Saturday, June 28, 2008
TV Rebels: The Andy Griffith Show
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, August 1
Happy's Place - "Ladies Night'" (NBC, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
After Gabby's latest heartbreak, Bobbie and Isabella throw a Ladies' Night at the tavern to show Gabby she doesn't need a man to be happy, but things don't go as planned; Steve and Takoda tease Emmett about his sudden interest in dating apps.
Happy's Place - "Tapped Out" (NBC, 8:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
When Isabella starts trying to make changes to the tavern, Bobbie worries that this new partnership may not work out; Bobbie offers to take Isabella under her wing so she can learn about the tavern, but Happy's lawyer fumbles Bobbie's plan.
Electric Bloom - "How to (Not) Make a Music Video" (Disney Channel, 8:00PM ET/PT)
While planning Electric Bloom's first music video, Jade and Posey overlook Tulip as a potential leader of the band, causing her alter ego 'Trixie' to emerge and wreak havoc.
Electric Bloom - "How We Danced the Night Away" (Disney Channel, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Posey, Jade, and Tulip's pact to not let a boy come between them is tested when it comes to finding dates for the school dance.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of July 28)
Friday, August 1
- Chris Distefano (Benders) - Chris guest hosts a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Julie Bowen (Modern Family/Ed) - Watch Julie on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Owen Wilson (Stick) - Owen takes "The Colbert Questionert" on a repeat of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
- Mary Beth Barone (Overcompensating) - Mary appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Thomas Lennon (The Odd Couple/Sean Saves the World/Reno 911!) - Thomas is a guest on a repeat of After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
- Pamela Anderson (Stacked/Home Improvement) - Pamela talks about The Naked Gun on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your local listings.
- Nicole Ari Parker (And Just Like That.../Second Time Around) - NBC's Today catches up with Nicole in the 10am hour.
- Sheryl Lee Ralph (Abbott Elementary/Fam/Instant Mom/Moesha/It's a Living) - Sheryl and her husband, Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent Hughes, sit down for an EXCLUSIVE conversation about their choice to live in separate cities, which set off the internet on a repeat of Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.
- Brooke Shields (Suddenly Susan) - Brooke is sharing the secrets behind her shiny and bouncy hair and why she decided to create he own haircare line in her 50s on a repeat of The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
- Michael Jai White (Tyler Perry's For Better or Worse) - Michael is a guest on a repeat of Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
New on DVD and 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)
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