after all. guess what i m going to enter these pickles. these? these. these? these. that was like a fantasy of a world and an america in which race and class just kind of didn t exist. jennifer, miss clarabell. andy! it was probably the whitest show on television. i mean, there are no black people in mayberry. if they are, they re passing through. and if you blinked, you missed them. they re okay, pa, they all flew off okay. guess i did a good job, huh, pa? you sure did, son. the show immediately hit the top ten. it rated higher in the rural parts of the country. the main producer sheldon leonard famously said, you can take new york. you can take l.a. you know, give me the corn belt. this blue collar versus white collar class divide extended to the critical reception that shows received in the 1960s.