Widower Andy Taylor divides his time between raising his young son, Opie, and his job as sheriff of the sleepy North Carolina town of Mayberry. Andy and Opie live with Andy's Aunt Bee, who serves as a surrogate mother to both father and son. Andy's nervous cousin, Barney Fife, is his deputy sheriff whose utter incompetence is tolerated because Mayberry is virtually crime-free.

The widowed father of a young boy works as sheriff in the southern town of Mayberry.