Return To Mayberry - 2004 Re-broadcast

2004 Re-broadcast

In a few U.S. markets, Mayberry was controversially rebroadcast on Veterans Day in 2004. Some ABC affiliates used Mayberry as a replacement for the network's unedited rebroadcast of the film, Saving Private Ryan. These affiliates opted out, because Ryan included language which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had, in March 2004, ruled "indecent and profane". Mayberry was seen as a "safe" alternative, despite the fact that Ryan had already aired on the network (and these same affiliates) in 2001 and 2002. The then-chief executive of Citadel Communications — the main affiliate owner to rebroadcast Mayberry — cited the then-recent 2004 US Presidential election as a justification: "We're just coming off an election where moral issues were cited as a reason by people voting one way or another", the executive claimed, "and, in my opinion, the commissioners are fearful of the new Congress." In the end, however, no complaints were lodged against ABC affiliates which showed Ryan, perhaps because even conservative watchdogs like the Parents Television Council supported the unedited rebroadcast of the film.