tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post2333566741128635941..comments2023-11-03T06:02:02.128-07:00Comments on By Ken Levine: Andy Griffith 1926-2012By Ken Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17305293821975250420noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-82116819606040251672021-09-20T08:31:02.360-07:002021-09-20T08:31:02.360-07:00@Michael Powers Hi, this is from 2021 and The Andy...@Michael Powers Hi, this is from 2021 and The Andy Griffith Show is still wildly popular and remembered. Sorry to burst your bubble. Kendall Rivershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16401646799797849078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-82315414980155773272021-09-20T08:29:36.266-07:002021-09-20T08:29:36.266-07:00D. McEwan Wow you really are unlikable, intolerant...D. McEwan Wow you really are unlikable, intolerant and long winded tool aren't you? You hate on the late great Don Knotts for being "boring" yet you are one of the dullest and most intolerant people I've ever seen. Maybe you should actually watch the Griffith show to see how to treat people with kindness and humility. That's of you can get past your hate for the rural. Kendall Rivershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16401646799797849078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-64562514529701892842012-07-11T15:51:00.713-07:002012-07-11T15:51:00.713-07:00According to Ron Howard, he was a very loyal and s...According to Ron Howard, he was a very loyal and supportive boss. A lot of those writers on The Andy Griffith Show were also actors in the minor roles. He gave people chances and created a productive and enjoyable workplace.Refnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-44421208224878068452012-07-10T14:38:30.941-07:002012-07-10T14:38:30.941-07:00Looking forward to seeing No Time For Sergeants ag...Looking forward to seeing <i>No Time For Sergeants</i> again after at least 4 decades. I remember it as very funny.<br /><br />Hitchcock always claimed that <i>Psycho</i> was the first American movie to show a toilet on screen, but the "saluting" toilets of <i>No Time For Sergeants</i> beat <i>Psycho</i> to the screen by a year. Bear in mind while watching it that the Broadway play that it closely adapts was written by Ira "<i>Rosemary's Baby</i>" Levin. Ah, if only he'd titled his novel <i>The Boys From Brazil</i> as "No Time for Hitlers".D. McEwannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-7735444966827503012012-07-09T20:35:14.609-07:002012-07-09T20:35:14.609-07:00On July 18, TCM will air a four-film Andy Griffith...On July 18, TCM will air a four-film Andy Griffith tribute, led off, of course, by "A Face In The Crowd" (which by now probably rivals "North By Northwest" and "Casablanca" as that channel's most frequently run movie). But after that, and "No Time For Sergeants," at 9:30 PT, TCM will show a little-known 1975 film, "Hearts Of The West," set in '30s Hollywood, where Griffith plays an antagonistic character. The cast includes a young Jeff Bridges and the lovely Blythe Danner. Well worth checking out, and a reminder that Griffith was a solid <i>actor.</i>VP81955https://www.blogger.com/profile/11792390726196611188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-63747062517469633682012-07-08T19:02:52.062-07:002012-07-08T19:02:52.062-07:00Thanks. Yor pity is noted and logged. There's ...Thanks. Yor pity is noted and logged. There's still <i>plenty</i> of great comedy out there that I do enjoy that is blessedly 100% Don Knotts-free, except for <i>It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World</i> (His sole appearance in my DVD collection), and he only taints a small bit of that.<br /><br />What is your problem with my mother having liked <i>Matlock</i>? She liked whodunits for some reason. She had VHS casettes full of <i>Murder, She Wrote</i>s and that odd 1990s revival of <i>Burke's Law</i>s. When she died I had to dispose of about 1000 paperback murder mysteries she had accumulated: the entire works of Agatha Christie, Erle Stanley Gardner, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ellery Queen, Rex Stout, even Earl Diggs Biggers, etc.<br /><br />And I never doubted that there was <i>someone</i> under 75 who loved <i>Matlock</i>. Now we know. It was you.<br /><br />Stan Laurel, Buster Keaton, Charles Chaplin, WC Fields, Barry Humphries, Groucho & Harpo Marx, Gracie Allen, Jack Benny, these are "True Comic Geniuses." Don Knotts was a tiresome, irritating comedian who was inexplicably sucessful. You enjoyed him? Fine. Enjoy him. I will no try to stop you. But I can live quite happily without him. However, do <i>not</i> devalue the term "True Comic Genius" by applyng it where it does not belong. There's a big difference between "Professional Comic Who Makes Me Laugh" and "True Comic Genius".