Stop the presses! Stop the internet! Stop...something. I actually bumped today's original blog entry to tomorrow because of the news that Andy Griffith has died at age 86. He was in that unenviable category of "oh, I didn't know he was still alive" but lots of us will be saddened by news of his death. In his Matlock days Griffith and my late father-in-law looked remarkably similar, and no surprisingly Max was a fan.
Most of us, though will remember The Andy Griffith Show which ran from 1960 to 1968 and starred Griffith as the amiable but shrewd sherriff of little Mayberry, North Carolina. It was hugely popular and TV Guide named it the 9th best show in television history. How do they establish these things? I can still whistle the theme music without having to think about it.
Griffith actually was a man of strong Christian faith, He was a choir director before he became an actor and recorded a gospel album after he retired.
Little Opie grew up to be film director Ron Howard, but back then he was Andy's boy. In one episode he offered up a prayer:
"God Bless my Pa, my bird Dickey and my dog Gulliver and my lizard, also
wherever it is he ran away to, and Barney Fife and my white mouse and Jerry,
Tommy and Billy and my snake. Amen. I forgot somebody very important. God
Bless Rose, even though she ran off and got married."
Opie was obviously an early environmentalist with an avant garde theology of the web of creation.
Any tributes or reflections on Andy and the values the show represented?I decided to acknowledge Griffiths death because I wrote about a bible study called The Way Back to Mayberry based on the moral and ethical truths in the series. That blog entry got the most responses of any I have written! I suppose the yearning for a simpler time with clearer truths, along with the charming tone of the show stirred up a lot of nostalgia. And hey, why not? Even though I don't think many of us would really want to go back to those "good old days," -- I don't recall any people of colour on that show -- nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
4 comments:
I used to watch the show as a kid when I ventured into Hampton to visit my grandmother. In many ways, Mayberry reminded me of Hampton: cozy, tight-knit and old fashioned.
I can still whistle that tune, too ...
Quality never goes out of style. My kids would watch the Andy Griffith show, and they love Little House too.
No one whistles like Andy, or crys like Charles.
CHARLES TOTALLY CRIED *ALL* OF THE TIME!
Good memory! I thought I was the only one who noticed that!
I'm intrigued that it is the two of you who have responded to this blog entry. Both of you are too young to have seen the show in first run. The power of re-runs!
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