They had a wedding in Mayberry last week. Barney Fife (Don Knotts), decked out in his best city-slicker suit, finally walked down the aisle with his longtime heartthrob Thelma Lou. A beaming Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith), Barney's old friend and ex-boss, was the best man. Even Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors) was on hand to lead the red-robed choir.
Barney's marital status is not the only thing changing in sleepy Mayberry, N.C. Little Opie Taylor (Ron Howard) is all grown up now, editing the town newspaper and about to become a father. Gomer, who left Mayberry in 1964 to join the Marines (and star in his own series, Gomer Pyle--USMC) is back at the old gas station, working alongside his cousin Goober (George Lindsey). And Andy, who married Helen Crump and moved to Ohio 18 years ago, has returned to Mayberry and decided to run for sheriff again. His opponent turns out to be none other than his former deputy, Barney. As Gomer might put it, Gaw-lee!
The predicament will be resolved to everyone's heartwarming satisfaction in Return to Mayberry, an NBC movie currently filming northwest of Los Angeles for a planned telecast in April. The film marks a sentimental reunion, not only for fans of the Andy Griffith Show, which ran on CBS from 1960 to 1968 (when Griffith left, and the show was transmuted into Mayberry R.F.D.) but for the reassembled cast. "It's been wonderful seeing all the old friends," said Nabors, 52, who now tends a macadamia-nut farm in Maui between occasional singing engagements. "It's like a family that we all grew up with." Commented Griffith, 59, who has appeared in numerous series and TV movies since the Mayberry days: "It's like we finished the old show on Friday and started this one on Monday."
Return to Mayberry is the latest example of time-warp television: vintage shows that, after a decade or two in rerunland, have returned as new TV movies. Raymond Burr was back grilling witnesses in last December's Perry Mason Returns. Kung Fu, the early '70s hit starring David Carradine as an Eastern mystic in the American West, resurfaced as a CBS movie early in February. Kojak, Peyton Place and I Dream of Jeannie are among the other series that have been resurrected in the past year.
The stars of these shows are not always enthusiastic about retreading old ground. Larry Hagman, now the kingpin of Dallas, refused to re-create his old supporting role for NBC's I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later. Says Star Barbara Eden: "It's dangerous messing around with something that people really liked, to try to repeat it." Dangerous, perhaps, but also potentially lucrative. Perry Mason Returns was the top-rated TV movie for all of 1985; a follow-up is planned for this spring, and up to three more for next season.