<br /><br />I don't doubt that <i>The Andy Griffith Show</i> was a well-written, well-acted, and probably well-paced show. Andy was a highly talented man with strong professional standards. But that does not make it not a rural show. It <i><b>WAS</b></i> a rural show. Why deny the fact? Own it. I did not care for those. I skipped over <i>Green Acres</i> and <i>Petticoat Junction</i> also, despite the good will I always carried for Bea Benadaret from her work with Jack Benny and Burns & Allen. I never said any of those were not good shows. I said I did not care for them. I didn't and I still don't. I get not to like what I do not like, just like you get to like what you like.<br /><br />I do not pity, you despite all the time you have spent watching those shows that you liked which you could have spent watching shows that I like instead. I do not require you to be me or to have my tastes instead of your own. Why do you insist I have your tastes instead of my own? Why is it that you can not stand the idea that someone dislikes Don Knotts and noticed that <i>Matlock</i> chiefly appealed to elderly viewers? (The show's demographics were pretty clear and unarguable.)<br /><br />When I had Don on the radio show I produced, I was polite to him. I did not say to him "You know, I really can not stand your irritating schtick." Dick was, perhaps, a bit rude to him when he dumped him off the air after half an hour of desperately trying to provoke some sort of interesting or enteraining or at least non-soporific response from this "True Comic Genius," a problem that never occured when we had <i>actual</i> True Comic Geniuses on (Lucille Ball was not dull, nor was Milton Berle, nor was Groucho Marx), but I was nice to him.<br /><br />(Oh, and while Mother also liked <i>Three's Company</i> - her tastes were weird - she did stop watching it when Don Knotts came on as a regular, because she couldn't stand him either.)D. McEwannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-62029593274172774552012-07-07T18:41:42.621-07:002012-07-07T18:41:42.621-07:00D. McEwan:
It's too bad you've robbed you...D. McEwan:<br /><br />It's too bad you've robbed yourself of some great comedy by never watching The Griffith Show. It wasn't a rural show, it was a well-written, well-acted, perfectly-paced situation comedy.<br /><br />But, then again, when you make a crack such as this:<br /><br />"I've seen at most three or four Matlocks. I am only 62, far too young for Matlock's demographic. My mother loved it."<br /><br />..and ask how anybody could love a true comedic genius like Don Knotts, that tells this mid-30s "Matlock" fan everything I need to know. I feel sorry for you. I really do.Jake Mabehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01908036270824377919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-91034662167052559372012-07-07T18:38:19.779-07:002012-07-07T18:38:19.779-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Jake Mabehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01908036270824377919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-11857933764749219222012-07-07T18:34:15.614-07:002012-07-07T18:34:15.614-07:00"I hear all those über smart Aaron Sorkin cha..."I hear all those über smart Aaron Sorkin characters talk and think, I bet Matlock could outsmart 'em." <br /><br />That is the quote of the week! Thank you, sincerely, for this post, Mr. Levine. Andy Griffith was a true treasure and will be missed, but never forgotten.Jake Mabehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01908036270824377919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-52386730083161314422012-07-05T21:13:05.927-07:002012-07-05T21:13:05.927-07:00I'm sure a lot of actors are boring in real li...I'm sure a lot of actors are boring in real life. Maybe Knotts was one of them. But on the Griffith show he had the benefit of great writing, and so he never gave a boring performance as Barney. You'll just have to trust me on this, D. :)<br /><br />What's truly amazing to me is that Knotts won no less than five Emmys for playing Barney, while Griffith never even got a nomination for playing Andy Taylor. Not one. For someone who was supposedly well liked within the industry, this is a head-scratcher. Perhaps his work was simply too self-effacing?jbryantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-33064271765077393422012-07-05T17:26:50.783-07:002012-07-05T17:26:50.783-07:00I've visited Mount Airy, and I highly recommen...I've visited Mount Airy, and I highly recommend it for Andy Griffith fans. There's a Floyd's barber shop and a Happy Dinner - birthplace of the famous pork chop sandwich. The house Andy grew up in is now a bed and breakfast so you can sleep in the Andy's bed. The visitors center also includes displays for the famous Simese twins and Donna Fargo. A restored police car drives though town and there is a replica of the jail. Sure, its touristy, but still fun!Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00760229533287495672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-44401923286216725842012-07-05T15:02:06.281-07:002012-07-05T15:02:06.281-07:00I've sat through large portions of several of ...I've sat through large portions of several of his ghastly movies. The only one I ever made it all the way to the the end of was <i>The Apple Dumpling Gang</i>, and he was not the primary star of that, beng essentially a straight man to Tim conway, whi IS funny, and only in a supportng role anyway, plus a close friend of mine who died shortly before the film was released was in it, any any second of screentime for him then was precious to me. I saw him once or twice on <i>Three's Company</i>, and many times on Steve Allen. Frankly, he was a large part, a <i><b>VERY</b></i> part of why I avoided <i>The Andy Griffith Show</i>. I had, after all, never seen Andy in anything where I did not like him.<br /><br />Yes, Don had no script for the interview we did with him on the radio. Being an actor is not an excuse for being a bore. Ray Milland was on our show. He was not a bore. Nor was Lucille Ball or Dennis Weaver or Jack Lemmon or Groucho Marx or Avery Schrieber or Gore Vidal. This list goes on and on. Only one actor was so dull, so lifeless a "personality," that Dick, not I, made the decision to cut his losses and dump Don off the air and play records for half an hour instead: Don Knotts.<br /><br />And I never said he was not funny. I said I found his schtick highly irritating and did not enjoy him. I'm told there are people who think <i>The Incredible Mr. Limpet</i> is funny. I'm sure that with proper medication, these people can lead comparitively normal lives. But whatthey see in him is beyond me.D. McEwannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-22201884914362462472012-07-05T13:05:28.289-07:002012-07-05T13:05:28.289-07:00D. McEwan, you say you've never seen The Andy ...D. McEwan, you say you've never seen The Andy Griffith Show. It's fine if you didn't think Knotts was funny, but then, that doesn't say a whole lot if you've never seen him in his most celebrated role. <br /><br />Also, maybe Don was a bore that day on your radio show, but he was an actor after all, and I assume you didn't give him any script.selection7noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-57892762459978247672012-07-05T11:45:50.549-07:002012-07-05T11:45:50.549-07:00Should add that Griffith was of the Jack Benny sch...Should add that Griffith was of the Jack Benny school, not only valuing his writers but his supporting cast. Sheriff Andy spend a lot of time affably (and expertly) playing straight man to everybody else. Also, keeping his own character so laid back and sane put solid ground under the wilder bits by Barney, Otis T. Bass, etc.DBensonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-82977768559023467612012-07-05T07:48:42.952-07:002012-07-05T07:48:42.952-07:00What it was, was football:
http://www.youtube.com...What it was, was football:<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh_I6wEgRvkSlugwriternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-87484889277534620002012-07-05T06:12:48.084-07:002012-07-05T06:12:48.084-07:00His TV show was great but of course his most tower...His TV show was great but of course his most towering artistic achievement remains his first film, "A Face in the Crowd." He delivered one of the two finest performances of the sound era in that one (the other being Mickey Rooney in Frankenheimer's live television broadcast of "The Comedian"). Long after "The Andy Griffith Show" has been ultimately forgotten, that movie's reputation will have grown exponentially.Michael Powersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-52755284913824101052012-07-05T05:14:30.162-07:002012-07-05T05:14:30.162-07:00"Latrine....""Latrine...."WesParker in IAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00082491305085015109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-40661482560066442582012-07-05T01:25:20.717-07:002012-07-05T01:25:20.717-07:00Andy Griffith was interesting as well because he w...Andy Griffith was interesting as well because he was talented as an actor, and knew to not play the same role (look at the movies before Mayberry) nor was he just a stand-up comedian or entertainer who was drafted into sitcoms. While I understand he had a dry period after Mayberry, he was still challenging, for example, he surprises in 1976 in Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of an Author" along with John Houseman, directed by Stacy Keach. <br /><br />As the reviewer states: <br /><br />"....it is Andy Griffith who gives the most surprising turn. Griffith deliberately uses his well-known amiable television persona, then reveals it as a mask that hides a menacing man within."A_Homernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-42111734428847407482012-07-04T22:08:26.056-07:002012-07-04T22:08:26.056-07:00"jbryant said...
