Mayberry among TV's most memorable fake towns

The entertainment blog romow has a list of the 11 most memorable "TV Cities that Don't Exist," which includes good ol' Mayberry.

The Andy Griffith Show could rightly be called the most successful spin-off of all time. In the slow-paced, fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina, Sheriff Andy Taylor serves as a straight and narrow policeman who breaks up moonshine distilleries and other crooked operations. Mayberry, which could be any non-urban part of North Carolina, is the epitome of relaxed southern living where community and non-violent mediation matter most.

Of course, we could remind the folks at romow that Mayberry is basically a real place called Mount Airy. But we'll let it slide.

Among the other choices are Springfield ("The Simpsons"), South Park, Colo. ("South Park"), Hazzard County, Ga. ("Dukes of Hazzard") and Quahog, R.I. ("Family Guy"), among others.

'Mayberry' still alluring

It's very easy to assume that everyone in America has as much of a romantic image of Andy Griffith's "Mayberry" (from The Andy Griffith Show) as us North Carolinians do.

Well, apparently they do.

Enjoy ...

In the classic Andy Griffith Show episode "Stranger in Town," a man moved to Mayberry, N.C., because he had heard so many good things about the town.

And in real life, Darrel and Debbie Miles, big fans of The Andy Griffith Show, made the same decision [writes the Winston-Salem Journal].

They are originally from New Albany, Ind., but just over three years ago they decided to make the move to Mount Airy, the town that inspired Mayberry. They opened Mayberry on Main, a store on Main Street that sells memorabilia related to The Andy Griffith Show as well as hot sauces and salsa.

Debbie recalls the first time she found out that there was a real "Mayberry" back in 1992.

"Reruns of the show were always on during dinner time," she recalled. "Like any other family, we'd be getting dinner ready and The Andy Griffith Show would be on. Then one day when I was at work, my oldest daughter, Natalie, called and said, ‘Mom, there really is a Mayberry and Oprah's there!' I said, ‘Well, find out where it is!'"

When they got home, Natalie had written down the name of "Mount Airy, N.C."

"That minute on, we made arrangements to visit," Debbie said. "And then every year at least once a year we could come down." ...

"We found more and more times when we had a few days off, we'd be driving down to Mount Airy," Darrel said. They visited frequently over the course of about 13 years.

And when Darrel retired from the manufacturing company where he had worked for 32 years, they decided to move to Mount Airy.

So, they made the leap. Was "Mayberry" everything they thought it would be?

Russell Hiatt, who runs Floyd's City Barber Shop on Main Street, said that he wasn't surprised when the Mileses decided to move to Mount Airy.

"They had been coming here every year, and always come in to see me," he said. "Then they came in one time and told me they were wanting to move here and go into business ... I was tickled because they were great folks. I helped them find a building." ...

Some visitors think that The Andy Griffith Show was actually filmed in Mount Airy (it was filmed in California). "We try to break it to them gently, this is really Andy's hometown, this is the real place he lived," Debbie said. "We came for Mayberry, but Mount Airy, you fall in love with it. It's the kind of town everybody would want their hometown to be."

(Screenshot from sitcomsonline)

Quick hits: Mayberry and maybe UNC medical in the mountains

Barney Fife's girlfriend moves to 'Mayberry'

"On the drive home from the Los Angeles airport, there was a particular billboard along La Cienega Boulevard that always gave Betty Lynn a chuckle. 'This Ain't Mayberry!' it declared.

"As if she needed a reminder of that fact, the West Hollywood home where Lynn had lived since 1950 was broken into twice last year," writes the Associated Press.

" 'That made it for me,' the 81-year-old actress says. 'I just was too frightened to stay. So I thought, I've got to find some place I feel SAFE.'

"When she reflected on what safe meant to her – and what 'home' meant, for that matter – one place stood out.

"And life imitated art.

"The woman who played Thelma Lou on 'The Andy Griffith Show' moved more than 2,100 miles to Mount Airy – Griffith's hometown and one of the inspirations for the fictional Mayberry. ..."

Western UNC med school proposed

"Officials say a proposal to create a branch campus of the UNC School of Medicine in Western North Carolina could bring more doctors, jobs and newcomers to the region," writes the AP.

"Mission Health and Hospitals, the Mountain Area Health Education Center and the Western North Carolina Health Network submitted a proposal for the medical branch campus.

"A similar branch campus proposal has also been submitted by Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. The medical school is considering the proposals along with increasing enrollment at Chapel Hill. ..."

Quick hits: Manteo as 'Mayberry' and great places for family reunions

The Making of Mayberry on the Outer Banks
"... Manteo has attracted second-home owners and retirees by recasting itself from a dying fishing village into a slice of small-town America, a place that its most famous resident, Andy Griffith, says is more like Mayberry than anywhere else," writes the New York Times.

"But with the success, it has had to wrestle with issues of gentrification, affordable housing and zoning while facing a wave of building and rising real estate prices. ..."

The Best Places to hold your Family Reunion
"... Summer is creeping closer, and that means the cousins are coming: It’s family reunion season," writes MSN Travel. "Sometimes the groups are small—perhaps just parents, children and grandchildren. Other times reunions become lavish affairs where hundreds celebrate their shared history. From mountain lodges to luxury cruises, your reunion can be as unique as your extended family. ...

"More vast than the campgrounds are the 390 sites overseen by the National Park Service. The most popular of the bunch is Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which covers 800 square miles in Tennessee and North Carolina. About 9.3 million people go there a year, spokesman Bob Miller says. From the vistas (there are hundreds of miles of hiking trails) to the wildlife (bears, deer and elk are often spotted), this park is a good site for an inexpensive family reunion. Most visitors stay in nearby cities such as Bryson City, N.C., Gatlinburg, Tenn., or Townsend, Tenn., and picnic in the park’s large pavilions. There are no entrance fees and, Miller proudly proclaims, about a third of the U.S. population can drive to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in a day. ..."