14 The Andy Griffith Show CBS 1960-68

Is there a wiser, gentler, or more likable character in all of television than Griffith’s Sheriff Andy Taylor, a widower raising his young son, Opie (Ron Howard)? This sitcom was the original hangout show, where Griffith’s folksy charm and the small-town life of Mayberry would have been appealing even without the comic dynamo that was

Don Knotts, as Andy’s incompetent deputy Barney Fife.