'Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs': Indy actor gets online hate after live cop TV clip. Show backtracks.

It was a meeting of a vintage cop car with a present-day squad car for reality TV.

A local actor got caught in the spotlight on a national TV show last week, and wasn’t thrilled with the outcome.

Joel Alvarado, a co-producer of the movie of “Mayberry Man” on April 21 was driving a car made to look like a 1960s police squad car. The vehicle, and its broken headlight, caught the eye of a Beech Grove police officer, who pulled Alvarado over near his home, and the exchange was shown during “On Patrol: Live,” the Reelz TV series that follows police officers.

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Alvarado answered the officer’s questions about his 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 and explained that he played the role of Goober Pyle in a movie that has a plot referencing “The Andy Griffith Show.”

The hosts during the April 21 airing all determined Alvarado, 36, couldn’t have been an actor on that classic TV show.

The comments and the exchange with the officer, Alvarado said, were unflattering to him with the TV show making him out as delusional and believing himself to be an actor from the classic TV show. In addition, the officer on camera remarked that Alvarado exhibited “not much of a personality for being an actor.”

“The problem was, he started painting me out to be kind of a cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs,” he said.

Personal ridicule on social media platforms followed, he said.

“I was getting some attacks because they were trying to make me feel like I was Looney Tunes and crazy and it just got to be too much,” Alvarado said.

Alvarado did get some vindication from the show the next day when at the top of the Saturday broadcast of “On Patrol: First Shift” a host noted that he was indeed an actor in the “Mayberry Man” movie.

“And suddenly all those people that were in the 'Hater Nation' were turning it around and trying to be a little bit more kind,” Alvarado said.

“Mayberry  Man” is about an entitled movie star sentenced to attend a fictional week-long festival celebrating “The Andy Griffith Show.” It has been spun off into a streaming series.

Alvarado says his appearance on “On Patrol: Live,” which streams on Peacock, isn’t great for his family-friendly brand. He attends various pop culture cons and events. The movie is streamed on Prime Video and the faith and family-friendly Pure Flix.

“(On Patrol: Live) has domestic violence. We had drugs in the bathroom. We had prostitution. And then you’ve got someone who’s claiming to be a 1960’s classic TV character. So that image can be kind of misconstrued there,” Alvarado said. “So it was really shocking to me to even be a part of this show because it's not something that I would normally align myself with.”

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Although the Beech Grove officer stopped him, Alvarado received no citation. The officer did give him a gift certificate to Jiffy Lube though.

As for the headlight, it was repaired the next day.

“You pull me over on Friday night I’m getting it fixed Saturday morning,” the actor said.

Contact IndyStar reporter Cheryl V. Jackson at cheryl.jackson@indystar.com or 317-444-6264. Follow her on Twitter: @cherylvjackson.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 'Mayberry Man' actor, car get pulled over 'On Patrol: Live' in Indiana