Return To Mayberry

The cast of the show reunited for a made for tv movie in 1986, entitled, Return To Mayberry. A few facts about this reunion that you might not know are; although the series and both spin-offs aired on CBS, Return To Mayberry aired on NBC. It was a HUGE ratings hit and cemented the reunion as one of the top ten tv movies of all time. To be honest, I wasn't a big fan of the movie itself, but have watched it several times because I enjoyed seeing the cast all together again.

One cast member that wasn't seen in the movie was Francis Bavier, who originally played Aunt Bee in the series. She was sick at the time and home bound. She considered doing the audio during the scene in which Andy visited the grave site of Aunt Bee, but decided against it. Another actress provided the voice of Aunt Bee (it's a shame that she couldn't take part in this historic movie).

(Ken Berry was set to reprise his role as Sam Jones, but at the time the movie was starting to be filmed, "Mama's Family" was filming as well.)