Andy Griffith Show: only those who watched it when it originally aired, pls.

March 3, 2006 7:45 PM

Back in the day, what did contemporary viewers of The Andy Griffith Show feel about the show? Was it good and wholesome, or sordid and immoral? Was it 'funny ha-ha' or 'funny omg i can't believe they just did that!'? Realism or surrealism? Sitcom or soap? And all that jazz.

(I got a four episode CD for a buck. Whatta deal! It has been greatly entertaining.)

BTW, only those who saw the original broadcast airing; I don't care how it's experienced in today's times, just the original times. Thanks.

posted by five fresh fish to society & culture (24 comments total)

Wow. That is a completely fascinating question. I really look forward to answers. (I'm not being facetious at all, by the way -- I'm genuinely curious.)
posted by jennyjenny at 7:51 PM on March 3, 2006

The Andy Griffith Show, like Petticoat Junction, was not so much "funny" as "comforting." Bland, like mashed potatoes, but soothing. It was really directed towards an audience that did not want to be provoked or challenged (contrast to All In the Family).
posted by SPrintF at 7:57 PM on March 3, 2006

I'm interested in knowing what FFF is seeing in the shows that invite the "sordid and immoral" observation. As a kid (when the shows first ran) I always saw them as pretty much homey and safely entertaining...though boring.
Even as a kid, I much preferred the odd surrealism of Green Acres.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:19 PM on March 3, 2006

actually i remember liking some sitcoms when i was young--late primary and jr high. but once the beatles arrived on the scene, american television seemed hopelessly lame. that was around the 3rd or 4th season of the andy griffith show.

andy seemed smarter than everyone else on the show, and he was tactful about it, which i especially remember and liked.
posted by subatomiczoo at 8:20 PM on March 3, 2006

he expounds a bit in this mecha thread
posted by puke & cry at 8:30 PM on March 3, 2006

While I don't know what people thought about the show, per se, I'll point out that The Andy Griffith Show was one of only three shows that ended its run while it was ranked No. 1 in the ratings. The other two were I Love Lucy and Seinfeld.
posted by frogan at 8:52 PM on March 3, 2006

as a kid, i thought it was kind of dull, although my folks seemed to like it a bit ... certainly good and wholesome ... amusing in a very laid back sense ... sometimes dramatic, sometimes silly, thanks to don knotts ... as far as realism goes ... it was the world that people wanted to believe still existed ... for many 30 or 40-somethings at that time, they actually grew up in small towns or rural areas like mayberry and as hard as it may be for people to believe, those towns could really be like that ... i'm sure it was romanticised quite a bit, though

it was comforting for people to watch it and believe that the rural communities of their childhoods still existed somewhere ... it's what they felt the rest of america should be like ... and at least in a small midwestern city, in the suburbs, it wasn't that much different, even in the 60s

it was a piece of america people were trying to hang on to ... but that wasn't going to happen

still ... there are some places that still have people like andy and aunt bea ...
posted by pyramid termite at 8:54 PM on March 3, 2006

The Andy Griffith Show, like Petticoat Junction, was not so much "funny" as "comforting." Bland, like mashed potatoes, but soothing.

I see where you're going with this, but I disagree with the specific not-so-much-funny point. Yes, it was meant to be comforting and reinforce traditional values, etc., but it was meant to be funny and was received as such in many places.

My father thinks Ernest T. Bass is one of the funniest characters in TV history, and I see where he's coming from on that. Ernest T. (and Gomer, and Goober, and Barney, and Floyd the barber, who always sounds like he's getting blown while he delivers his lines) could indeed be very funny.

Someone once broke into my family's jewelry store through the front window with a rock and made off with some cheap stuff they hadn't bothered to lock up in the safes. The next day my uncle put the rock in the front window with a hand-scrawled sign on it that read, simply, "It's me, It's me, It's Ernest T." Which got quite the reaction. Small midwestern town? You bet.
posted by middleclasstool at 9:36 PM on March 3, 2006

Great question; best way to answer it is probably to load up on coffee and spend a rainy afternoon in the library, looking through a periodical index for the years 1960-68 for magazine articles that mention the show. Same goes for newspaper archives; a search for "andy griffith show" in the NYT archive pulls up this preview of an article from 7/17/66:

The Still Invisible Man
By PETER BART

A GROUP of Negro leaders this week sat down with representatives of the movie and television industry to discuss two volatile issues: Negro employment in Hollywood and the portrayal of Negroes in movies and TV shows.

