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This painting from I Love Lucy decorated walls on The Andy Griffith Show, too
This farm scene is a through line connecting Andy and Lucy's worlds.
The Andy Griffith Show moseyed onto TV three years after I Love Lucy ended. With one show set in the small town of Mayberry and the other set in New York City, you wouldn't think the Ricardos' swank apartment would share much in common with the more modest residences folks on The Andy Griffith Show called home. But fans in the know have long known that The Andy Griffith Show was filmed at Desilu Studios, and for that reason, those TV universes occasionally blended more than one might expect, given the very different natures of these iconic shows, and if you don't believe us, the evidence of this is right there on the wall.
On I Love Lucy, there were several landscape paintings hanging above the organ in the Ricardos' apartment, all done by the popular Western painter Margo Alexander (1894-1965). Whether the artist was a favorite of Lucy's or not is unclear, but she did pose with the painting in a press photo, so it would seem the colorful farm scene must've had some special meaning to the star.
If nothing else, seeing the painting likely transported her right back to the set, which is sort of what happens when you first notice the painting hanging in episodes of The Andy Griffith Show. It's like running into an old friend in a place you never expected to see them. Below see the painting featured in the I Love Lucy episode "Ricardos Change Apartments."
On The Andy Griffith Show, this painting can be seen in at least two episodes. In "Man in the Middle," it decorates the walls in Thelma Lou's home. She hangs it just above her mantle. The next season, we'd get to see the painting in color. In the sixth season episode "The Church Organ," we see the farm scene painting again, this time hanging in the house of a literal farmer who Andy's trying to buy a used organ from.
All in all, the simple logic is the painting must have been an easy prop on hand, thrown on a wall whenever it was needed, but we like to think this painting serves as a through line connecting Lucy's world with Andy's. Have you ever noticed props from one show on another show you love? Tell us about it in the comments!
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I am familiar with that site. I learned about it from checking Superman websites. You've got first season episodes of "The Adventures of Superman" (with George Reeves) filmed on RKO Backlots which were late bought out by Desilu and you can make out several structures that began appearing on "The Andy Griffith Show" and You also have the first season "Star Trek" episode "City on the Edge of Forever" with William Shatner's "Captain Kirk" and Joan Collins "Edith Keeler" walking down a New York City Street circa 1930 passing a "Radio" repair shop, a Barber Shop and a Grocery Store in that order just as you would have passed Emmett's "TV" Repair shop, Floyd's Barber Shop and Foley's Grocery Store in Mayberry
