre_janew

Could I be thinking of Mayberry RFD?  That came after the Andy Griffith Show ended.

TelePlay

Quote from: andre_janew on July 12, 2015, 01:41:40 PM
Could I be thinking of Mayberry RFD?  That came after the Andy Griffith Show ended.

It's was a complicated. Mayberry R.F.D. was a continuation of the show after Andy Griffith left (his contract/intent was to do the show for an initial 5 years and then added a 3 year extension for a total 8 years). The last season, the 8th year, saw the introduction of Sam and Mike Jones who over the year became the central focus of the show, setting up the following two years without Andy Griffith and his name on the show. The show had 3 major periods, 5 years black and white, 3 years color without Don Knotts and 2 and a half years without Andy Griffith. Many say the first 5 years were the best.

TelePlay

Quote from: WEBellSystemChristian on July 11, 2015, 10:28:08 PM
I got a picture of that Oxford Gray 554 in Andy's kitchen; I'll probably add that to this list.

Here's the Oxford Gray seen in Season 8, Episode 28 about 18 mins 25 sec into the show. This was the third show from the end of the Andy Griffith show, and the start of Mayberry Rural Free Delivery the next year, in the 9th season.

AE_Collector

Quote from: TelePlay on July 12, 2015, 07:37:11 PM
....and the start of Mayberry Rural Free Delivery the next year, in the 9th season.

I always thought that RFD stood for "Rural Farming District"?

Terry

poplar1

Until the late 19th century, residents of rural areas had to either travel to a distant post office to pick up their mail, or else pay for delivery by a private carrier. Postmaster General John Wanamaker was ardently in favor of Rural Free Delivery (RFD),as it was originally called, along with many thousands of Americans living in rural communities who wanted to send and receive mail inexpensively....


Fayette County in east-central Indiana may be the birthplace of Rural Free Delivery. Milton Trusler, a leading farmer in the county, began advocating the idea in 1880; as the president of the Indiana Grange, he spoke to farmers statewide frequently over the following sixteen years.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Free_Delivery
"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

TelePlay

It's remarkable how many times this candlestick shows up in the show but this is one of the rare instances where the dial black is clearly seen. Take from Season 1, Episode 15 about 1:45 before the end of the episode. I actually think they use more than one stick and while this one does not have a subset cord, some times they do, and the stick looks different from others.

WEBellSystemChristian

#23
That's very interesting!

I've noticed that throughout the show's history, the candlestick switched between a Bulldog transmitter and a daisy-style, but it's always had a semi-flush candlestick-style blank. It seems this one has a 202/302 style 41-A dial blank. Definitely not the right blank, and it looks ridiculous!
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

andre_janew

Just keep in mind that this show was made long before computers or the internet existed,  Finding the right dial blank wasn't easy even back then.  I think the prop department was just doing the best it could with what it had on hand.

TelePlay

With the number of phones being posted, along with much discussion of the show, and after bouncing an idea off of a few members who liked it, I split all of the above posts out of the "The CRPF "Old Phones in Movies & TV" Compilation" topic into this new topic.

Since the "Compilation" topic is generally a "one of" or a "few" off posts, and with this show taking on a life of its own and was becoming similar in content to the "james garner" Rockford Files topic , it seemed logical to do this to best document the show and its phones without hijacking the "Compilation" topic.

Please feel free to post, going forward, any and all phones spotted in the show here along with any discussion of the show and/or its phones. Enjoy and have fun with this topic, and with this great show.

TelePlay

Quote from: WEBellSystemChristian on July 15, 2015, 11:15:02 PM
I've noticed that throughout the show's history, the candlestick switched between a Bulldog transmitter and a daisy-style, but it's always had a semi-flush candlestick-style blank. It seems this one has a 202/302 style 41-A dial blank. Definitely not the right blank, and it looks ridiculous!

I didn't note the season and episode in the first reply to this topic that included the below image, but I seem to remember that episode was not from the 1st season so they went from that "elevated" dial blank candlestick in the first season to a more appropriate stick in later seasons, or at least that episode.



TelePlay

Gustavo Pérez Firmat wrote "A Cuban in Mayberry: Looking Back at America's Hometown," a 191 page book about Mayberry, or more like a synopsis of each episode from the pilot on, if anyone is interested in the many time lines, settings and prop anomalies within the run of the show.


HarrySmith

John, thanks for separating this into it's own topic, it has taken on a life of it's own. Apparently a lot of us are from the generation that grew up watching this show. Thanks for the link to the book too! I might have to get a copy!
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

TelePlay

In Season 1, Episode 22, Andy goes over to Thelma Lou's house to talk to her about Barney. In the first image below, we see a dog listening for a ring on the dial 302 that looks much like the one used by Emma in Season 1, Episode 15.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=14653.msg151919#msg151919

Not only does it look like the same phone but also the same lamp.  ;) However, the table is not the same, the dog is missing and the curtains are different from this phone's first appearance.

In the second image, after Andy leaves, Thelma Lou picks up the handset, puts it to her ear and says "Sarah? 431 please . . . ", doing absolutely nothing with the dial.