Few television shows have the lasting power of “The Andy Griffith Show.”

The fictional population of Mayberry, NC have been immortalized in reruns far beyond  the show’s 8-year run in the 60s.

Author Daniel de Visé says that the tv classic resonated by depicting a place where viewers with they could live.

“No other show did quite so good a job with capturing the experience of small town America,” de Visé says.

Although they were both from the rural south, lead actor Andy Griffith and co-star Don Knotts didn’t live the idyllic lives depicted on the show. Both grew up in rougher environments.

“A lot of their memories were sweetened for the CBS show,” de Visé tells Steve Fast. Both actors were ambitious to move beyond their own small town lives, which included abuse both verbal and physical.

Journalist de Visé came to know Don Knotts through a family connection. After interviewing the comic actor’s family and friends de Visé felt the story stretched beyond a simple biography and decided to reach deeper into the professional relationship and friendship of Knotts and Griffith.

The men had professional rivalries over critical acclaim and money, yet remained friends both on and off the set.

In his book “Andy and Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show,” the author writes about the genesis of the Barney Fife character (not originally planned for the show), the raucous feeling on the set, and why Knotts didn’t continue on the program for the show’s final years.

Listen to the interview: Daniel de Visé on The Steve Fast Show

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