The Darlings

Overview

Darling family members

• Briscoe Darling — the head of the Darling household, he acted as the spokesman for the group. He was also the leader of the family band, in which he played a ceramic jug. Briscoe was played by Denver Pyle.
• Charlene Darling later Mrs. Dudley A. Wash — Briscoe's only daughter was played by Maggie Peterson. She was an attractive but naïve young, blonde woman who often caused trouble for Sheriff Taylor and his family with her flirtatious behavior and her belief in mountain lore. She was also the original object of desire for Ernest T. Bass. She loved her husband, "Dud", but divorced him in a covert mountain ceremony, because he looked at another woman. In that ceremony, she was also betrothed to Sheriff Taylor in which Andy unknowingly took part. The betrothal was later halted through the efforts of Deputy Fife's research into the customs of mountain marriage protocol, through an elaborate staging of a horse and rider passing by the couple. Charlene later had a baby daughter named "Andelina", whom she tried to betrothe to Andy's son Opie, as was customary in her family. She occasionally sang when her father and brothers played music.
• The Darling Boys — Briscoe's four sons, played by the bluegrass group The Dillards, almost never spoke, except when singing in the band. They had an oafish appearance, but were very talented musicians. The names of the boys were somewhat contradictory from episode to episode: The original script of "Mountain Wedding" listed their names as Oether, Jebbin, Ward, and Frankie, but in a later episode, Andy refers to them as Mitch, Dean, Rodney, and Doug—the real first names of the members of The Dillards. However, they are generally referred to simply as "the boys", collectively. They were characterized by their silent, emotionless presence, and by their instrumentation in the family band: banjo, guitar, mandolin, and bass. When they played, one usually sang lead and the others provided harmonies, while their father played rhythm on the jug. In a running gag, Andy addresses them, and they return only a blank stare. Thus greeted in "Mountain Wedding", Andy remarked to Briscoe, "The boys are talkative today." Completely missing the irony, Briscoe admitted "They's all keyed up". Another time was when Charlene had a baby and Andy said, "You boys must be proud to be uncles." They did not respond. Briscoe answered "They all choked up." The only lines ever spoken by the Darling boys occur in the jail scene of the episode "The Darlings Are Coming". Mitch can be heard to say, "About to pop." Another trademark was that Mitch Jayne's character always had a pipe in his mouth.
• Dudley A. "Dud" Wash — Charlene's fiance and later husband, Dud had served three years in the U.S. Army, where he achieved the rank of private first class. He had been betrothed to Charlene since the age of five. Dud was originally portrayed by Hoke Howell as a well-mannered country boy. However, in Dud's final appearance, episode #121, "Divorce Mountain Style", Howell was curiously replaced by Bob Denver. Denver's portrayal was more along the lines of a wily, scrappy mountain man, akin to Ernest T. Bass, in contrast to Dud's original "good ol' boy" persona. At a 1995 convention, actor Hoke Howell explained the replacement as CBS's attempt to make Bob Denver a more familiar face, to promote his upcoming show, Gilligan's Island, despite the fact that Denver previously played Maynard G. Krebs on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Dud was absent from the Darlings' later appearances.

Episodes featuring the Darlings

Songs performed by the Darlings

• "Salty Dog"
• "Ebo Walker"
• "Dooley"
• "There is a Time"
• "Shady Grove"
• "Boil Them Cabbage Down"
• "Doug's Tune"
• "Stay all Night "
• "Low and Lonely"
• "Banjo in the Hollow"
• "Ol' Joe Clark"
• "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms"
• "Whoa Mule"
• "Dueling Banjos"