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9 times Parley Baer played a mayor on TV
His roles on The Andy Griffith Show and The Addams Family were just two of his many TV terms in office!
Classic TV actor Parley Baer had a career that spanned five decades with a variety of roles in everything from Dennis the Menace to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He often played doctors, judges, and one very specific type of politician — the small-town mayor.
Sometimes he ran a strict office but usually, the mayors he played didn't quite stay within the bounds of the law. Here are nine different mayoral roles (eleven if you count each Disney TV movie separately) portrayed by Parley Baer.
Watch The Andy Griffith Show on MeTV!
Weeknights at 8 & 8:30, Sundays at 12 & 6 PM
*available in most MeTV markets1. The Andy Griffith Show
Parley Baer's best-known mayoral role is Mayberry Mayor Roy Stoner from The Andy Griffith Show. It's arguably Baer's most famous role in general, so it may come as a surprise to know he only appeared in seven episodes of the show. Baer joined the Andy Griffith cast replacing Dick Elliott, who passed away after playing Mayor Pike during the first two seasons.
2. The Addams Family
Parley Baer played the recurring character Arthur J. Henson on the classy "ooky" and kooky sitcom. Henson started out as an insurance agent but soon became a city commissioner and eventually mayor. Gomez runs against Henson for the office after feeling insulted by how low the taxes are.
3. The Magical World of Disney
For Disney's anthology series originally titled Disneyland and then Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, Parley Baer played a mayor not once, not twice, but three different times. He played mayors in the TV movies The Monster of Strawberry Cove, The Boy Who Stole an Elephant, and The Further Adventures of Gallegher: The Daily Press vs City Hall. He was also a sheriff in Bristle Face and a storekeeper in The Swamp Fox: Brother Against Brother.
4. B.J. and the Bear
This quirky adventure series followed a young trucker and his loyal chimpanzee companion as they traveled the country. Parley Baer plays the mayor in the second season episode "Siege" about a group of mercenaries who hold people hostage in a truck stop.
5. The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again
Parley Baer plays the mayor of a Western town in this sequel to the TV movie The Over-the-Hill Gang. This time, the elderly Texas Rangers add the famous Baltimore Kid, played by Fred Astaire, to their group as they try to root out corruption and save the town.
6. The Law and Mr. Jones
Parley Baer played the mayor in two episodes of this short-lived early Sixties series. James Whitmore starred as football player-turned-lawyer Abraham Lincoln Jones, who was just as good in a fist fight as he was in the court room.
7. General Electric Theater
Ronald Reagan hosted this anthology series throughout the 1950s and early '60s. Parley Baer starred in three separate episodes, playing the mayor in "Louie and the Horseless Buggy" alongside everyone's favorite Mayberry barber, Howard McNear. The episode also featured Alan Hale Jr. before he became the Skipper on Gilligan's Island and Eddie Albert before he was Oliver Wendell Douglas on Green Acres.
8. The Tom Ewell Show
Comedic character actor Tom Ewell starred in this sitcom about a man living with his wife and three daughters. It was the Last Man Standing of 1960 but only lasted one season. Parley Bear played the mayor in the episode "Site Unseen" which also featured Four Star Productions head and former actor Dick Powell as himself.
9. Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater
Speaking of Dick Powell, he hosted and occasionally acted in this anthology series from 1956–59. Parley Baer appeared in four episodes, playing Mayor Homer Bellam in "Muletown Gold Strike." It was his first time playing a Mayor on television but would certainly not be his last!
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7 Comments
He was the nicest, warmest, most down to earth person.
I truly relish the time I got spend with him.
Stoner on The Andy Griffith Show.
I would like to know why did the
Character of Mayor Roy Stoner
Dissapear from TAGS with no explanation after only 7 episodes
The Andy Griffith Show GOMER
PYLE usmc Leave It to Beaver
Happy Days Threes company
And The Adventures of OZZIE and Harriet have all had characters
Vanish from situation comedies
With no explanation
The writers are too lazy to give
Explanations when characters dissapear from their sitcoms
With no explanation.
Or the writers might think that
TV viewers will not notice when
Their favorite or in favorite
Characters vanish from their
TV shows.