Results also include an article from 11/65 titled, "' I Will Not Force on Viewers A Consciousness of Social Problems'; What a TV Producer Produces." Tantalizing hints for fishing in various archives, which should turn up lots of interesting views of the show from that time.
posted by mediareport at 9:45 PM on March 3, 2006

My father, who basically grew up in Mayberry in the 50s, loves the show. It's got a very gentle and to my mind very characteristic small town humor. Much of the comedy derives from Andy's reactions to the eccentrics he lives and works with. The conflicts are small but character-driven -- there could be a whole show about Aunt Bea worrying about whether she'll win the fair ribbon she counts on getting every year because Mrs. Whozits is trying bake the ultimate pie or something, but the humor comes from knowing her type: easily mortified, highly concerned with community standards, a believer in a strict moral code that she often fails to live up to herself, etc. So she'll worry Andy to death about it, and he'll spend a lot of time gently placating her and trying to guide her away from whatever outrageous schemes she'll devise to make sure she wins, etc.

But the key is that he loves her, that he involves himself with her drama and worries about it even as he's laughing to himself. So the show is simultaneously bald about the weirdness and hypocrises of small town life, while idealizing them. I mean, my dad is no dummy. He's worldly and smart, but Andy Griffith just makes him bellow with laughter. If you spend any time in a small town in a position of authority or prominence than the basic premise of "these are the folks you love, warts and all" is very satisfying. That, and the portrait of small town boyhood -- fishing with dad, running around getting into everything, being motherhenned by everyone while knowing you're totally safe and loved -- I know that's a powerful bit of nostalgia for him and probably for a lot of other people of his age and background.

So yeah, add him (and me) to the list of people who don't see the show as bland, but geniunely funny, and encompassing a whole range of very familiar types. There were lots of great character actors who worked on that show, and together they created a warm parody of the little conflicts of small town life.
posted by melissa may at 9:51 PM on March 3, 2006

Excellent analysis. Much better than I put it.
posted by middleclasstool at 9:54 PM on March 3, 2006

I think Melissa May pretty much pegged the analysis. Let me offer a little color commentary by giving sp,e background on how Griffith got his own show in the first place.

Prior to getting his own sitcom, Andy Griffith had made a minor splash with some hit comedy records, in character as an over-the-top bumpkin possessed of a piercing wit and wicked sense of timing.

(His most famous bit, "What It Was, Was Football," describes the reaction of a hayseed who don't get off the farm much to his first football game, but his retellings of classic stories, e.g. "Romeo and Juliet," are also worth seeking out. He was actually a pretty fair comedian and a pretty good singer.)

He had also appeared, to wide acclaim, in the movies "A Face in the Crowd" and "No Time for Sergeants." In other words, by the time he got his own TV show, he was something of a known quantity in America and the show was basically his star vehicle. *That*, no doubt, also contributed a great deal to the appeal of the show at the time. (The show actually grew out of a skit on the Danny Thomas Show, which was one of the most popular TV shows in America at the time.)

Lastly, checking out this web site might give you some additional insights into what people found entertaining about the program at the time (and still do.)
posted by enrevanche at 3:23 AM on March 4, 2006

Melissa May said it way better than I was going to attempt to. My dad grew up in a small Southern town in the 50s and has always really liked this show. He also grew up to be a cop (in a Northeastern small town). He's said he knew guys like Andy, Barney and Goober. By the time this show was on, he had left the South so I think the nostalgia factor was there (for him) from the beginning.

Also, Jim Nabors was from the next town over from him, just to add to the familiarity.
posted by jdl at 5:36 AM on March 4, 2006

I was younger than Opie when it first aired and haven't seen it since:

Aunt Bea was a fool
Floyd the barber was a fool
Barney was a fool
Goober was a fool
Howard Sprague was a fool
the drunk (forgotten his name) was a fool
Opie was not a fool, but sometimes a pain in the butt - he was (and actually IS, if you look at Ron Howard's career) Andy-in-training.

They always used to make me cringe.

Andy was the wise one, the keeper of the asylum. I used to wonder, when I was small, why he stayed. Then I realized (and some episodes pointed out) that he was only wise in his small corner of the world. When outsiders came in (con men, travelers), he was always smarter, more observant than they. He could never leave, but he was smart enough to know that. I'm not sure how gentle it was, since it mocked a culture and all women, but it did it with a veneer of gentility.

All of these shows: Petticoat Junction; Beverly Hillbillies; Andy Griffith - and then the outright seditious Green Acres - were the forerunners of shows like Boston Legal & Scrubs today.
posted by clarkstonian at 6:19 AM on March 4, 2006

I grew up watching the show myself-and I grew up in North Carolina, which was where the show was based.

Pretty accurate depiction of smalltown life (at least for the white folks. Back then there were few to no Black people on tv, period.) The show's values were the same as the values I was surrounded by-most of which I actually do adhere to. And as far as the characters, well, I knew people that fit the molds.
posted by konolia at 6:29 AM on March 4, 2006

"What it Was, Was Football" in RealAudio, plus a Mad magazine version.

The show originated as a skit on the Danny Thomas Show. Andy Griffith's hometown Mount Airy, North Carolina is usually credited as being the inspiration for Mayberry.

