Friday, July 6, 2012

A Mayberry Farewell to Andy Griffith (1926-2012)


Mayberry -- and who among us is not an honorary citizen? -- was a sad place on July 4, with the announcement of Andy Griffith’s passing. Ask anyone who’s seen Griffith’s searing performance in A Face in the Crowd: this was a man with major acting chops, not simply a folksy guy with a cornpone accent. Yes, A Face in the Crowd presents Griffith once again as a Southern good ol’ boy, a Will Rogers type who wins a national audience with his guitar-picking and his down-home wit. But in this Elia Kazan film (from Budd Schulberg’s story), Griffith’s salt-of-the-earth appeal proves deceptive. As he rises to fame and fortune, he evolves into a monster.

It’s a great performance, but of course the reason Andy Griffith’s death made headlines is because of the eight seasons he spent in our living rooms as Mayberry’s Sheriff Andy Taylor. Though The Andy Griffith Show had little impact overseas, it was one of America’s top-rated shows throughout its run. Why was a sitcom about lovable small-town eccentrics so popular? It helps to remember that the show made its debut in 1960, when the United States was going through huge and often painful changes. As Michael Farkash wrote in The Hollywood Reporter, the show “was what many Americans wanted America to be in the troubled early days of racial activism and the Vietnam War. Mayberry was a place to hide from the real world, if only for a half-hour at a time.”

Those who worked on The Andy Griffith Show speak of the atmosphere on its set as a kind of refuge too. In 2001, while researching the career of Ron Howard, I spoke to Keith Thibodeaux. Known professionally as Richard Keith, he played Little Ricky on I Love Lucy from 1956 through 1957. After I Love Lucy ended in the wake of the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz split, Keith was hired to fill the occasional role of Opie’s school pal, Johnny Paul Jason. The two series were both shot at Desilu Studios, but the mood could not have been more different. I Love Lucy had featured volatile personalities, and there was added pressure in the fact that it was taped before a live audience. In Keith’s words, The Andy Griffith Show “had the liberty to be a little bit more laid back. In the makeup department room they would be playing checkers and chess and strumming the guitar. Andy would be back there singing old songs from North Carolina. It was that kind of a downhome set. And myself being a southern boy, it was like going back home for me.”

This relaxed approach did not mean that cast and crew were lackadaisical about the task at hand. In this, as in so much else, Andy Griffith set the tone. He prized efficiency, though he had made clear from the get-go that Hollywood hysteria was not his style. Ron Howard (whose memorial tribute to his TV dad is well worth reading) has called Griffith’s balance between dedication and joy a model for his own on-set behavior: “There was a lot of laughter on the set, and at the same time, hand in hand with that laughter, was very good work being done on a consistent basis. Anything less than 100 percent effort would just never fly —- not because he would start yelling, but because simply that wasn’t the way we worked on the show . . . . There was a feeling of, ‘Hey, here’s what we’re doing, and therefore it’s important. People are gonna watch it. It represents us and let’s do it right.’”

10 comments:

  1. I love this show and watch it everyday. I am watching it right now, actually, having recorded it earlier on the DVR.

    I used to not care for the show when I was a kid because of its conspicuous lack of monsters and sci fi elements. It took me a while to appreciate the small town life and family values the show had to offer.

    I see the series as essentially life lessons built around a comical framework. A person could learn quite a bit about morals from Andy's numerous exploits and interactions with family and friends. It's one of those shows that never seems to get old, at least to me.

    I did find it funny how Barney started out as Andy's cousin, then later on they're referred to as having been "friends for years". And how Andy "evolved" so to speak over the course of the first couple seasons. In the early episodes, he's more of a laid back, if efficient country boy, but later on, he's more level-headed and serious.

    Outside of Barney, Gomer would probably be my favorite character, and his own spin-off series is a huge favorite, too.

    A friend of mine met Griffith once and said he bought he and his friends a Coca Cola and ice cream. I forget the year, but this was back when the show was still on television.

    Nice article, as always, Beverly.

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  2. Yes, the show was full of life lessons, presented in the gentlest possible way. It has even been packaged as a curriculum for Sunday schools, though the producers of the series had nothing to do with that effort. As you can imagine, Mayberry was a great place for little Ronny Howard to grow up -- and his parents made sure he was never spoiled by the cast and crew. (One thing that amuses me when I see episodes these days is the fact that Andy, Opie, and the others actually do commercials, e.g. explaining -- at the end of the hilarious "Manhunt" episode, that Andy would never have caught the dangerous criminal were it not for his hearty breakfast of Post Raisin Bran.) Thanks for writing, Brian!

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  3. T.V. Shows and Actors come and go,but Mr.Griffith gave us such memerable people to love and laugh with .I would have been proud to call him Pa or have him defend me as he did so well on Matlock. From the first episode I said I wanted to live in Mayberry,I dont think anyone can watch that show and not say they wish they could live there even for a little while.A place where you felt safe and yet Pa always made sure youylearned your lesson but always with love . R.I.P. Kind Sir.

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  4. Thanks for your comment. Since you obviously care about TV theme music, you know that the Andy Griffith Show theme is unique and unforgettable. (Cue the whistling!)

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  5. When they moved Matlock here to Wilmington NC for the last few seasons - it was a great place to take out of town visitors for a day of extra work, as there were always the courtroom scenes that needed to fill a lot of seats. I served on the jury several times, as well as a dozen or so other appearances. While not as folksy as his TV persona, Mr. Griffith could be a very charming man. I am proud that I worked with him on his last acting job - a one day guest spot on Dawson's Creek in the fourth season. I love The Andy Griffith Show - one of the greatest of all time in my opinion. I also got to work on show that took The Andy Griffith Show theme and subverted it for a chilling moment - American Gothic - a CBS series from 1995-1996 that cast Gary Cole as the anti-Andy - a Southern sheriff with no one's best interests at heart. (His motto was "Conscience is just the fear of getting caught.") In the pilot episode, he locks up a local on the charge that the man murdered his own daughter - a crime actually committed by the "good" Sheriff himself - and when the lawman goes to see his prisoner...he walks down the line of cages slowly whistling the famous TV theme song - a blackly humorous moment that I still enjoy seeing when I revisit the show.

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  6. American Gothic sounds fascinating. I wonder how hard they had to work to get the rights to the Andy Griffith Show theme music. (Gene Kelly never forgave Stanley Kubrick and company for what they did with "Singin' in the Rain" in A Clockwork Orange. Can't say that I blame him!)

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  7. That was being wondered on set too - though we never heard that it caused any problems. If you track down any AG to watch, Ms. Gray, please let me know!

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  8. I did most of my watching at the Paley Center for Media, aka the Museum of Television and Radio, in Beverly Hills.

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  9. Beautifully written, Beverly. I will love Andy Griffith --and Mayberry-- forever.

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  10. I too will always love Mayberry, Sandy. Many thanks for the compliment!

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