The Andy Griffith Show ended its original run in 1968. The final episode aired on April 1, 1968, after the sitcom had completed eight seasons and 249 half-hour episodes on CBS.
The series debuted on October 3, 1960, and followed Sheriff Andy Taylor, his son Opie, Aunt Bee, and the famously inept Deputy Barney Fife in fictional Mayberry, North Carolina. Its final season remained extremely popular and finished as the number-one-rated show on television.
The end of the original series did not mean the end of Mayberry. After Andy Griffith left, the program was reworked as Mayberry R.F.D., starring Ken Berry as Sam Jones. Several established characters remained, including Aunt Bee, and the spin-off ran from 1968 to 1971. This creates a frequent mix-up: The Andy Griffith Show ended in 1968, while the broader Mayberry television story continued through Mayberry R.F.D. and later a 1986 reunion film.