An interesting behind-the-scenes look at the locations the show was filmed in. (The set for Jim Nabor's spinoff Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. was 10 yards away from the Andy Griffith set.)
posted by kirkaracha at 8:14 AM on March 4, 2006

Damn, I should have got back to this thread earlier.

Here's my take on the show based on the two episodes I've seen so far (I got a four episode DVD for a buck):

Andy selectively upholds the law: he blatantly ignores the Mayor's corruption, does not bust the moonshine manufacturers, enables the town drunk in his alcoholism, and even puts people under arrest when they have, in fact, not broken the law at all, but merely "need a lesson."

Barney never does an honest day's work and is completely incompetent in what little he does do.

The Mayor is a corrupt man who uses his political powers for personal gain.

And so on and so forth. And despite the immorality of these people, they are never punished for their misdeeds.

The show is subtle version of Puppets Who Kill or Trailer Park Boys.

People decry today's television but, hell, at least today's corrupting television is upfront and blatant about it.

We have a generation of people who were taught that corruption, greed, stupidity, and laziness were all acceptable traits in the people who police and govern us.

Little wonder the USA is up shit creek now that those people who watched the show, are running the show.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:46 AM on March 4, 2006

And despite the immorality of these people, they are never punished for their misdeeds.

and how often are people punished for ALL their misdeeds ... especially the small ones?

We have a generation of people who were taught that corruption, greed, stupidity, and laziness were all acceptable traits in the people who police and govern us.

say rather that they were taught that humans are frail and faulty creatures, who are bound to get minor things wrong time and time again ... what you describe here is simply human nature ... you can't change it, but you can keep it from getting out of hand and learn to tolerate the smaller issues with a sense of humor

i would rather live in a town where the local sheriff overlooked small violations instead of a place where some clerics watched the people 24/7 and flogged anyone who did the slightest thing against the rules

you seem to want andy to be a policeman ... but if you've ever talked to a good policeman, you'll discover that he considers and calls himself a "peace officer" ... it's not necessarily his job to throw the book at every citizen who he catches violating a minor law ... it's his job to keep the peace ... which means letting the community go on with its business and warning people when their behavior gets out of hand, or they do minor things that aren't worth a court case ... they only act when serious breaches of the peace are about to happen or have happened

andy was a peace officer ... we need less cops in this country and more peace officers
posted by pyramid termite at 10:13 AM on March 4, 2006

And despite the immorality of these people, they are never punished for their misdeeds.

Just as like people who say smart-ass things on sitcoms are never slapped or punched.

Because it's funnier that way.
posted by kindall at 11:04 AM on March 4, 2006

It was a regular staple of our family TV watching when I was a kid. I remember not liking it that much and cringing a lot, and actually hating, the Barney Fife character. I thought that Thelma was hot, and wondered what in the hell she saw in Barney.

People were a lot less critical about TV in those days, and there were far fewer choices.

My favorite episode was the "Citizen's Arrest" one.

Over all, the show was OK .. .apparently it has aged well.
posted by Danf at 11:58 AM on March 4, 2006

I am a few years older than Ron Howard and loved watching it then, and in reruns. As a child, I was comforted by it. Aunt Bea was my surrogate mother. I think I learned something about ethics from the show, not experiencing the concept in my actual life. Andy was always teaching lessons on ethics and morality and these new ideas were fascinating to me. I liked everyone in the town, though I suppose that I knew and agree with what clarkstonian said above. Some were creepy (Floyd) and others scary (Howard). But they were likeable nonetheless.

There was something sordid and immoral there too, as you questioned. I picked up on that too, even as a child but, of course, could not identify. Even now as an adult, the best description I can think of...responding to your post without much time to think about it...is incestuous. Then again, my reaction to the show might say much more about me, than the show itself.

Very interesting question and I hope my comments help you.
posted by sluglicker at 4:52 PM on March 4, 2006

Seems like I'll have the discourgaging word.

Although I'd watch Petticoat Junction or Green Acres now and then, back in the day, Mayberry was way too much -- too wholesome, small-town, slow & boring over-the-top Norman Rockwell America. As a city boy, and rebellious proto-JD/hippie, just couldn't relate. And Don Knotts?! Please. Couldn't stand it -- would immediately change the channel, if I was the only one watching, and I'd leave the room to go read a book if somebody else was.

Now, Leave It To Beaver -- that was entertainment. And later on, I'd frequently join my Mom, watching Hee-Haw -- that was acceptable over-the-top country.
posted by Rash at 6:39 PM on March 4, 2006

One more thing, about Andy Griffith -- a few years back I saw A Face in the Crowd -- great picture. "Free Man in the Morning!"
posted by Rash at 6:46 PM on March 4, 2006

Thanks, all!

Still wouldn't want my kids watching it — the "it's okay to be a corrupt cop" social training makes me upset — but it is a gently amusing, if gently unnerving, bit of fun.
posted by five fresh fish at 4:50 PM on March 5, 2006