Jim Nabors

Sylacauga, Alabama, USA

Biography

James Thurston "Jim" Nabors (born June 12, 1930) was an American actor and singer. Born and raised in Sylacauga, Alabama, Nabors moved to Southern California due to his asthma. While working at a Santa Monica nightclub, The Horn, he was discovered by Andy Griffith and later joined The Andy Griffith Show, playing Gomer Pyle, a gas station attendant who some described as dim-witted. Nabors himself has stated that the Gomer character was not so much dim-witted; he just wanted to see the good in people. The character proved popular, and Nabors was given his own spin-off show, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Though best known for his portrayal of Gomer Pyle, Nabors became a popular guest on variety shows in the 1960s and 1970s (including two specials of his own in 1969 and 1974) after revealing a rich baritone voice. He subsequently recorded numerous albums and singles, most of them containing romantic ballads. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jim Nabors, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies

The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised on CBS between October 3, 1960 and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays the widowed sheriff of the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina. His life is complicated by an inept, but well-meaning deputy, Barney Fife, a spinster aunt and housekeeper, Aunt Bee, and a precocious young son, Opie. Local ne'er-do-wells, bumbling pals, and temperamental girlfriends further complicate his life. Andy Griffith stated in a Today Show interview, with respect to the time period of the show: "Well, though we never said it, and though it was shot in the '60s, it had a feeling of the '30s. It was when we were doing it, of a time gone by." The series never placed lower than seventh in the Nielsen ratings and ended its final season at number one. It has been ranked by TV Guide as the 9th-best show in American television history. Though neither Griffith nor the show won awards during its eight-season run, series co-stars Knotts and Bavier accumulated a combined total of six Emmy Awards. The show, a semi-spin-off from an episode of The Danny Thomas Show titled "Danny Meets Andy Griffith", spawned its own spin-off series, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., a sequel series, Mayberry R.F.D., and a reunion telemovie, Return to Mayberry. The show's enduring popularity has generated a good deal of show-related merchandise. Reruns currently air on TV Land, and the complete series is available on DVD. All eight seasons are also now available by streaming video services such as Netflix.

More info
The Andy Griffith Show
1960

The Julie Andrews Hour is a television variety series starring Julie Andrews that was produced by ATV and distributed by ITC Entertainment. It aired on the ABC network in the United States. In order to secure Andrews for the series, Sir Lew Grade and ABC offered her an extremely lucrative contract. In 1963, when another major star, Judy Garland was signed to a weekly television variety series, it failed to catch on with the public. One of the main reasons for its demise was its constant change of format and the fact that critics and audiences felt that Garland was not shown off to her best advantage. In order to avoid that error, Andrews asked producer Nick Vanoff what the premise of the show would be about. Vanoff immediately answered her by saying "Julie Andrews...without Julie Andrews there is no 'Julie Andrews Hour'". The show premiered on ABC Wednesday, September 13, 1972 at 10:00 P.M. ET to rave reviews. Unfortunately, its time slot proved to be daunting because it was up against the popular CBS detective series, Cannon. Another reason for the low ratings was that the lateness of the hour was not conducive to family viewing since children were in bed by that time. On Thanksgiving Eve, November 22, 1972, "The Julie Andrews Hour" devoted an entire episode saluting Walt Disney. To make it more of a "family special", ABC switched the time slot of "The Julie Andrews Hour" that night to 8:30 P.M. and The ABC Wednesday Movie Of The Week to 9:30 P.M. The ratings improved a little so ABC then made a decision to alternate Andrews' time period each week This continued until January, 1973 when the series was moved to Saturday nights at 9:00 P.M. The ratings went from bad to worse as Andrews' chief competition was The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show on CBS. "The Julie Andrews Hour" was finally canceled by ABC after its 24th episode in April, 1973.

More info
The Julie Andrews Hour
1972