Andy Griffith died yesterday. He’s been called “everybody’s favorite sheriff” and was considered to have been an American icon. Andy was an actor and an entertainer. He had two very successful TV series, The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock, as well as several unsuccessful series, and various movie roles. He was never honored with an Emmy award for his acting (his co-star, Don Knotts playing Deputy Barney Fife, won five) probably because we all got the feeling that mostly Andy was playing himself and therefore not working that hard. He seemed like just a nice, honest guy. But if you’ve seen him playing some of his darker, bad guy roles, such as his first film, A Face in the Crowd, you realize that he could act. Perhaps even that it might not be a good idea to piss him off. Or, like most people, he may be a bit more complex than what you would suppose at first glance.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to bash him. I like Andy. I was never a big fan of Matlock, since it appealed to an older demographic, but growing up, we watched his show about the tranquil town of Mayberry all of the time. There were only three channels of TV shows back then, and we were just kids, so there wasn’t much alternative. Also, I’m not a huge fan of slapstick humor, and people being stupid generally bother me, whether they’re acting or not, and the show had lots of both. But it was also done very well, and that matters. Ron Howard, who played Opie, and went on to more fame and fortune as an actor, director and producer with an excellent grasp of our popular culture, attributed much of the show’s success to Andy’s grasp of how to do things well. He learned from Andy’s example and it taught him how to do things well.
For me, the things that made the show so good were the scenes with Andy and Opie together as father and son. Andy had such good advice, and he could deliver it without beating you over the head with it, more like making you realize it for yourself. I don’t think anyone I’ve ever known had a father like that. Mine is not the homey advice kind of guy, although I love him dearly and wouldn’t trade him for another. But the best piece of advice he gave me (that I can remember-and that might be the biggest problem) was this: Never bet the Three-B’s, the [Cleveland] Browns, the [Ohio State] Buckeyes and the [Canton McKinley High School] Bulldogs. It is very sound advice if you’re from the Canton area of Northeastern Ohio, since all three football teams have demonstrated a way of letting their fans down, especially when they’re supposed to win. But I never bet on football games, and it’s not really that useful of advice. Oh yeah, he did tell me another thing that’s really useful advice this time of year: be really careful with fireworks and don’t try to pick up a dud firecracker right away if it doesn’t go off. They’re words to live by.
The wisdom that Andy imparted to Opie, however, was the life changing kind, taught in the gentlest of ways, and we all knew that it would stick with the youngster forever. Probably it would be passed on to his own children, and even grandchildren, in a similarly kind and intelligent way. Very much unlike real life. I don’t know anyone who had a father like that. Some fathers did offer more advice to their children than mine offered to me, some gave even less. The problem is that when it comes time to give advice, we’re probably at an age when we are not inclined to listen, much less remember.
Andy’s real life son apparently had lots of issues, and died years ago from his problems with alcohol. On the other hand, Ron Howard has stated that he enjoyed a very helpful quasi-father-son relationship with Andy Griffith throughout his life, and went on to a hugely successful career. So in this case, art didn’t imitate life, it outdid life by a long shot.
So where does that leave us with Andy? He was talented, very good at what he did when it all came together, less than stellar when it didn’t. He was human, just like the rest of us, capable of making mistakes, and probably got it wrong more than once. But in the end, when it’s late at night and I can’t get to sleep, I’ll find a rerun of The Andy Griffith Show and hope it’s an episode where Andy teaches Opie about life. It isn’t a bad way to fall asleep, and beats most other reruns, old movies and infomercials every time. Also, it isn’t difficult to find a rerun of the show, since it has aired continuously since the original went off the air. So, in conclusion, I would say that we’ll miss you, Andy, but that’s not really right. What I should say is that we’ll be seeing you later, Andy. Rest in peace sir, a job well done.
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