Saturday, June 28, 2008

TV Rebels: The Andy Griffith Show

It's time for another edition of TV Rebels. We originally had special permission to publish the first 6 essays on TV shows and actors that will be featured in the upcoming book TV Rebels: 100 People and Programs That Shaped the Medium by authors Lou Orfanella and Oscar De Los Santos...and as we mentioned in April, we have now gotten rights to 6 additional essays, so we will be bringing you one each month until at least November! Upcoming TV Rebel columns coming soon are about Rod Serling, Bill Cosby, and Desi Arnaz. The book is in the works and will be released in 2009.

So without further adieu, we bring you the seventh essay of TV Rebels:

The Andy Griffith Show: Mayberry's Sheriff without a Gun
by Oscar De Los Santos

In many respects, The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968) was born out of the network womb of The Danny Thomas Show (1953-1964). A seventh season episode of Danny Thomas featured its star being stopped for speeding by Sheriff Andy Taylor (Griffith). Soon, the sheriff, his deputy cousin, Barney Fife (Don Knotts), and the town of Mayberry, North Carolina made their network TV series debut on October 3, 1960. Other regular characters included Andy's Aunt Bea (Frances Bavier), who lived with the widowed sheriff and his small son, Opie (Ron Howard); Ellie Walker (Eleanor Donahue), Andy's first girlfriend in the series; Helen Crump (Aneta Corsaut), the sheriff's later girlfriend; Thelma Lou (Betty Lynn), Barney’s girlfriend; Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors), who would eventually get his own spin-off show; Goober Pyle (George Lyndsey), who took his cousin's mechanic and gas-pumping job at Wally's Filling Station when Gomer enlisted in the Marines; Otis Campbell (Wallace Smith), the town drunk, Floyd Lawson (Howard McNear) the town barber, Clara Edwards (Hope Summers), Aunt Bea's closest friend and friendly rival, and a host of other charming Mayberry citizens.
The show was a sitcom that seemed to defy much of the sharper edged network offerings of its period. It showcased no murders and featured few sarcastic jabs, but rather good-natured humor and thoughtful moral lessons, many of them delivered by Sheriff Taylor via his folksy ruminations. For instance, one episode revolved around Andy teaching Opie to care for orphan birds after the boy kills their mother with a slingshot. Another focused on Andy teaching Opie to defend himself against a bully without stepping in and fighting his son's battles. Other shows featured the highs and lows of Barney buying his first car and Aunt Bea's competition with Clara to make the best pickles for the county fair.
In spite of the show's name and the fact that "Sheldon Leonard and Danny Thomas designed The Andy Griffith Show to fit the image of its star" (The Andy Griffith Show, The Museum of Broadcast Communications), this was much more than a comedy about a small-town sheriff. Each of the ensemble characters had his and her major episodes and/or significant roles in other stories. Indeed, it's arguable that the program was as much about Barney Fife as about Andy Taylor, since so many of the show's plots were either directly or indirectly focused on Andy's bombastic and braggart deputy.
Another way to view the success of The Andy Griffith Show is to consider the town of Mayberry as the main star of the show. Audiences were willing to tune in for eight years and 249 episodes of the series because they loved the region the characters populated as much as the characters themselves. Mayberry was quintessential small-town America: a gorgeous, clean, peaceful town where a citizen could count on two lawmen to keep the peace and diffuse any problems that arose -- and these were usually no more threatening than finding a way to tell Barney that he was singing out of key and ruining the church choir's performances or making sure that Otis got his breakfast and had sobered up enough to release him from jail and send him home the next morning. Do such ideal locales really exist? Maybe not on the level of TV's Mayberry, but according to Ken Beck and Jim Clark, "The fictional town of Mayberry was partially influenced by the town of Mt. Airy, North Carolina, Andy Griffith's hometown. Much of the show's realism drws from Andy Griffith's use of Mt. Airy as a model for Mayberry. The names of many of Mayberry’s townspeople, businesses, and streets, and landmarks can be found in and around Mt. Airy" (xv).
The Andy Griffith Show can be compared to Gunsmoke (1955-1975), another immensely popular program with its own streak of TV rebellion (see Gunsmoke in this volume). Like The Andy Griffith Show, Gunsmoke was as much about its ensemble cast and setting as about its main star. Early episodes often centered on Marshall Matt Dillon but as the Western's tenure on the air stretched on, its stories focused on Chester, Miss Kitty, Doc, Festus, and other characters. Moreover, just as Andy Griffith Show audiences fixated on Sheriff Andy Taylor's Mayberry, they focused on Marshall Matt Dillon's Dodge City; but while many viewers would have loved to trade their own hometowns for Mayberry, few dreamed of jumping into the squared electronic box and actually taking up residence in Dodge. After all, crime in Mayberry was so low that the town sheriff didn't wear a gun and his deputy carried his six-shooter's only bullet in his shirt pocket, but Dodge City was all about crime -- a rough Old West location where life was tough, the bullets flew frequently, and shot bodies dropped to the gritty earth each week. Two shows spinning their own historical mythos? Perhaps, but The Andy Griffith Show provided a more gentle wishful thinking for an increasingly jaded American populace.

