Visible crew/equipment: When Otis tries to escape from Aunt Bee's clutches by hiding in the laundry service van, just as Aunt Bee has the driver open the van's back doors we can see the reflection of the moving boom mic in the left window.
Continuity mistake: When Otis begins his 24 hour sentence at Andy's house by staying in the guest room, Otis is wearing suspenders (braces) that are sewn together in the back in an X-shape, but when Otis leaves the guest room he's wearing entirely different style suspenders attached to his trousers.
Other mistake: The new game/hobby boxes that Barney hands out to the Gordon brothers have their brand names partially covered. Mr. Potato Head has 'Head' covered, the brand name of the leathercraft set is covered, and part of the name on the metalcraft tapping set is covered.
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 ★