Andy Griffith's Mayberry filming backlot and Desilu Studio

millions of you andy griffith fans are probably hoping that i'm going to show you the actual town side of mayberry where andy griffith and don knotts did all their wonderful scenes back in the 1960s i'm here to tell you it's not here anymore that nance studios behind me is exactly where the courthouse was hayden street led directly into the rko studios over here over this direction and in the background you'll see the baldwin hills they overlook the entire rko 40 acre studio so these very distinctive jagged buildings here on hayden avenue were here back in the days of mayberry so for andy griffith and don knotts to enter the set here they would have had to go right through here now ironically right outside where the studio was is a barber shop kind of reminds you of floyd was here floyd the barber this is hegera street we're gonna walk on the outer perimeter here of what was rko studios there was approximately 28 acres here where they established a number of sets for hollywood movies and tv shows including batman star trek was shot here now if you remember the one scene where don knotts as barney five was confronted by two peddlers who refused his orders to leave the town of mayberry it would have been right over in this area there was an earthen berm around the 40 acres on this side on the north side and it's where you would have seen don knotts do that scene with the two peddlers and they confronted barney barney was scared out of his mind and he stuck to his guns and he actually prevailed and he watched it happen and he was very proud of his deputy that he solved the incident without any gun violence or any kind of that things that would have happened to him barney of course was a stick figure and could have been destroyed we're coming up to helm and higueroa avenue so the hogan's hero set would have been on the northwest quadrant of the 40 acres it would have been approximately on the other side of this building here it's hard to imagine things the way they were back then because they've completely changed all the sets have been completely destroyed they were taken down in 1976 like i said it's almost impossible to believe that this was where the hogan's heroes section was now way off in the distance over there on the on the south side would have been the quonset huts where gomer pyle was filmed gomber piles was especially poignant for me to watch as a kid because i think it ran around 68 my uncle was in vietnam and had been shot through the chest a sniper's bullet came through the front and exited his back and uh almost killed him but i remember it was about the same time i'm coming up to lucerne this here would have been the complete western boundaries of the property and on the other side are our homes so this is now a residential area so that's 40 acres i was looking at this traffic signal controller box here it looks like it's vintage to the time period of mayberry when they were all out here filming so this is now all part of the hayden industrial track there are a lot of entertainment uses still going on today net studios that i mentioned before has a 7 000 square foot green room where they shot a number of videos including some scenes for the avengers as well as a nicki minaj and ariel grande videos music videos so this property is still being used quite heavily for the entertainment industry and i also understand that hell's kitchen is also filmed here in one of these buildings now a little bit about the history cecil b demille rented this facility in 1927. he built the king of kingston it was a jerusalem set the buildings that cecil b demille built was actually saved for king kong in 1933. it was later burned i understand to make way for the atlanta scenes for gone with the wind the union's train station was here as well as terra it was up on a hill they took decided to take that set to atlanta they were going to try to reconstruct terra down there it's still in a barn somewhere down south so nothing's been done with that but fortunately that set hasn't been destroyed it's just in a number of different pieces there were a number of streets here atlanta street there were some new york streets as well later desi lou productions which was lucille ball and desi arnold's they bought this facility for the purpose of filming different things millions of americans like me just loved watching andy griffith's show it's so iconic and the fact that the courthouse was just fake it was right behind this building here would have been on this spot behind this building is where all that magic happened i see a bunch of people scampering up baldwin hills there are coming down looks like they're going up to take a look a panoramic view of this entire area of culvert city now it's got to be hard to believe but the church that was used in the andy griffith show was right over right here approximately in this area andy's house would have been on a side street that goes off that direction as well what looks like a painted black house on that building would have been right about where andy's house was the courthouse would have been right over there i'm standing approximately where the camera was for this shot of andy being chased by all the town folks at mayberry as he leaves the courthouse presumably he's headed home down the street over this way the street there that's in the anti-griffith show would have kind of followed the same path and it should also be noted that right over here would have been where the great scene of citizen's arrest took place made a huge sweeping u-turn across the street and uh he did a motor vehicle violation and came over to this side to set on this side and that's where gomer said citizens arrest did you know that you're sitting approximately where the citizens arrest scene was recorded citizens arrest scene of what don't tell me you don't know citizens arresting citizens arrest scene