‘The Andy Griffith Show’ Has a Special Link to ‘Gone With the Wind’
You know the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game? Well, it’s long been used to highlight the fact that there are plenty of interconnecting dots in the Hollywood world.
It really is a small world after all in the celebrity universe where there is lots of overlap between stars and co-stars who appear in films together or work with the same studios again and again. On top of that, there are plenty of celebrities who are actually related, making for an even more interconnected world of stars.
It turns out it’s not just the people who have a connection to one another in the interlocking world of Hollywood. The interesting link between The Andy Griffith Show and Gone with the Wind shows us the relatability extends to the places, too.
‘The Andy Griffith Show’ is a family-friendly classic
Premiering in 1960 on CBS, The Andy Griffith Show was set in the fictional town of Mayberry. The series followed the main character Andy Taylor, a single father raising a son and Sheriff of the town (played by Andy Griffith).
Much of the entertainment centered around Andy’s laugh-filled interactions with his deputy Barney Fife (played by Don Knotts). The characters were a big draw for the series, but, ultimately, many fans fell in love with the setting of idyllic Mayberry.
In fact, the show’s producer even went so far as to say they should have named the entire series “Mayberry.”
“I think we misnamed this show. It should’ve been called ‘Mayberry’ to start with,” he said about people’s affinity for the fictional town.
‘Gone with the Wind’ is another classic
The 1939 classic Gone with the Wind has not entirely held up to modern-day standards. Many people have taken issue with the very troubling racist elements of the film that is more than 80 years old.
Without a doubt, the film has plenty of remnants from that bygone era that would never be acceptable in a film created today. Even with these flaws, many fans still hold the film up as a remarkable piece of cinematic history.
The film, set in Georgia during first the Civil War and then the Reconstruction Era, has one of movie history’s most famous lines. Rhett Butler (played by Clark Gable) turns to Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) and tells her “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” While the film itself may not have stood everyone’s test of time, that line lives on.
The link between ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ and ‘Gone with the Wind’
Even though both The Andy Griffith Show and Gone with the Wind are classics in their own right, they’re not exactly contemporaries. Gone with the Wind pre-dates The Andy Griffith Show by more than two decades, and the dramatic plot of the film seemingly has little to do with the light-hearted banter of the television series. What, then, is the fun link between these two?
According to Fox News, the two share a filming location. While Gone with the Wind took place in Georgia and The Andy Griffith Show took place in a fictional town somewhere in North Carolina, the filming for both actually took place at Desilu Studios in Culver City, California. This fun connection between these two nostalgic pieces is a reminder of how small the world of Hollywood really is.
There are countless scenes throughout cinematic history that we’ve viewed again and again, each representing a different far-off location. It’s the power of viewers’ imaginations and creators’ ability to build a world around the backdrop that allow the same studios to be used year after year to achieve tremendously different effects.
