Opies mom, Andy's wife

In the pilot episode Andy says that Opie's mom died while Opie was very young. No name or reason is given.

I have a vague recollection of reading an article written in the early sixties that pointed out a dichotomy in American demographics versus media marketing at the time. On the one hand, the demographics showed a significant target audience of single parent households. On the other hand, the same demographics showed that most of these single parent households were results of divorce or never-married women. And at the time, the TV producers and sponsors did not want to embark on putting out situation comedies that featured single parents telling their offspring why they were bastards - or telling their children that their biological father is a rotten bum. Therefore, all of the single parent shows such as The Andy Griffith Show and The Rifleman featured only vague references to a parent who had died. Divorced parents didn't appear on television until the later sixties.

It always bothered me how all those shows back then had widowed parents, as if
having a parent die at a relatively young age was supposed to be so much less
objectionable than having a parent who was not present because of divorce/abandonment.


I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!

Hewwo.

I read once they liked single leads so they could meet someone new if a relationship got stale. Dihann Carroll had a little boy but was a widow. So there were a few dating relationships that never went to the altar.

On the other hand Rhoda Morgenstern got married to Joe, the construction guy on Rhoda. The viewship went downhill after the marriage. They concluded it was a mistake to have her get married because viewers peak at the big wedding and then get bored.

I wanted to point out that The Dennis O'Keefe Show featured a single dad as well -- sometimes overlooked as people focus on the single parents of The Andy Griffith Show, Petticoat Junction, The Beverly Hillbillies, My Three Sons, Family Affair...

They concluded it was a mistake to have her get married because viewers peak at the big wedding and then get bored.
................................................................................

I had been watching re-runs and they were happily married. I guess the shows are not in order because all of a sudden they were divorced or separated.
I guess the viewers were getting bored and the ratings reflected that so they threw that in there to pique the viewer interest.



I had the chance to work with Michael Jackson who was as brilliant as they come.
Tommy Mottola

There may have been some divorced couples on daytime soaps prior to the late-1960s, though....not sure though.



The Johnny O'Keefe Show doll...wind it up and it makes a comeback

I believe it was an unspoken rule that none of these single parent shows, were the result of divorce. The missing parent had always died. It's kind of like the twin bed situation for married couples that existed.