yeah she's obviously not a andy griffith fan yes andy griffith would have been a little bit more information but no i'm not familiar with the andy griffith citizens or sc as a small kid growing up in the 60s i was also a huge fan of batman and there's a number of new york gotham city scenes that were shot over in this area here again everything's been dismantled here now this manhole cover that everybody is driving over could possibly be the same one that was here on the streets of mayberry back in the 1960s andy griffith show was shot from 1960 to 1968 and there's some suggestion that some of the scenes recorded were show this particular manhole cover they're doing some kind of street work here so uh it's gonna be a little loud for a while but i'm gonna take you up and show you where terra was located as you can see there's mostly industrial buildings around here absolutely nothing left so it's going to require a lot of imagination but we are approaching the atlanta area there was a union train station here for the movie gone with the wind as well as tara tear it was on a hill here it was just a fake front it's just a fake building nothing was shot indoors in 1959 an enterprise purchased it took it to the south we're going to try to reconstruct it and then the south and make it a tourist attraction but this is approximately where it would have been the union train station featuring gone with the wind where all those wounded veterans were clark gable and vivian lay would have been out here shooting scenes and i think 1938 somewhere around that because they released the film in 1939 it's also going to require a ton of imagination for you to see exactly where the quasi huts were in gomer pyle where frank sutton was always chewing out gym neighbors for doing something wrong of course the gobert pile was a huge show it was a spin-off of the andy griffith show usmc starring jim nabors as gomer pyle would have been where gomer pile was shot if those trees kind of are borders the bologna creek so if you've gone that way you've gone way past the 40 acres studio it would have been right here gopher pile if you're wondering where wally's filling station was in mayberry it was in this area as well facing the south towards the creek on the other side of the creek was an overgrown area and it was used as a set for tarzan and his tree house and it too is all gone as much as hollywood likes to memorialize their past they there are no signs out there no plaques nothing whatsoever to indicate that all this great tv and movie magic was shot out here it's kind of mind-blowing when you think about it so many iconic pictures and tv shows that we used to watch way back all shot here there were several episodes i think five episodes of bonanza were shot out here but most of them are shot at a different lot now we've got a gym over here shut off because of the pandemic we've got industrial uses we have studios now over here in this areas where there would have been a hotel in the theater something interesting about the hotel is that superman george reeves took a flying leap off that porch in a 1952 episode of the adventures of superman tv show it really figures that i visited on a day in which they're doing some kind of road patching or some kind of roadwork where all these industrial buildings and a parking structure are at the eastern edge of the 40 acres was once the sats designed to look like a bombed out european village and they filmed a bunch of war movies here including the story of g.i joe one of those war movies was verboten starring james best and there's one scene that i found where he's actually on the veranda of the same building that would later become this mayberry courthouse the following year it's crazy to think that it was all shot right here and it's all gone not one shred and one scintilla evidence that mayberry was shot right here but it was all located right here rest assured all the outdoor scenes shot right here we're going to head over to the lillian avenue studios now now the red studios was dizzy lou studios where all the indoor scenes were shot as well as the indoor scenes for the lucille ball i love lucy show i'm now on kawanga avenue in los angeles and walking toward the front of what used to be the dizzy liu kawanga studios this was one of the first major studios that began back in the 1920s as metro studios to be exact it changed hands became the motion picture studios now you andy griffith fans might remember that in season six in 1965 andy and aunt b and opie went to hollywood to watch the filming of a tv show that was based on his life called sheriff without a gun in the taylor's go to hollywood episode the three were invited to a tour of the studios and the very front here is exactly where abby andy and opie began their tour you can see them contact the guard at the front gate here only for the episode they changed the name of the studio to belmont studios the front of this studio also was used in scenes for the movie roger rabbit 1988. only the facade was changed to appear as maroon cartoons i also found a scene from the gobert pyle tv show where jim nabors drives a jeep right through that gate private first class gomer pie reporting sir i know i'm supposed to be in formation but i've got some good news for real good news that is i'm going to show you a bungalow on the other side of the street here that was actually in the background of a buster keaton film it's still here so in 1920 buster keaton filmed a movie called one week and in it he constructed a house rather sloppily and a number of pratfalls were done this building is actually in the background of the seam where he's hammering nails on top of the wall that he's building so this building goes back to the 1920s look at those bricks it's kind of cool how they have those bricks this is now red studios hollywood but back in 1955 lucille ball desi arnaz purchased this for the filming of the i love