Works Cited
Andy Griffith Show, The. Museum of Broadcast Communications.
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/A/htmlA/andygriffith/andygriffith.htm. January 15, 2008.
Beck, Ken and Jim Clark. The Andy Griffith Show Book. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995. (Revised 35th Anniversary Edition.)

Works Consulted
The Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club. http://www.mayberry.com/. January 15, 2008.


Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows

Friday, September 12

Vampirina: Teenage Vampire - "First Year to Watch" (Disney Channel, 8:00PM ET/PT)
As Vee arrives at Wilson Hall, she learns that performing arts boarding school might have more challenges than she thought; Demi vows to protect Vee from Van Helsings.

Vampirina: Teenage Vampire - "First Day of School" (Disney Channel, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Vee's plans to have an amazing first day of school are threatened by a dire warning from the Vampire Council; Demi continues his search for Van Helsings.

Complete TV Listings


Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of September 8)

Friday, September 12

  • Regina King (The Boondocks/Leap of Faith/227) - Watch Regina on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
  • Michael Chiklis (Daddio) - Michael is a guest on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
  • Drew Barrymore (Santa Clarita Diet) - Drew appears on a repeat of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
  • Kumail Nanjiani (Bless the Harts/Silicon Valley) - Kumail is a guest on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
  • Domhnall Gleeson (The Paper) - Domhnall appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
  • Emily Osment (Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage/Young Sheldon/Young & Hungry/Hannah Montana), Tien Tran (How I Met Your Father) and Vinny Thomas (Platonic) - Emily, Tien and Vinny are guests on a repeat of After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
  • Ken Jeong (Dr. Ken/Community) - Ken talks about 99 to Beat on The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
  • Michael Urie (Shrinking/Krapopolis/Partners) - Michael talks about Broadway's Oh, Mary! and Shrinking on The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
  • Zosia Mamet (Laid/Girls) - Zosia talks about Does This Make Me Funny? on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
  • Emeril Lagasse (Emeril) - Sunny Anderson gets a big surprise from Drew – cooking with the legendary Emeril Lagasse on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
  • Jennifer Aniston (Friends/Muddling Through/Ferris Bueller/Molloy) - Drew is chatting with Jennifer about the new season of The Morning Show, her kids cookbook, Cook with Clydeo, and her haircare line on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
  • Hannah Pilkes (Leanne) - Hannah is a guest on PIX11 Morning News on WPIX in New York at 9:30am.
  • Charlie Sheen (Anger Management/Two and a Half Men/Spin City) - Real Time with Bill Maher features a one-on-one interview with Charlie Sheen, actor and subject of the new two-part documentary aka Charlie Sheen on Netflix, and author of the new book The Book of Sheen: A Memoir at 10pm on HBO.


