Star Trek in Mayberry

A backlot known as “the 40 acres” in Culver City, California, has been the setting of so many movies and TV shows that it takes an extensive website to cover all of it. It was owned successively by RKO, Desilu, and Paramount, among other owners. The lot contained the entire town of Mayberry used for The Andy Griffith Show, but that wasn’t the only use for the fake town. It was built long before Andy Taylor and his family inhabited it. You might recognize the buildings when you watch old reruns of Superman from the 1950s, because the town was also Metropolis.

Hardcore Star Trek fans already know this, but casual fans might be surprised to know that a couple of episodes of the original series were filmed on the Mayberry set: "Miri" and "The City on the Edge of Forever.” They didn’t even change the name of Floyd’s Barber Shop.

They should have used some of the Mayberry characters, too, as imagined by this image manipulation by Brian Hague. See his Thelma Lou T’Pau as well. -via Metafilter