A Mayberry minute with ‘Andy Griffith Show’ alum Rodney Dillard

Bluegrass-country rocker Rodney Dillard, best known as the non-speaking, open-mouthed lead singer of the Darling Family hillbillies on six hilarious episodes of “The Andy Griffith Show,” relives those halcyon Mayberry years in a heart-warming feature story. In the accompanying vintage still 39-year-old Andy Griffith is seen on a December 1965 calendar advertising the witty “Romeo and Juliet” monologist’s Harrah’s Las Vegas Hotel and Casino stand-up appearances. Image Credit: The Bart Boatwright Collection

“Relax, slow down, take it easy…what’s your hurry?” Guest preacher Dr. Harrison Everett Breen of New York City delivered those soothing words to the All Souls Church non-denominational congregation in “The Sermon for Today,” a superior 1963 episode of The Andy Griffith Show encapsulating exactly the tone which made the series such a resounding pop culture juggernaut. Although not an actual town in North Carolina — Griffith’s hometown of Mt. Airy comes pretty close — Mayberry is very much alive in the hearts of millions of fans five decades after it voluntarily vacated CBS’s Monday evening lineup as television’s No. 1 program.

The Dillards were perhaps the most visibly progressive bluegrass group of the 1960s, notching watershed moments in covering Bob Dylan, transitioning to electric instrumentation, and adopting orchestral arrangements for Wheatstraw Suite and Copperfields. They graced the Griffith Show as the tight-lipped and backwoods-endorsing Darling Family in six fan favorite episodes taped between 1963–1966, mostly penned by the absurdly hilarious team of Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum, who later wrote Don Knotts’ The Ghost and Mr. Chicken as well as 24 episodes of M*A*S*H.

The undisputed leader of the Dillards was songwriter-guitarist-producer-singer Rodney Dillard. Besides a still active 60-year music career, Dillard also mounts a show at churches throughout the United States with his wife, singer-banjoist Beverly Cotten, called Mayberry Values. Featuring music, behind the scenes trivia, audience participation, and Dillard’s testimony hinging on how the Griffith Show reflected a simpler time through Christian values, visit Dillard’s official website to see if they’re performing in your neck of the woods.

Stay tuned as the quick-witted raconteur exclusively addresses how the quartet was spotted at the Ash Grove club in Hollywood by Elektra Records founder and future Doors signer Jac Holzman, getting noticed by Griffith’s manager Dick Linke in a Variety magazine advertisement, stepping upon Lucille Ball’s Desilu Studios for the first time, Griffith’s guitar playing prowess, Mayberry town drunk Otis Campbell, the Aunt Bee and Alaskan Malamute anecdote, why he never spoke in Mayberry, the rolling on the floor snoring scene from the “Mountain Wedding”…