CROSSING "ZONE": MAYBERRY LANE

Following the death of character actor Charles Lane last week, I discovered that I could use one of his characters to further strengthen the theoretical link I made between 'The Andy Griffith Show' and an episode of 'The Twilight Zone'.

Mr. Lane played Farmer Frisby in the eleventy-first episode of 'The Andy Griffith Show', "Aunt Bee The Crusader". Frisby was the butter-and-eggs man for the Taylor household, who often made his rounds with his pet rooster, Beauregard. When he let on to Aunt Bee that his farm was being taken away from him in order to make room for a new highway, Aunt Bee led a protest march to block construction.

During his attempts to restore the peace, Andy discovered that Farmer Frisby had about six moonshine stills in operation under his henhouse! (Frisby was betrayed by a drunk chicken.) Once Aunt Bee got wind of what was going on, she dropped the crusade and the highway went through.

Having no place left to go, Farmer Frisby probably moved in with his brother. It's my contention that Frisby had an older brother (by one year) who lived over in Pitchville Flats, North Carolina. Somerset Frisby ran the local gas station, but he was more at home around the cracker barrel in the general store, telling his tall tales.

Unfortunately for Frisby, alien visitors who had no conception of falsehoods heard his stories as well, and they believed them to be true. Recognizing Frisby as perhaps the greatest intellect of the planet Earth, they decided to take him back with them to their home planet. Had it not been for Frisby's trusty harmonica, which delivered a noise unbearable to the aliens, Frisby might have ended up yet another UFO abductee from Toobworld.

Also living in Pitchville Flats was a man named Mitchell, who apparently was the identical cousin of the Mayberry barber, Floyd Lawson. (It could be that they were identical half-brothers, if Floyd's father was a "ramblin' man".)

By the way, one of those aliens took such a liking to the architecture of Mayberry, North Carolina, that he reconstructed the entire town on a Class M planet inhabited by humanoids. (Evidence of this can be seen in the 'Star Trek' episode "Miri".)

'The Andy Griffith Show': "Aunt Bee The Crusader"
'The Twilight Zone': "Hocus Pocus And Frisby"

BCnU!
Toby OB