Betty Lynn’s final appearance on Matlock was in this Christmas episode

Griffith pushed the producers to invite her to the show. Do you know why Lynn quit her job?

During Matlock’s first season, Andy Griffith pitched ideas to his new show’s producers. He suggested that his old Mayberry friend Betty Lynn would make a good secretary for Ben Matlock, and agreed to suggest that Lynn was suitable for the role.

After deciding that Betty Lynn would participate, Griffith himself wrote several scenes to introduce actress Thelma Lou in The Andy Griffith Show.

“Andy wrote a few little scenes just for me, which were very funny,” Lynn told The Alternative Press in 1986, when it was announced that she, too, would join Matlock.

At the time, Lynn wasn’t sure how long her secretary character Sarah would last on the show. She told the press that all she hoped was that her scenes were funny enough to not be cut from the first episode.

But Lynn’s scenes were, of course, funny enough, and she would go on to appear in four episodes of Matlock before she and Griffith unfortunately had a falling out.

The story goes that Lynn was interested in being in Matlock but wanted more lines. She went to Andy to see what he could do, and instead of listening to her complaints, Lynn said he shut them down.

Andy Griffith plants free trees for Boy Scouts at his 50-acre Christmas tree farm
“They let me go as soon as they could,” Lynn said. “I’m upset with him because he won’t listen.”

Her last appearance on Matlock was in a Christmas episode called “Santa Claus”.

In “Santa Claus,” Matlock defends a street Santa accused of murdering a callous landlord who was trying to evict a tenant during the holiday season.

If you’re a fan of The Andy Griffith Show, you may recognize the actor playing Santa Claus in this episode as another familiar face from Mayberry.

In the sixth season episode of The Andy Griffith Show titled “Wyatt Earp Rides Again”, Pat Hingle, who plays Matlock’s charge Santa, appears as a promoter for an upcoming Wild West show. Come to Mayberry. This is a memorable episode because it ends with Griffith challenging him to a duel!

However, the duel between Lynn and Griffith was a much more serious matter than the one that Sheriff Andy spread on The Andy Griffith Show.

Lynn did not speak to Griffith for 20 years after she left Matlock.

However, they were finally able to bury the hatchet, when one day Griffith called Lynn out of the blue to ask for acting advice.

After all these years, he still knew she was the best person to call, and she still had the forgiving nature that allowed her to take his calls. After that, they were friends again until the end.