RIP, Andy Griffith (Goober says "Hey!")

"The Andy Griffith Show" ("starring Andy Griffith!") many times gets lumped into the low-brow TV fare of its day that included "The Beverly Hillbillies", "Petticoat Junction" and all the TV crap that portrayed the South as full of hicks and hayseeds. And that may have been true in the early days of "TAGS" (Andy, mouth full of teeth and cornpone cliches), but soon the show found its rhythm. I sincerely think that there are several seasons (1962-1964)
of "The Andy Griffith Show" that can stand with the best of television.

Those would be the Don Knotts/Barney Fife years. Yes, yes, Don was wonderful in the role, but the way that Andy the actor stepped back and let Don take the spotlight was a great lesson in putting the writing first. My favorite bits seemed improvised -- after dinner, on the porch, Andy strumming his guitar while he and Barney seem to do the southern version of "Waiting for Godot". Gonna watch TV with Thelma Lou, maybe going to the pictures to see "The Monster from Outta Town" -- great, great stuff, played so relaxed and unhurried.

So many favorites, one of which is "Opie the Birdman". Opie, playing with his new slingshot, accidentally kills a bird, her babies now without a mother. Opie insists on taking the place of the mother, Andy implies this may not work out so well... but Opie persists, feeding the babies before leaving for school. Eventually, the caged birds must be freed, and Opie turns to his pa, saying "The cage seems pretty empty", while Andy responds with the classic line "Yeah, but don't the trees sound nice and full" (Apologies if my memory fudges the exact lines.) 


Andy, Barn and Goober have gone to that ol' fishin' hole in the sky, God bless 'em. Thanks so much, guys.