Friday, October 22, 2010

LLOYDS OF MAYBERRY

Continuing with our celebration of the 50th anniversary for 'The Andy Griffith Show'.....

"Mayberry Goes Hollywood" provided a discrepancy about Floyd the Barber that allowed me to not only splain away the Zonk, but to link 'The Andy Griffith Show' to other TV classics - 'Star Trek', 'The Twilight Zone', and 'Leave It To Beaver'.

From that same episode, we have another Zonk. Actually, this is the first episode in which the subject comes up; the actual Zonk would happen two episodes later. We have a splainin for it, but one which is not as far-reaching as the one for Floyd the Barber's last name.
In "Mayberry Goes Hollywood", Mayor Pike inflicted his daughter Juanita's singing "talents" on the town during the celebration for the arrival of the Hollywood production crew.

Juanita was dreadful.
Josie Lloyd played the role of Juanita, and she returned to the show two episodes later for "The Beauty Contest".

But now she was known as Josephine Pike.

I think the splainin for this is a simple one. While the rest of Mayberry "recovered" from their Hollywood hysteria, Juanita deluded herself into thinking that there was a show business career in her future. She wasn't helped by her father, the "fat little mayor", who pushed her into the beauty contest just a few weeks later.

As such, Juanita realized that the name "Juanita Pike" was going to limit her options in the entertainment field. (She may have been named after a family member, perhaps an older cousin who worked at the diner and who occasionally dated Deputy Barney Fife.)

So she changed her name to Josephine Pike.

Why was she inspired to take the name "Josephine"? Perhaps it was the name of a favorite aunt, her mother's sister.

And it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that this Aunt Josephine made her living in an occupation usually associated with men.....

But after her father was revealed to be a scandalous adulterer*, Josephine Pike decided she didn't want to be associated with him any longer. Hoping to symbolize that she was severing ties to her father, Miss Pike changed her name again. This time she settled upon a name she probably thought would look good in lights: "Lydia Crossthwaite".

Despite her dreams of stardom, Lydia remained in the Mayberry area where she was good friends with Thelma Lou. She dated Sheriff Andy Taylor once, but that didn't go well. And several years later she went on a date with Goober Pyle.......

Episodes:
"Mayberry Goes Hollywood"
"The Beauty Contest"
"Barney Mends A Broken Heart"
"Goober And The Art Of Love"

* As seen in the 'I Love Lucy' episode "Lucy Is Envious". Although those events occurred in 1954, it would be nearly a decade before Mayberry finally learned the truth - that Mayor Pike had gone to New York City with another woman. The only reason it was discovered was because Henry Pike (We learned his first name in the 'I Love Lucy' episode, never on 'The Andy Griffith Show'!) and his mistress were captured in pictures during a movie publicity stunt on the top of the Empire State Building. The stunt worked better than expected because only moments before Lucy and Ethel showed up as "The Women From Mars", a Gallifreyan Time Lord and one of his enemies, a Dalek, both made appearances on the observation deck as well........ BCnU!

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