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Andy Griffith has died at age 86

Re: Andy Griffith has died at age 86

Good call. Andy deserves a separate thread. I'll just repeat my earlier post.

Sheriff Taylor and the town of Mayberry with all of its quirky characters, is one of the most enduring and endearing expressions of our pop culture. IIRC, the Andy Griffith Show was a spin off from an episode of the Danny Thomas show, where Danny got to emote about the town where the sheriff was the justice of the peace, and the local drunk wandered in an out of the jail on his own, etc. Griffith was smart enough to allow other characters (mainly Barney) to get the laughs. I would imagine those episodes, like the old episodes of I Love Lucy, will be with us always. Only the B&W episodes, where Opie (Opium?) was a little kid are worth watching. No Don Knotts, no watch.

Andy also did a marvelous turn as an avenging Texas oil man in "Murder in Texas." It was one of two made for TV movies about the "Blood and Money" case in Houston (the book had been an enormous best seller). Andy played Ash Robinson, whose beautiful socialite daughter was probably killed by her husband, Dr. John Hill. When Ash wasn't satisfied that justice had been done in the case, he hired a hit man to whack his former son in law. Done and done. This was a very big deal case, and if you can find the book, an excellent (although hard to believe) read.
 
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Re: Andy Griffith has died at age 86

"A Face in the Crowd" is one of the best movies ever made about the dangers of demagoguery.
 
Re: Andy Griffith has died at age 86

I have this random memory of him when he was a bit older. I think it was a Matlock episode, although I really didn't watch Matlock. Singing "Midnight Special." Good stuff.
 
Re: Andy Griffith has died at age 86

duper said:
I have this random memory of him when he was a bit older. I think it was a Matlock episode, although I really didn't watch Matlock. Singing "Midnight Special." Good stuff.
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The guy won a Grammy for an album of old spirituals. And in the original Mayberry episodes, he occasionally got out the git-box and sang along. All those episodes featuring the hillbilly Darlings and their patriarch Briscoe (played by Denver Pyle) had some pickin' and grinnin'.
 
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Re: Andy Griffith has died at age 86

I'd say it was more than occasional in the black and white episodes and considered it an integral part of the show (i.e. singing to Otis and making him think he was dead in order to convince him not to own a car).
 
Re: Andy Griffith has died at age 86

Andy Griffith seems to have been one of the very rare celebrities in that I believed every last good thing written about him. He seemed to have been as genuine as what was said.
 
Re: Andy Griffith has died at age 86

In honour, WGN is doing a Matlock marathon.

From 1958, as he signs in:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/W9q5KG0TyrM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Re: Andy Griffith has died at age 86

I could watch the black and white episodes of "The Andy Griffin Show" over and over and over and never get sick of them, just timeless, harmless charming clean humor. God Bless his family.
 
Re: Andy Griffith has died at age 86

What I will never understand is why he went for Helen Crump instead of the other far more attractive women he dated on the show. The county nurse and the lady druggist were eleventy billion times more attractive than that frumpy teacher.
 
Re: Andy Griffith has died at age 86

Timothy A said:
I could watch the black and white episodes of "The Andy Griffin Show" over and over and over and never get sick of them, just timeless, harmless charming clean humor. God Bless his family.
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You should live in NC. When I was there I swear there was never a three-hour period during which some episode wasn't playing on some local station.
 
Re: Andy Griffith has died at age 86

Ralph Baer said:
Do they have TV in NC? ;)
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trailer-tv.jpg
 
Re: Andy Griffith has died at age 86

I just saw he died of a massive heart attack. I was figuring he wrecked his chopper heading to Sturgis.
 
Re: Andy Griffith has died at age 86

Old Pio said:
The guy won a Grammy for an album of old spirituals. And in the original Mayberry episodes, he occasionally got out the git-box and sang along. All those episodes featuring the hillbilly Darlings and their patriarch Briscoe (played by Denver Pyle) had some pickin' and grinnin'.
Click to expand...
I did know that he was a pretty accomplished musician; didn't know he won a grammy. I also don't think that I ever picked up that that was Denver Pyle.
 
Re: Andy Griffith has died at age 86

FlagDUDE08 said:
In honour, WGN is doing a Matlock marathon.

From 1958, as he signs in:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/W9q5KG0TyrM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Click to expand...
It would have been great if, instead of asking about Radio City Music Hall, Jack Lemon had started whistling the Andy Griffith, just to see the reaction from the crowd.
 
Re: Andy Griffith has died at age 86

duper said:
I did know that he was a pretty accomplished musician; didn't know he won a grammy. I also don't think that I ever picked up that that was Denver Pyle.
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The guy who gave Andy, Barney and the Darlings fits was Ernest T. Bass. He was played by Howard Morris, who was one of the key guys on the old Sid Ceasar show (along with Carl Reiner). Ceasar hired Morris, in part, because he could pick him up and carry him around under one arm, like a suit case.
 
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Re: Andy Griffith has died at age 86

duper said:
It would have been great if, instead of asking about Radio City Music Hall, Jack Lemon had started whistling the Andy Griffith, just to see the reaction from the crowd.
Click to expand...

Arlene Francis didn't like "extracurricular" happenings on the show, hence why the celebrity only had a very short time to plug what they were doing, and the contestant never had the chance to demonstrate a weird line.
 
Re: Andy Griffith has died at age 86

duper said:
It would have been great if, instead of asking about Radio City Music Hall, Jack Lemon had started whistling the Andy Griffith, just to see the reaction from the crowd.
Click to expand...

But this was 2 years prior to the debut of the Andy Griffith Show, wasn't it?
 
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