The bride and groom on the show are named Jim Purcell (with a “c” instead of an “s”) and Chrissy Parker, in honor of Nabors’ old friends from Alabama.

A T-BIRD AND A FUR COAT
After Jimmy Pursell got out of the Air Force, he and his bride put down roots back in Talladega County, where he went to work for his father-in law’s fertilizer business, Parker Fertilizer Company.

Nabors, meanwhile, got his big break when Andy Griffith saw him perform at a Santa Monica nightclub and cast him to play Gomer Pyle on “The Andy Griffith Show.” The character proved to be so popular it led to Nabors’ own series, “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.,” which ran for five seasons on CBS.

On his trips back home to Sylacauga, Nabors always made it a point to stop and say hello to Jimmy and Chrissy Pursell.

David Pursell — who was 5 years old when “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.” debuted in the fall of 1964 — remembers how cool it was to have a TV star hang out at their house.

“The first time I remember him — this was probably early ‘Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.’ — he came to Sylacauga, and he was driving a brand-new T-Bird,” Pursell says. “Nobody had T-Birds in Sylacauga.

“He pulls up at our home, he gets out, and he’s got this full-length fur coat on. I just thought, ‘Man, this is cool. I’m seeing this guy on TV.’

“And this is back when there weren’t but three channels, so that was a really big deal.”

After their three kids finished high school in Sylacauga, Jimmy and Chrissy Pursell moved onto a 25-acre family farm in nearby Fayetteville, where they planted a seed that has since grown into Pursell Farms, a sprawling outdoor paradise complete with the 18-hole FarmLinks Golf Club, the Orvis Shooting Grounds sporting clay course, and panoramic sunrises and sunsets from high atop Chalybeate Mountain, at a spot called the Secret Place.