Visible crew/equipment: When Aunt Bee heads out for her first cooking show at the studio, Andy and Opie help load Bee's car, then just as Bee walks around the front of her car, we can see the reflection of various production equipment on the surface of the car. (00:08:00)
Visible crew/equipment: When Aunt Bee comes home enraged at the butcher, a white tape mark is visible on the floor near the kitchen door (it wasn't there in a previous shot).
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 ★