Andy Taylor

"Well, I'll be!"

- Andy Taylor

Andy Taylor was the protagonist of the Andy Griffith Show, which ran from 1960-1968.

He was portrayed by Andy Griffith, who would later go on to play Ben Matlock in Matlock.

A life long resident of Mayberry, North Carolina, Andy would marry and have a son named Opie from an unnamed first wife who had died before the series started. He became the Sheriff of Mayberry, and had his cousin Barney Fife work as his deputy.

When the series started, Aunt Bea had arrived to become Andy and Opie's housekeeper. Over the next several years she would act as a surrogate mother to Opie. She and Andy did the best they could to raise Opie.

Even though it was his job to enforce the laws, Sheriff Taylor was always more interested in doing what was right by the people of Mayberry. He was the type of officer who would only use any kind of violence as an absolute last resort, to the point that he normally did not carry a firearm. He kept the sidearm he had been issued at home on top of shelf and unloaded. On those rare occasions when he needed a weapon he would get one from his vehicle or from the office. The most challenging part of his job was keeping or getting his deputy Barney Fife out of trouble, and dealing with various individuals in town - such as Otis, who was the town drunk.

Being an eligible bachelor, Andy had a fair number of women who sought to get to know him better. He would later fall in love with Helen Crump and married her in 1968. Andy and Helen decided to move away to Raleigh, North Carolina, and welcomed a son named Andy Jr.

As revealed in the reunion TV movie Return to Mayberry Andy later became an inspector for the US Postal Service and had been living in Cleveland. By the mid 1980s he and Helen decided to move back to Mayberry. By then Opie was married and was about to welcome his first son into the world, and Aunt Bea had passed several years earlier. Arriving back in town he decided to run for Sheriff, but passed when he learned that Barney Fife was running for Sheriff. Barney later decided to not seek the position, and asked the community to vote for Andy Taylor as a write in candidate, as that was what he was going to do. After nearly twenty years away, Andy once again became Sheriff, with Barney reprising his role of loyal deputy.