The Andy Griffith Show Trivia: What happened to Andy and Helen's son Andy Taylor Junior?

What happened to Andy Taylor Jr?

Mayberry RFD was a spin-off of The Andy Griffith Show and premiered on September 23, 1968, on CBS. Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith) and Helen Crump (Aneta Corsaut) marry in the first episode. They appear in a few more episodes before leaving town, but return on September 22, 1969, with their son Andy Taylor Jr., who is about six months old.

The actor's name portraying the child is never given, and he would be around 55 years old today, unless he has passed away. There is no record on the Internet of the person who played the baby, but eagle-eyed fans have noticed something about him.

MeTV has been showing the film Return to Mayberry each month of May for the past three years, and Andy Jr., who would have been 17 when the TV movie premiered, did not return to town with his parents. Also, his name is never mentioned, as if he did not exist. I tried looking for Opie's little brother, but this pulled up Ron Howard's younger brother, Clint Howard, who portrayed Leon on The Andy Griffith Show.

Andy Jr.'s godparents

Andy and Helen decided to make Sam Jones (Ken Berry) their son's godfather, which some fans thought odd because they had not known Sam that long. This caused hard feelings with Goober Pyle ( George Lindsey), Howard Sprague (Jack Dodson), and Emmett Clark ( Paul Hartman).

Goober says he introduced Andy and Helen, but this is not true. Ms. Crump was Opie's teacher long before Goober became a regular on the show and Barney Fife ( Don Knotts) pushed for the couple to get together. . Helen and Andy decide to make all four men their son's godfathers to keep the peace.

Missing sitcom children

Fans discussing the movie on Mayberry Wiki asked the name of the actor portraying the baby and made jokes about the missing Andy Jr. One said he must have gone wherever Chuck Cunningham from Happy Days disappeared to.

Chuck was the older brother of Ron Howard's character Richie Cunningham, and he was not written out of the series but never mentioned again. The same thing happened with Judy Winslow on Family Matters. The character stopped being shown and was not mentioned again.

Where is the actor now?

Wouldn't it have been nice if the actor who portrayed Andy Taylor Jr. had returned to Mayberry with his parents? He would have been 17 at the time, so he should have been with Andy and Helen, but not even Opie (Ron Howard) mentioned his younger brother.

Andy, Helen, or Opie could have taken him through the town and told him all about Mayberry's past. MeTV mentions the fact that a Samuel Taylor was not in Return to Mayberry along with other things viewers may not have noticed about the movie.

Perhaps they confused the names Sam Jones and Andy Taylor Jr. It would be nice to know the actor's name who portrayed the baby and whether or not he remained in show business.

Fans never forget

With all the Andy Griffith trivia on the Internet and hundreds of Facebook groups dedicated to the beloved series, you would think someone might have discovered this information by now.

Since MeTV has addressed the issue some fan out there somewhere will find out what happened to the actor and enlighten the rest of us.Perhaps the writers forgot about Andy Taylor Jr. in the hustle and bustle of the 1986 film. MeTV and fans of Mayberry RFD, however, still recall the character.

Both Mayberry RFD and The Andy Griffith Show were popular but became victims of the rural television purge.