Dang, I guess I knew there h...<i>"jbryant said...<br />Dang, I guess I knew there had to be at least one person out there who couldn't stand Don Knotts, and now I guess we've found him. :)<br /><br />I wouldn't say the Griffith show was 'rural,' by the way. Most of it seemed to take place within the Mayberry city limits."</i><br /><br />Speaking as a native of Los Angeles, an actual urban city, Mayberry is "rural." <i><b>DOWNTOWN</b></i> Mayberry is rural. There was nothing "urban" about it. <br /><br />When you can walk from City Hall to Ye Olde Fishing Hole, and do so in five minutes, you're rural. When your entire "city" population fits in one high school auditorium with seats left over, you're rural. When your city has only one barber, you're rural. When your city police force is two guys, one of them useless, you're rural. When everyone in town actually knows the names of the entire population of the town, you're rural.<br /><br />As for Don Knotts, I really don't see how anyone could stand his irritating schtick. I booked him onto the Whittington radio show as a guest once back in 1974 when I was producing it. He was the <i><b>only</b></i> guest Dick ever dumped off the air halfway through the interview. You should have seen Don's face when Dick said: "Well, we know you have to leave early. Sorry. Thanks for being here," and cut off Don's mike before he could say: "I don't have to go anywhere," because it was news to him. It wasn't my decision to dump him off the air; it was Dick's, because he was the most-boring interviewee we ever had on.D. McEwannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-72705030723892047912012-07-04T21:24:41.215-07:002012-07-04T21:24:41.215-07:00Anonymous, Andy Griffith attached his name to his ...Anonymous, Andy Griffith attached his name to his political views. Which were, by the way, far more honest than yours.Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01998867386294693956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-86991171469634683232012-07-04T20:41:02.586-07:002012-07-04T20:41:02.586-07:00He cut an ad for a bill that guts Medicare, partic...He cut an ad for a bill that guts Medicare, particularly Medicare Advantage.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-63682530199497168722012-07-04T20:18:50.343-07:002012-07-04T20:18:50.343-07:00I've loved Andy and the Mayberry since my chil...I've loved Andy and the Mayberry since my childhood, but I was recently reacquainted to Andy Griffith via XM radio. On one of the comedy channels I've listened to two different monologues of his, one one MacBeth and the Other on an Opera. He makes them funny and understandable. He will be greatly missed.carlaehttp://blahgolicious.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-87844625092140574052012-07-04T18:28:29.311-07:002012-07-04T18:28:29.311-07:00Dang, I guess I knew there had to be at least one ...Dang, I guess I knew there had to be at least one person out there who couldn't stand Don Knotts, and now I guess we've found him. :)<br /><br />IMO, Barney Fife is one of the two or three greatest characters created for the small screen.<br /><br />I wouldn't say the Griffith show was "rural," by the way. Most of it seemed to take place within the Mayberry city limits.jbryantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-36131265496948857002012-07-04T17:00:17.379-07:002012-07-04T17:00:17.379-07:00I heard that back in 1988 they took a poll to see ...I heard that back in 1988 they took a poll to see how AG would do against Jesse Helms in a Senate race. AG came out ahead, I think 48-39. I would have loved to see Senator Andy Griffith.Alan Cnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-26972439877106890912012-07-04T15:30:01.939-07:002012-07-04T15:30:01.939-07:00Thanks, Ken. Happy 4th!Thanks, Ken. Happy 4th!cshelnoreply@blogger.com