In a season three episode of The Andy Griffith Show, Deputy Barney Fife gets a myriad of women to show up at Sherriff Andy’s house in hopes of getting him a wife. Fife thought that Andy should have a life outside the station and have a mother figure for Opie, who has been raised by his single dad with the help of Aunt Bee.
In the episode “A Wife For Andy,” as much as Andy welcomed this idea, he expressed that he considered that part of his life unattended because he had not found the right person. Although the series portrays Andy as a widower, who lost his wife when Opie was “the least little speck of a baby,” we do not know how exactly she died.
Deputy Fife Takes Charge
Regarding finding a wife, Andy replies to Fife, saying, “She might very well be here, I just ain’t found her yet. But till I do, the subject is closed.”
RELATED: Everything You Didn’t Know About The Sheriff Of Mayberry — Andy Griffith
Andy persuades Fife not to meddle in his personal life, but Fife sees it as an opportunity to throw the subject wide open and take charge. The meddlesome sidekick sends messages to many women in Mayberry, tricking them into going to Andy’s house to meet an absent Thelma Lou. The women arrive while Andy is busy telling his son a bedtime story.
“See, this way you get to see them all at once. You check off what you like, and if you don’t see anything you like we send in another batch tomorrow night. Listen to ’em out there. Just think, one of ’em might be the next Mrs. Andy Taylor, right behind that door. Don’t that excite ya?” Fife said to the bewildered Andy.
The Voice Of Judy Jetson
One of the first women to arrive was The Jetsons’ Judy Jetson, that is, Janet Waldo, who played Amanda in The Andy Griffith Show. Waldo had voiced teen Judy for several years since The Jetsons’ original cartoon in 1962; however, compared to the excited high-pitched voice we all know, Amanda sounded much different and with a southern accent.
Waldo’s appearance in Mayberry was less than a year after The Jetsons premiered. She had starred in several movies from the ’30s and ’40s, but her big career break came from voicing the futuristic cartoon teen from the 2040s. Waldo portrayed other characters in The Andy Griffith Show, but her voice was Judy Jetson’s, who came into Mayberry in 1963.