‘The Andy Griffith Show’: How Sheriff Andy Taylor Met His On-Screen Girlfriend Helen Crump
Sheriff Andy Taylor did his best to have a little romance on “The Andy Griffith Show.” He found it in schoolteacher Helen Crump.
How did the two meet in the small town of Mayberry? Their paths first cross in a third-season episode called “Andy Discovers America.” In it, Opie, played by Ron Howard, asks his Pa for some help understanding American history. He starts giving him advice and, for some reason, Opie believes this makes him above doing his history homework.
Well, this idea gets passed back to Crump in her class. That didn’t sit well with Crump, so she went to the courthouse for a discussion with Sheriff Taylor. Once she explained her side, Andy decided to take a different tact and get Opie and his classmates interested in their homework.
Andy’s Girlfriend Gets Big Surprise From Him On ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ Episode
The way he went about it on “The Andy Griffith Show” was to get them to see that they could band together, like a group of minutemen.
Take a look at how Andy Griffith incorporates his storytelling abilities in this clip from “Andy Discovers America.” Notice, too, that Don Knotts, who played Deputy Barney Fife, listens in on the history lesson, too.
After these boys hear that history story, they get down to business and do their history homework. This change in attitude impresses Crump so much that she ends up going to see Taylor again.
At the courthouse, she thanks him for his help. He offers to walk her home. Barney wants to talk about history, but Andy had a little romance on his mind.
There were times when Helen and Barney’s girlfriend Thelma Lou, played by Betty Lynn, would get jealous of both Andy and Barney. One time, the “Fun Girls” from Mount Pilot rolled into town and started flirting with Andy and, as one of them called Barney, “Bernie.” This didn’t sit well, but the kerfuffle was ironed out by the end of that episode.
Taylor, Crump Would End Up Getting Married On ‘Mayberry R.F.D.’
Actually, Andy and Helen would remain a couple from her debut in 1963 through the show’s end in 1968. They are married in the first episode of “Mayberry R.F.D.”, which replaced “The Andy Griffith Show” in CBS’s lineup. Corsault as Crump would be a regular on that show through its end in 1971. Taylor and Crump, in one episode, would appear to get their child baptized.
The final time Griffith and Corsault appeared together as an on-screen couple was in the 1986 TV movie “Return To Mayberry.” But in 1993, Corsault appeared as herself in “The Andy Griffith Show Reunion.” She died of cancer on Nov. 6, 1995, at 62 years old.
Griffith, who would go on beyond “The Andy Griffith Show” and star in “Matlock,” died on July 3, 2012, at 86 years old.Outsider
