Andy Griffith always seemed like a good guy to me, and the other day I binge-watched some very old episodes of The Andy Griffith Show on Netflix, and enjoyed the nice-guy attitude of the entire show. Two episodes stood out for me. In one, a stranger came to town who knew everything about everyone there. No one bothered to ask how he got all this information, and they were startled and frightened. Soon they were ready to run this stranger out of town. There were spy & war hints in the dialogue, Barney asking the stranger, “Sprechen sie Deutsch?” at one point.

But they were all made to be ashamed of their “foreigner” distrust by Andy when he found out the guy had simply been reading their hometown newspaper avidly.

The other one mentioned Moslems. Two little old sister grannies were running a still and they’d sell only to people who were celebrating special occasions, not “just for nippin or drinkin.” So all the men coming to purchase moonshine said it was for various holidays no one had heard of, including Mohammed’s birthday. The grannies smile and wave to one bearded man leaving with a jar, and they call after him, “Happy Mohammed’s birthday!” And the one lady remarks to her sister, “I never knew there were so many Moslems in Mayberry.”

Aside from the improbability of a Moslem drinking alcohol to honor Mohammed, it was all pretty friendly.
I do miss Andy Griffith. Same with Buddy Ebsen.