THE VINDICATOR

THE VINDICATOR
Kerosene cucumbers. The bullet. The filling station and the courthouse. "Nip it in the bud" and "Citizen's arrest." And, of course, that whistling theme song that accompanied the shot of father and son walking down the road to the "fishin' hole."
Viewers can relive their Mayberry memories and even watch Andy Griffith and Ron Howard re-enact that famous fishin' hole walk during a CBS special Tuesday night that reunites the cast of "The Andy Griffith Show." Griffith and Howard, who played father and son in the TV series, will return to the spot in the Hollywood Hills where the scene was first filmed more than 40 years ago.
Their re-enactment will be intercut with original footage and the now-grown-up Howard skipping stones with his 6-year-old self.
"What I really remember," Howard told CBS in an interview last year, "is that we only had three opportunities to throw that rock into the lake because it's one of the water reservoirs for Los Angeles. And we were allowed to throw only three rocks in there."
The scene was used in the show's opening credits and was the first shot in the series, which ran from 1960 to 1968 and has never left the air. With 27 million viewers a month, it's the highest-rated show on the cable channel TV Land.
Participating
The one-hour special will reunite Griffith, 77, who played the level-headed sheriff of the fictional town Mayberry; Howard, 49, who portrayed his red-haired son, Opie; Don Knotts, 79, who played Andy's nervous deputy, Barney Fife; and Jim Nabors, 73, who played the dim-witted gas station attendant Gomer.
Griffith will host and narrate the special, which was shot on a replica of the courthouse set that appeared in the classic series. The special will feature Griffith, Knotts, Howard and Nabors reminiscing about the show, along with series highlights and interviews with other surviving cast members, including George Lindsay, who played Goober, and Betty Lynn, who played Barney's girlfriend, Thelma Lou.
As for that "fishin' hole" walk, it has received even more attention recently. On Oct. 28, Griffith traveled to Raleigh, N.C., to help unveil a bronze, life-size statue that depicts him and Howard walking hand in hand as in the scene from the show.
The tribute was sponsored by TV Land. Officials from the cable network said they put the statue in Raleigh because the show represented life in North Carolina. Griffith, who grew up in Mount Airy, N.C., based many elements of the show on his boyhood hometown.
As a testament to the continued popularity of the show, Mount Airy has turned into a mecca for the show's fans, who converge on the town each year during the annual Mayberry Days in late September. The town even has businesses with names taken from the show, like Floyd's City Barber Shop, Snappy Lunch and Wally's Service Station.
After the show
Griffith left "The Andy Griffith Show" in 1968. He went on to play a defense lawyer in the murder mystery series "Matlock" in the 1980s and '90s. Knotts quit the show in 1965 and appeared in many movies, and later had a five-year run as landlord Ralph Furley on the sitcom "Three's Company." He also later became a regular character on "Matlock." Howard went on to play Richie Cunningham on the TV sitcom "Happy Days," and has had a successful career as a director, with films including "Apollo 13," "Backdraft" and "A Beautiful Mind."
"The Andy Griffith Show" boasted two popular spinoff series, "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C," which followed that character's misadventures as a Marine, and "Mayberry, R.F.D.," which continued with many of the "Andy Griffith Show" regulars.
Most of the original "Andy Griffith Show" cast members came back to reprise their roles in 1986 in the made-for-TV movie "Return to Mayberry."