lucy tv show that's where we made the isle of lucy shows which were filmed in front of live audiences you see most of those sound stages are equipped with seats for just that purpose and we plan to do our lucid spaces over there for the first two years of that show they shot all their episodes at the paramount studio they liked the fact that the sound stages here were equipped with seating for a live audience so they bought it and named it desilu coanga studios i love lucy wrapped up its final season in 1957 andy griffith came along in 1960 and all of the indoor scenes were shot in studios one and two the danny thomas show was shot in the sound stage in front which coincidentally is where andy griffith was first introduced in 1959 as a tv episode dick van dyke show was also shot here as was gummer pyle and golden girls this is also where ralph edwards did all of those this is your life tv series and some of the guests who came here were people like rock hudson uh betty davis roy rogers gloria swanson jade mansfield oliver hardy and stan laurel so now i'm going to go to the back side the lily and way side and show you exactly where jesse lou studios is located where they filmed i love lucy as well as andy griffith show if i'm not mistaken this big sound stage here is where they filmed the gilbert pile been painted gray or dark gray back in those days it was all white all kinds of building taking place around here looks like some apartment buildings going up here so right across the street is the entrance the southgate entrance to red studios it was at one time desilu studios and it's right there on that sidewalk that you'll see little ronnie howard with his dad rance howard and his brother clint howard walking very happy at the end of a day of a shooting right down that sidewalk past the gate which at that time had a chain lake fence gate that slid across the ground there i believe since it says that is studio number three i believe at that time they were studios one and two so this would have been a place where don knotts and andy griffith and all the cast would have entered right through here back in 1960 the show ran from 1960 to 1965. so right across from studio one and two there were a number of bungalow houses that were right here where this parking structure is this is not progress if you ask me this palm tree here indicates there were some houses here back in the 30s just on the other side of this wall now a parking lot were houses that were used in episodes of the andy griffith show 8 30 lillian way there were at least three houses that were used this would have been the front yard of these houses the 1962 episode farmer takes a wife shot right here as well as one punch opie was also shot here in the one punch opie scene andy rolls up here right after the lamp is broke and it looked like opie did it but he didn't he got in trouble for that goober was confronted out here by a customer played by larry hovis who trusted him to fix the car when goober really wasn't a good mechanic but that scene was shot out here in front of these houses and the farmer takes a wife episode you may remember that allen hale came out from the country he was a farmer looking for a wife he decided to court thelma lou who was marty's girl barney tells the farmer out in front of the house here that thelma lou is his girl but hill confirms that barney hasn't officially proposed to her so she's fair game for courtship that was shot out here these two doors here were used for filming and uh about the cast and crew came out of here and i think the audience also came out here as well came through these doors right here these doors were the desi lou studio doors right here that little iron bracket there you see is also visible in a picture early picture that i found online and there was a sign there i believe it said desi loop productions or design studios so you can imagine lucille ball and desi arnaz probably came out those doors got in their cars and took off this air has changed quite a bit if i'm not mistaken those telephone poles that are in the background i think running behind that building or the alleyway are the same telephone poles that were here back in the day when andy griffith was shooting movies right out here at those houses that are no longer there marked by that palm tree right there when i was growing up in the 60s and 70s i enjoyed watching reruns of i love lucy of course i always thought that that apartment was actually shot in new york in my mind it was in new york but it was actually shot in that building right there i have to share one funny story associated with that i love lucy when i was a kid we were real little my brother and i were just got out of the bath and walked out naked in front of the tv screen and of course i love lucy was on and my brother says you better put your clothes on because she can see you and i mocked him because i said no it doesn't work that way golden girls were shot here in 1994 madonna did her material girl video right here as well this dates back to the golden age of hollywood for sure you think about roman novaro with swashbuckling here the studios takes up almost the entire block except for this brick building which was the boys and girls club hollywood i want to thank you for joining us on this episode of history hunters we hope that you enjoyed seeing some of the places where the andy griffith show took place both the indoor and outdoor scenes i want to thank you so much and if you have a chance give us a comment and a like as well as subscribe to our channel thank you so much you

Channel: History Hunters

Views: 400,033

Keywords: Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry location filming site, TV filming location, Don Knotts, Gomer Pyle, I Love Lucy, Desilu Studios, RKO 40 Acre lot, Hogan's Heroes, Batman, Bonanza

Id: 7Q7seGKX7mc

Length: 22min 48sec (1368 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 31 2021