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Today we’re inducting the last of the May Queens into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame. (For the last week of May, the Friday Hall of Famer will be the Toobworld televersion of the TV show which showcased one of Toobworld’s greatest queens.)
But for this Friday, we’re taking a trip down to Mayberry, North Carolina. For a small country town, Mayberry certainly has racked up quite a few members of the Hall; this will mark the seventh. As Melissa Steadman once said, “Seven – it would be a mythic number.”
Edited from Wikipedia:
Helen Crump is a fictional dramatic character on the American television program ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ (1960–1968). Helen made her debut in the third-season episode "Andy Discovers America" (1963). Helen was a schoolteacher and became main character Sheriff Andy Taylor's girlfriend. Helen also appeared in TAGS spinoff, ‘Mayberry R.F.D.’ (1968–1971), and in the TAGS reunion telemovie, “Return to Mayberry” (1986). Helen was portrayed by Aneta Corsaut.
Helen Crump hails from Kansas and attended college in Kansas City. She majored in journalism. Helen takes up residence in Mayberry and is employed as an elementary schoolteacher. Her uncle, Edward, and her young niece, Cynthia, visit her in Mayberry.
Unlike other Mayberry women, Helen has no special skills in the kitchen. She enjoys picnicking, and, in one episode, directs the high school's senior play. An independent, self-sufficient, professional single woman, Helen is a wise and thoughtful character, but at times can be abrupt. [She] serves on most occasions as the voice of reason on the show.
In the third-season episode, "Andy Discovers America" (1963), Opie and his classmates take a dislike to their new teacher Helen Crump (whom they call "old lady Crump"). The boys complain about her history assignments. After Andy gives Opie some advice about his own experience with school (which Opie misconstrues into thinking he doesn't have to do his history schoolwork), Helen appears at the courthouse and, acting on her assumptions based on Opie's misinterpretation of his father's advice, proceeds to give Andy a piece of her mind on his interference in her domain.
Andy is dumbfounded but finds a way to get the boys excited about their history assignments. Helen is astonished but pleased with the change in Opie and his pals. When she learns Andy played a part in the turnabout, she thanks him and the two become friends.
At the end of the episode, Andy shows his attraction to Helen by offering to walk her home and attempting to rid himself of Barney Fife who wants to discuss history with Helen.
Andy and Helen have many pleasant social outings: they attend dances, picnic at Myers Lake, and double date with others (usually Barney Fife and Thelma Lou).
In "Helen, the Authoress", Helen has written a book and uses her evenings to rewrite the manuscript before its publication by a Richmond firm.
In the first episode of ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ spinoff, ‘Mayberry R.F.D.’, Andy and Helen married. The episode gave CBS the highest ratings for a new TV series debut for the decade.
The couple moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, but returned to Mayberry at a later date on ‘Mayberry R.F.D.’ to christen their newborn son, Andrew Samuel Taylor.
In 1986, Andy and Helen made appearances in the reunion telemovie “Return to Mayberry”. In the telemovie, Andy has recently retired from the United States Postal Inspection Service in Cleveland and returns to Mayberry to see Opie and his wife become first-time parents. In a continuity error, Opie's half-brother, who would have been a teenager then, wasn't mentioned at all.
Here are Helen’s three separate appearances which qualify her for membership in the TVXOHOF:
1963-1968
The Andy Griffith Show
66 episodes
Mayberry R.F.D.
- Andy's Baby (1969)
- Andy and Helen Get Married (1968)
1986
Return to Mayberry (TV Movie)
Welcome to the Hall, Mrs. Taylor! You’ll find your husband and stepson and other friends from Mayberry ready to welcome you.
Sorry about Andy Jr. not making the cut….
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