New on DVD and Blu-ray

The Wayans Bros. - The Complete Series Frasier (2023) - Season Two Abbott Elementary - The Complete Third Season The Drew Carey Show - The Complete Series* (missing 4 episodes and some music has been replaced or altered) Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray)

01/28 - Wait Till Your Father Gets Home - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/04 - The Wayans Bros. - The Complete Series
03/11 - Frasier (2023) - Season Two
04/01 - Abbott Elementary - The Complete Third Season
05/13 - The Drew Carey Show - The Complete Series* (missing 4 episodes and some music has been replaced or altered)
06/06 - Shoresy - Season 2
06/17 - Looney Tunes - Collector's Vault - Volume 1 (Blu-ray)
07/22 - Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray)
08/26 - The Huckleberry Hound Show - The Complete Original Series (Blu-ray)

More Recent and Upcoming TV DVD and Blu-ray Releases / TV Shows on DVD, Blu-ray and Prime Video / DVD Reviews Archive


Recent SitcomsOnline.com News Blog Posts

09/11 - Remembering Polly Holliday of Alice and Flo; Prime Video's Overcompensating Renewed for Season 2
09/10 - Netflix Renews Leanne for Season 2; Hazbin Hotel Returns October 29
09/09 - HBO Comedy The Chair Company; Trailer for Disney's Vampirina: Teenage Vampire
09/08 - The Paper Renewed for Season 2, NYC Event on Tuesday; Final Season of Bel-Air
09/07 - Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows; This Week in Sitcoms (Week of September 8, 2025)
09/06 - SitcomsOnline Digest: Shifting Gears Picked Up for Three Additional Episodes; The Paper Renewed for Season Two
09/05 - Crutch Premieres November 3 on Paramount+; Trailer for Season 2 of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place
09/04 - Freeform's 31 Nights of Halloween 2025 Schedule; Dancing with the Stars Season 34 Cast
09/03 - Live Staged Reading of Three's Company Episode; Freeform Acquires According to Jim for October
09/02 - Hulu's Chad Powers Trailer; BET's The Hospital Premieres September 10
09/01 - TV Marathons on Labor Day 2025 Include Archie Bunker's Place and George Lopez
08/31 - Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows; This Week in Sitcoms (Week of September 1, 2025)
08/30 - SitcomsOnline Digest: Saturday Night Live Cast Changes Loom; NBC Renews Password for Third Season
08/29 - HBO's Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television; Adult Swim Slates Two Series for October
08/28 - NBC's Password Renewed for Season 3 for 2026; Pluto TV Streaming CBS Shows Ahead of Fall Season
08/27 - Hulu's Deli Boys Renewed for Season 2 with Fred Armisen; HBO's I Love LA Premieres November 2
08/26 - English Teacher Returns on FX for Season 2; Jesse Williams Prime Video Series Trailer
08/25 - Doc Season 2 Trailer for Fox; Remembering David Ketchum and Jerry Adler
08/24 - Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows; This Week in Sitcoms (Week of August 25, 2025)
08/23 - SitcomsOnline Digest: Home Improvement Cast Members to Reunite on Shifting Gears; The Paper to Have Binge Drop
08/22 - Hulu's Futurama Season 13 Trailer; A Man on the Inside Returns November 20 on Netflix
08/21 - George Lopez Coming to COZI TV; The Morning Show Season 4 Trailer
08/20 - Welcome Back, Kotter 50th Anniversary Marathon on Rewind TV; Apple TV+ Palm Royale Season 2 Premieres November 12
08/19 - Antenna TV's Archie Bunker's Place Labor Day Marathon; Larry the Cable Guy Prime Video Special
08/18 - Nobody Wants This Season 2 Premieres October 23; HGTV and Retta Continue Partnership
08/17 - Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows; This Week in Sitcoms (Week of August 18, 2025)
08/16 - SitcomsOnline Digest: Paramount Plans Retool of Cable Networks; King of the Hill Revival Scores Big Ratings
08/15 - Catchy Comedy Acquires Hot in Cleveland; Netflix's Animated Comedy Strip Law Premieres in 2026
08/14 - Dan Levy's Netflix Comedy Series Cast; Betty la Fea: La Historia ContinĂșa Season 2 Premieres Friday
08/13 - Remembering Danielle Spencer of What's Happening!!; Trailer for Season 5 of Only Murders in the Building
08/12 - Netflix's Comedy Kiss or Die Premieres September 9; Lori Harvey Joins Reasonable Doubt
08/11 - Roku Originals Books a Return Trip with Season 2 Renewal of Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross; Netflix's Fixed Trailer