Here in North Carolina, we won’t know what to do without Andy Griffith. He passed away early this morning.
The Andy Griffith Show became a bit of a problem for both Andy and his home state — creating images neither could live up to. But when you ignore all that, his show was one of the best TV ever offered (maybe the best) — and since many episodes were based on his recollections of life in and around Mount Airy, he has to be one of the best story men the medium has ever known.
Andy’s seen here with Julie Adams in a 1962 episode (“The County Nurse”) of The Andy Griffith Show. About a quarter mile from where I type this, there’s a statue of Andy and Opie, a gift to Raleigh from TV Land. Wonder if the flowers have started showing up yet?
Stephen Bowie, another North Carolinian, is as shaken up as I am. Our local CBS affiliate obviously had an obituary in waiting. It covers a lot of ground.
This one hits me, too. Andy was always surprisingly easy-to-take.
I know this will sound like a ridiculous pairing, but I also keep thinking of the recent loss of Ray Bradbury. Both Ray and Andy seemed to be such a part of the American heartland, to embody a type of Americana that no longer exists. I find that I’m mourning both for the men and for a vanished world they represented.
Both Andy and Bradbury achieved great success with great art, and they did it without a trace of pretense. They got up, they did their job, they moved on. And they seemed to enjoy doing it.
Wish we all conducted ourselves that way.
I think he was shrewd and ambitious; extremely talented. And I think his moment in A Face In The Crowd set him maybe 50 notches beyond where he would have otherwise been as a comic, like another Tennessee Ernie Ford. The Kazan picture validated his abilities.
Dwight Yoakam refers to the movie:
“Lonesome roads are the only kind I ever travel
Empty rooms are the only place I ever stay
I’m just a face out in the crowd that looks like trouble
Poor ol’ worthless me is the only friend I ever made”
I’d like to point out his part in Waitress– very nice bit by the late Adrian Shelly.
I’d never made that Yoakam/Face In The Crowd connection. What a bonehead. Dwight’s got a new record in the works. Can’t wait.
I think we all assumed he was Andy Taylor — because he was so good in the part — and he suffered for it.
From Face In The Crowd to Hearts Of The West to some of the TV movies he made along the way, he left a slew if terrific performances to show his incredible range. I’ve always thought his guest spot on Hawaii Five-O was particularly good.
And, of course, No Time For Sergeants is just insanely funny.
“Somebody brung their trumpet.”
The layers of authenticity and inauthenticity in The Andy Griffith Show are so complex. Most of the writers and producers were Jews from Brooklyn. About half the cast was authentically southern, but only Griffith was from North Carolina. And of course, “Mayberry” looks nothing like an actual small town in the South. You would expect a lot of haters, and yet everyone I can think of from North Carolina accepted it as ours, just from that strain of reality that Griffith imparted to it.
Waitress is a totally forgettable movie but, yes, Griffith understood exactly what he needed to do in that little part and completely nailed it. He had it right up to the end. Even though it looks as if his final credit was that movie in which he receives oral sex from Doris Roberts.
I think of Matlock as much as I think of Sheriff Andy Taylor, when it comes to Andy Griffith, maybe because I’m married to a lawyer and live a stone’s throw from Atlanta.
In fact, one of my all-time favorite Andy Griffith moments is the ending of his Matlock episode “The Country Boy.” Andy and that ole hell-raiser David Carradine sit on Andy’s porch and play guitar and sing Jimmie Davis’ “Nobody’s Darlin’ But Mine.” It’s a moment to treasure.
This is really such a bummer. The Andy Griffith Show was such a huge part of my childhood.
So sad about Andy Griffith. A few things…Tennessee Ernie Ford was said to be one of several composites used to base the Lonesome Rhodes character – (along with Arthur Godfrey and Will Rogers). Second, Ernie was more than a comedian, try not to categorize – we are all multi-layered. Again, sad we are losing the people I grew up on that were the kinder part of us.