Louisiana Voice

From the time when, as a 10-year-old growing up in Ruston, I first heard What it Was, Was Football on KRUS radio, to watching No Time for Sergeants at the dilapidated old Tech Theater to watching him as the sage sheriff-mentor Andy Taylor to Don Knotts’ bumbling Barney Fife, I have been—and will always be—a fan of Andy Griffith.

Griffith and Knotts are both gone now, as are George Lindsey (Goober), Frances Bavier (Aunt Bee), Hal Smith (Otis Campbell) Aneta Corsaut (Andy’s girlfriend and Opie’s teacher, Helen Crump), and Howard McNear (town barber Floyd Lawson) but the show will live on as long as people love good, clean, family-oriented comedy—story lines so simplistic in their approach to small town life that we all find ourselves wishing ourselves back to a time and place when people didn’t lock their doors and when it was safe for kids to walk down the street.

We all have our favorite episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, but how many of us can trace the show back to its origins? Well, we have Danny Thomas to thank for introducing Sheriff Andy Taylor into our living rooms.

Thomas, aka Danny Williams, is stopped by Sheriff/Justice of the Peace/Mayor Andy Taylor for running a stop sign in Mayberry and the confrontation between city slicker and country bumpkin takes a predictable comedic course of action, thus launching one of the most popular TV series of all time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOFoeNU2rl0.

Twenty years or more ago I became the self-appointed president (and only member) of the Baton Rouge Lake Loons Chapter of The Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club (TAGSRWC). Yes, there really is such a club http://www.imayberry.com/ and it long ago went international with chapters in more countries than I can even begin to name. Griffith was a member as is Ron Howard (Opie). So is Betty Lynn (Barney’s girlfriend, Thelma Lou).

The Lake Loons chapter took its name from an episode in which Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors) and Barney became lost during an outing in the woods. Andy hides and impersonates the call of a lake loon in able to allow Barney to save face and lead the pair back to the camp. Of course, it’s actually Andy who does the leading and Barney simply follows the call of the red-crested lake loon to safety.

My personal favorite, however, is the opening scene of an episode when Floyd and Andy are sitting outside the barbershop discussing the weather (it’s 92 degrees, Floyd tells Andy as he fans himself).

Andy: As Mark Twain said, everybody complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it.

Floyd: He said that?

Andy: Mm-huh.

Floyd: I thought Calvin Coolidge said that.

Andy: No, Floyd, Calvin Coolidge didn’t say that.

Floyd: What’d Calvin Coolidge say?

Andy: I don’t know.

Floyd: You sure Mark Twain didn’t get that from Calvin Coolidge? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T63JEY1Ui5Y

Nothing contrived, no forced lines, the entire conversation low key, but an exchange anyone who ever spent time in a country barbershop can relate to.

And of course there was the episode in which Opie brings a stray dog into the courthouse and before long the dog invites all his friends. Before Andy can turn around, the courthouse is overrun by dogs—just before a state inspector is due in town to evaluate Andy’s request for funding. Barney thinks he has solved the problem by taking all the dogs out to the countryside where he lets them out of the squad car.

But then a lightning storm erupts and Opie becomes concerned about the dogs, especially the smallest of the bunch, “a little trembly one.” Barney tries to allay Opie’s fears by explaining that lightning rarely strikes dogs because they are near the ground, not like giraffes, which are tall and really up there. Besides, he said, dogs take care of their own “and lightning don’t strike them cause they’re low to the ground…and they take care of their own…not like giraffes running around getting struck by lightning, always looking out for number one… Boy, oh boy, giraffes are selfish.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVV-2tDu4l4

Andy Griffith died Tuesday, July 3 at the age of 86 in Dare County, NC. Frances Bavier was the same age when she died on Dec. 6, 1989, in Siler City, NC. Howard McNear passed away on Jan. 3, 1969 at the age of 63 following a series of strokes. Aneta Corsaut died on Nov. 6, 1995 at age 62. Don Knotts left us on Feb. 24, 2006 at age 81 and George “Goober” Lindsey died less than two months ago, on May 6 at 83.

Lindsey played Gomer’s cousin on the show and some fans, confused by the similarity of the characters’ names (Goober/Gomer) mistakenly believed it was Jim Nabors who had died but Nabors remains very much alive.

McNear actually had a couple of strokes before he left the show. The strokes left him unable to walk on his own or to use both arms, though he could still speak. He was off the show for more than a year but Griffith liked McNear and his character so much that he had the production company construct props to allow him to stand and to appear to be cutting hair and with the help of a little camera trickery, to seem to be walking around in one scene.

But what else would you expect Sheriff Andy Taylor to do? This was Mayberry, after all. And in Mayberry, neighbors help neighbors.

That was what endeared that show to each of us.

Giraffes may be selfish but the residents of Mayberry certainly were not.

Rest in peace, Andy, Barney, Aunt Bee, Otis, Floyd, Goober and Miss Crump.