High Noon in Mayberry - S3-E17
Deliberate mistake: While Luke and Andy are in the house, Barney, Gomer, and Otis are hiding on the porch, and Barney has the idea to turn off the lights in the house, so he goes to the circuit box located beside the windows on the front porch and switches the lights off. The problem is that this circuit box is located on the porch only for this episode as a plot point.
Answer: As noted in the previous answers, in real life, things like this provided wind and/or rain deflection, and also maintained a bit of privacy when blinds were raised somewhat. The interior courthouse set was located in the studio, so the "outside" Main Street didn't exist. I believe these things were added to the courthouse windows for practicality, to avoid some crew movement being visible on the opposite side of those windows. These are not "window boxes" to hold anything, as they're actually bottomless; we can see the Venetian blind's long pull cords under them. They're made of plywood and simple to build, so the "material and labor" was inexpensive. Similar variations made of different materials are in other movies/shows. In 1957's "12 Angry Men," textured chicken wire glass panels are in the jury room windows, and in "Jesse Stone: Night Passage" another type is in Jesse's office windows.
Super Grover ★