Ron Howard and Andy Griffith brought a dark and gritty Mayberry reboot to Saturday Night Live

Live, from New York...or...North Carolina?

Ron Howard is a delight to watch in interviews and on social media. With the reputation of playing America's favorite small-town son, it's no wonder that people flock to see what he's up to and where he's going next. If only he could take the character of Opie into the future with him. How would Mayberry react to having the sheriff's son back on the streets, following in his father's footsteps? 

In 1982, Saturday Night Live took a gamble on a sketch that did exactly that. Howard was the guest host for the October 9, 1982, episode. He had the chance to stretch his acting legs in a number of sketches and scenarios, but none so memorable as the sketch "Opie's Back." The writers of the sketch took the postcard-worthy picture of Mayberry and asked themselves, "What if the town got caught up in the landscape of the R-rated action-thrillers of the day?"

The premise: Opie returns home as a police officer to find that Mayberry has been overrun with derelicts and crime. Once lovable, sweet-as-pie characters have been caught up in the spree and no longer see the town through rose-colored glasses.

In a desperate plea for help, Opie begs the spirit of his father, Sheriff Andy Taylor, for advice. The audience receives an exciting surprise when Andy Griffith himself appears to offer his two cents. 

Ron Howard as Opie, hearing the voice of Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith.)

The sketch is definitely a product of the times; blood-splattered action movies like Sudden Impact and First Blood made it easy to apply a similar filter to wholesome Mayberry and its inhabitants. We learn that the town has turned bad after its peacekeeper, Sheriff Taylor, perished in a fishing accident. Adult businesses now line Main Street. Floyd the barber (Eddie Murphy) threatens Otis, who has moved on to harder stuff, with a razor. That is, until Opie returns to town.

The narrator explains: "Once he was a young, small-town wimp who got beaten up for his lunch money. But then he left home and grew up fast in Vietnam… And now, he’s back ready to clean up Mayberry." Yes, Opie was Rambo and Dirty Harry rolled into one. 

The 1982 parody was rather prescient, mocking the way Hollywood tends to modernize classic properties with "dark and gritty" reboots. Take the current Banana Splits reboot, for example.

A few years later, the Andy Griffith Show gang would show officially what happened when Opie made his trip back to town, in the TV movie Return to Mayberry. While there was still plenty to do, there was no need for a crime-drama cop to be involved whatsoever.

Watch The Andy Griffith Show on MeTV!

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18 Comments

MikeInFla 36 months ago
Would love to see this skit online somewhere. The only thing that comes up is Ron Howard's opening monologue.
rycki1138 MikeInFla 33 months ago
It can be seen streaming on Peacock free with ads. They have all 46 seasons of SNL on Peacock.
johnfmayer MikeInFla 31 months ago
https://archive.org/details/opies-back
pligocki johnfmayer 6 months ago
Thanks for posting, Peacock is subscription only now😪
fmarino1968 46 months ago
Any chance MeTV will air the - TV movie Return to Mayberry. ?
denny 50 months ago
I wouldn't call following Ron Howard a delight to follow on social media. Spreading his socialist views and liberalism around.
sardu1 56 months ago
Big fan of doing 'return to' episodes of series that had gone off air long ago. Saw this SNL when it aired and thought it was pretty funny. But, it would be fun if some age old series returned for at least one more episode. Like Little Ricky returning to Connecticut and a new 'I Love Lucy' episode, 60 years after it went off the air.
sardu1 56 months ago
Big fan of doing 'return to' episodes of series that had gone off air long ago. Saw this SNL when it aired and thought it was pretty funny. But, it would be fun if some age old series returned for at least one more episode. Like Little Ricky returning to Connecticut and a new 'I Love Lucy' episode, 60 years after it went off the air.
GaryPreston 56 months ago
Giants 49 must be out of your mind take wagon train off leave mama's family? Crazy talk!!
FrankCollins 56 months ago
I would like to see that SNL episode, and many other of the classic SNL episodes. How about it, MeTV?
Good luck! Lorne still keeps a death grip on 1980s and 1990s SNL.
44 seasons, and only the first 5 are on DVDs.
AgingDisgracefully 56 months ago
I always hoped for Dirty Barney.
Think of that Don Knott's voice saying, "Now I know what you're thinkin'. did he fire six shots or only five?..."
thedude1500 56 months ago
They should reboot the series as CSI: Mayberry, with the small, bucolic North Carolina town turned into a center of crime and vice.
PJPSHELBY 56 months ago
The "Merv Griffith Show" skit on SCTV is an all-time classic. It's on YouTube. Look it up,.
Giants49 56 months ago
It good to have the Flintstones on they should come on at three pm pacifac replace wagon train and leave on mama family and the Jefferson's
Barry22 56 months ago
He also did a funny skit where everybody talked like WB's Sylvester the Cat.
RobCertSDSCascap Barry22 54 months ago
Sylvester's School For Speech Therapy, with Brad Hall as the Professor.
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