
Visible crew/equipment: After the squad car is hit from behind Andy rushes over to Goober, and a T-mark (it's a bit darker than the color of the dirt road) becomes visible on the ground (just as the woman gets out of her car) at the bottom of the screen, right behind Andy's feet. (00:01:25)
Visible crew/equipment: Just as Aunt Bee and Opie pull up in front of Wally's station, the reflections of crew and equipment are visible on the surface of the car. (00:06:00)
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 ★