‘The Andy Griffith Show’ Was Regularly Snubbed by the Emmys
Classic comedy The Andy Griffith Show aired on CBS for eight years beginning in 1968.
Though the show has endured through the decades and amassed generation after generation of new fans, one thing it didn’t collect over its original run was Emmy statuettes.
‘The Andy Griffith Show’ debuted over 60 years ago
Premiering in October 1960, The Andy Griffith Show was a hit from the very beginning. Up until its final season in 1968, the series was consistently in the Nielsen top 10. Something about Mayberry and its friendly townspeople appealed to viewers.
Andy Griffith told the Television Academy Foundation in 1998: “We didn’t know when we started it that it was going to last that long, or influence so many people. We were just trying to do a good show.
“It was family-oriented, it was about a little town and all the people who lived in it. As [ one of the show’s directors] Bob Sweeney used to say, ‘It looks like an ordinary little town but it has a little border of insanity around it.’”
The 2 cast members who won Emmy Awards
Of the entire cast of the comedy, only the show’s Aunt Bee actor Frances Bavier and Don Knotts were Emmy winners.
Bavier was presented with a statuette in 1967 for Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
The consistent winner from the show, however, was Don Knotts, who took home five Emmys for his Supporting Actor role as Barney Fife on the show. His wins took place in 1961, 1962, 1963, 1966, and 1967, the last two awards going to the actor for his guest appearances on the Griffith Show after his departure from the series in 1965.