Andy Griffith passed away this morning. He was 86 years old. He played a Southern lawyer named Matlock for 9 seasons. Before that, he played a Southern sheriff named Andy Taylor for 8. Matlock was OK, but Andy Taylor was a keeper.
A while back, I tried to describe “The Andy Griffith Show” to a Londoner born in South Africa. She’d never seen the show, never heard of Mayberry.
I failed.
I sort of explained the setup, but I couldn’t explain what makes the show so great, and why it still matters to folks here in the South.
If she’d ask me to explain, “Everybody Loves Raymond,” I could have. It’s about a guy named Raymond, and everybody loves him, but they don’t get along with each other, right?
When you explain “The Andy Griffith Show,” though, it sounds pretty mediocre.
I explained that it’s a show about a widowed sheriff who lives with his son and aunt in a Southern town called Mayberry. I could imagine her eyes glazing over, so I added that the sheriff’s cousin is his only deputy and that it’s funny because of the characters, not because of the jokes, but it sounds strange to say that a comedy isn’t about the jokes.
Really, though, the writing on ”The Andy Griffith Show” was subtle and brilliant, and the humor was genuine, especially when you consider the quality of most sitcoms at the time. I can’t think of too many shows where the laughs don’t come from what the characters says but how or why they say it.
For example, “Hello, doll.”
If you know the show, that’s one of your favorite lines, ever. If you don’t, it would take too long to explain it (but I’ll try if anyone asks).
What’s really hard to explain, though, is that here in the South, “The Andy Griffith Show” isn’t just another rerun. It’s part of the culture. Here in the South, it’s beloved.
We know it wasn’t real, that Mayberry was just a set on a Hollywood backlot, but it feels real. It feels right, and movies and TV shows about the South never get it right.
Mayberry is how we remember our hometowns — a little eccentric, maybe, but friendly and basically decent and a good place to raise kids. We wish we could live there.
Nobody wishes they could live in the world of “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
“The Andy Griffith Show” has been around almost 52 years, and it’s still on. In some markets, it’s on several times a day, and every last episode is on Netflix, and they’re just as good today as they were the first time around.
Andy, we’ll miss you.
You know what I think I’m gonna do? I’m gonna go home, have me a little nap and then go over to Thelma Lou’s a watch a little TV.
This is one of those posts where clicking “Like” feels uncomfortable. I don’t like this news, but I like that I got it from you. Just last night I was thinking about writing an ode to lemonade and it got me to thinking about front porch-sitting and all things Mayberry.
This is a quote for the ages: Mayberry is how we remember our hometowns — a little eccentric, maybe, but friendly and basically decent and a good place to raise kids. We wish we could live there.
Well said, and oh so true.
I don’t think the show’s reaching a new generation. It’s it black-and-white. People joke around but they aren’t mean to each other. The only sexual innuendo comes when the Fun Girls from Mount Pilot drive over looking for Andy and “Bernie.” We may be the last generation to know you shouldn’t eat Aunt Bee’s pickles.
Barney Fife, Vampire Slayer or Zombies in Mayberry would mark the end of civilization as we used to know it and some of us would like to know it again.
If Barney could handle a loaded goat, he could handle vampires or zombies.
What a shame; I’m sad to hear about Andy Griffith. I watched that show every day in the summer breaks when I was a kid, and it was a re-run then. You’re right about the quality of the show. As I read, I could see and hear Aunt Bee saying, “Oh, Andy…” after a gaff of some sort. And how do you explain, to someone who’s never seen it, the utter delight of seeing Barney sniff and twist his mouth, pull up his pants and get all peacocky, then suddenly deflate and scowl when the compliment he expects doesn’t quite come? Tv doesn’t get any better than The Andy Griffith Show.
I have friends who quote “The Andy Griffith Show” all the time:
“You beat ever’thing, you know that?”
“Nip it!”
“There are no peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches in jail!”
“Goober says ‘Hey.’”
“Hey to Goober.”
“JudyJudyJudy.”
Besides, of course, the Southern charm, I think the thing that stands out about this show was its decency. It was a far cry from “reality TV,” a slice of pie served up home style, with a few corny jokes and lots of life lessons. Mr. Andy will certainly be missed in TV land!
I practice law in my hometown in an office that was once the private residence of a lawyer whose firm still operates just down the street. We have a lawn and a garden, and it feels like a home.
How often I have thought my clients think about me like they thought about Andy Griffith I cannot count. They wander in like this is the barber shop and sit a spell and talk about local news and dont really have any legal business at all, just want to stop by and say hello. You Betcha.
Unfortuantely this firm is plugged into a demanding court system of deadlines and duties to clients that dont really leave enough time for a lemonade out on the lawn. And when I give them bad news they go all Don Knox on me, “Well Andy I cant do that!…”
I just thought about Andy yesterday. Mayberry is a state of mind I wish I really worked in. Yep. Yesser, you betcha.
The Andy Griffith show was a staple of my growing up years. My family would not have thought of missing it. Like you, I could quote lines, and the “…going over to Thelma Lou’s to watch a little TV…” was classic. The small town where I now work, though not in the south, is classic Mayberry. Everyone knows everyone else and their business. You can’t get sick in that town without everybody calling to see how you are. They have a pet parade and a town barbeque on the the fourth of July. I can’t think of how many times I’ve tried to describe something that happened at work, and just end up saying “It’s like Mayberry” and everyone knows what I meant. RIP Andy.
When you meet a New Zealander you won’t have to explain the show. It’s part of the national psyche. As recently as 1992, NZ was classed as a Third world country based on per household ownership of televisions. This is pertinent because in the days of the Andy Griffith show there was only one TV channel in NZ and everyone watched the same thing, which included the AG Show. So all day today, in tribute, the radio and TV stations have been playing the theme song from the show.
That’s so cool. Also, I’m not sure a lack of TVs is a bad thing!
A great AMERICAN personality and actor. Gone- but not forgotten!
My son is living on Roanoke Island where Andy lived. I arrived to visit him the day Andy died. The town and the island were so quiet and dignified about the whole thing. I saw some news trucks in town, but I never saw anyone talk to them.