The Truth About the Real-Life Feud Between ‘Aunt Bee’ and Andy Griffith

Sometimes, art imitates life. And sometimes, art is nothing like life. Such is the case of Andy Griffith and Aunt Bee’s real-life relationship.

While the two actors had amazing on-screen camaraderie, their off-screen relationship was anything but harmonious. Andy Griffith and Frances Bavier clashed from the on-set due to their differing personalities. Griffith was relaxed and happy-go-lucky, a practical jokester who enjoyed teasing his co-stars. In contrast, Bavier was rigid and aloof. She came to set to work, often distancing herself from her coworkers and their hijinks.

“I don’t think she ever felt a part of what these boys were up to and their shenanigans,” Ron Howard, who played Opie Taylor, once stated in an interview.

But there may have been more to the feud than that.

Frances Bavier Was Nothing Like Aunt Bee

Aunt Bee exudes warmth and grace, but Frances Bavier might not have been so warm and cuddly. In fact, some of the cast and crew considered her incredibly difficult to work with.

“I can only repeat what I was told, but on The Andy Griffith Show, Howard Morris, who played Ernest T. Bass on the show and directed episodes of it, said that directing Frances was like stepping on a landmine,” stated one director. “If you would ask her to move three inches to the right to get in the proper frame, she’d blow a fuse and refuse.”

On another occasion, she physically attacked a cast member. George Lindsey, who played Goober Pyle, wrote about the incident in his memoir Goober in a Nutshell.

“We were doing a scene on a race track set, and me with my foul mouth. I was cursing and cutting up (the camera wasn’t going, of course). Well, Frances wasn’t going to stand still for that, and she turned around and whopped me over the head with her umbrella and proceeded to lecture me.”

It’s hard to say which is more difficult to imagine—Goober letting some four-letter words fly or Aunt Bee walloping someone with an umbrella.

Regardless, Lindsey never forgave Bavier for the “humiliating” incident. Ken Berry, who played Sam Jones on Mayberry R.F.D., was equally appalled. “He (Berry) was really irate that she would do that to me. And he was right; she shouldn’t have done that. I had always liked Frances, but I never forgave her for clobbering me,” Lindsey wrote.

Did Andy Griffith and Frances Bavier Ever Make Amends?

Griffith was a consummate professional. Though rumors about his feud with Bavier flew around Hollywood for years, he didn’t take the opportunity to throw his coworker under the bus. He didn’t even confirm the rumors until an interview in 1998 with Larry King Live. At that point, Griffith revealed that Bavier had called him four months before her death and apologized for being difficult on set.

Even if Bavier and Griffith didn’t get along on set, they still gave us some of the most memorable moments in TV history. And while Bavier didn’t always appreciate her role as Aunt Bee, television fans everywhere will always love and cherish her portrayal of Andy Griffith’s kind-hearted, nurturing aunt.