I watched the "Youth Takes Over" ep. of Mayberry R.F.D. on You Tube today, and in one scene, they showed the outside of the courthouse.  I noticed that the plaques that read, "Sheriff" and "Justice Of The Peace" were gone, but, Andy was still the sheriff, at least in that ep, and there was, at least, one scene inside the courthouse.  Any explanations?

Sergeant_Carter wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2011 at 9:57pm:

I watched the "Youth Takes Over" ep. of Mayberry R.F.D. on You Tube today, and in one scene, they showed the outside of the courthouse.  I noticed that the plaques that read, "Sheriff" and "Justice Of The Peace" were gone, but, Andy was still the sheriff, at least in that ep, and there was, at least, one scene inside the courthouse.  Any explanations?

When TAGS ended, Andy reminded the cast members that if there was anything that they wanted to keep from the series that they used a lot, as a memento, to get it soon because they probably wouldn't be used again or either thrown away.

Andy took the plaques for himself but later donated them to the Andy Griffith Museum in his hometown of Mt. Airy, NC.   George Lindsey kept his beanie hat throughout Mayberry RFD and later had it bronzed for himself.  Don Knotts kept his ol' Salt and Pepper suit which is also now in Mt. Airy on display.  I'm not sure what the other actors from TAGS kept for themselves, but they probably kept at least one memento.

So that's what happened to the plaques on the doors of the courthouse...

Briscoe Darling wrote on Dec 23^rd, 2011 at 2:43am:

Andy took the plaques for himself but later donated them to the Andy Griffith Museum in his hometown of Mt. Airy, NC.

Emmet Forrest, who has the A.G.Museum in Mt Airy told me one time at Mayberry Days that he was in Andy's garage one day and they come upon these plaques just lying there. Emmett told Andy they should be on display somewhere. Not long afterwards Andy told Emmett he had something for him and then presented the plaques to Emmett for his museum.