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Show business idealization of small towns was rampant in radio and movies well before television came along. For a prime example, "The Great Gildersleeve" lived in a picture-perfect little town where the streets were always clean, the people were always happy, and the worst thing that could happen was an amusing case of mistaken identity. It was nothing like the real world of mid-1940s America, but it was what mid-1940s America wanted to believe it was like, and it sold an awful lot of Parkay.
The head writer for "Gildersleeve," a fellow by the name of John Whedon, was, twenty years later, a key member of the "Andy Griffith Show" staff, and brought much of that same flavor to his contributions. (Gildy had a character called "Floyd The Barber" to deal with two decades before Andy Taylor did.) Mr. Whedon's grandson Joss has given his own twist to the small-town formula, with his tales of Sunnydale, California on "Buffy The Vampire Slayer."
FWIW, the Andy Griffith Show had moments of true genius. The scripts were great when they weren't merely good. And some of the performances were just splendid.