Hell, I still liked the show after it went color. Hell, I liked Mayberry RFD, but I'll stop there because Andy Griffith was only in the first episode.

Sigh. I love this show, and Griffith was an awesome entertainer. And he knew what worked. He was a wonderful comedian in his own right and could have kept that funny, dopey persona he used in Make Room for Daddy and the first season, but he was smart enough to know he worked better as the straight man for Barney and the rest of the wacky Mayberry inhabitants, and, while it never managed to net him an Emmy, that's what made the show.