RIP Andy Griffith

[BSink42]

Good - bye Andy. May Barney Fife be there to greet you in that Mayberry in the sky.

[MadMax359]

he was a classy guy

[PM2K]

Great actor, too...

[water_bug_62208]

Ah, man, really sad news.

I really enjoyed The Andy Griffith Show. And, his lead role in Matlock was quite as impressive as well.

In The Andy Griffith Show, Sheriff Taylor was always right while the rest of the town sometimes tended to be a bunch of idiots; however, Andy Taylor was never one to say, "I told you so!" and seemed content to allow the towns people to believe the resolution to its problems was theirs, although Andy told them so long before it'd been a problem. Seems that's how Andy Griffith himself was. Yes, classy guy indeed!

Best wishes, Andy, as you begin your new adventure, and best wishes to his family and friends!

[bbjohn]

Andy Griffith was a heck of an actor, and an outstanding comedian as well. He first gained fame for his routine about a hick watching his first football game in "What it was was football." He played a lovable, naive rural character who drove military people crazy in "No Time for Sergeants," first on live television, then on Broadway, and then in a movie. It was in the stage play and the movie that he was first paired with Don Knotts. I don't think anyone could forget the saluting toilets in the latrine.

Griffith could also play edgy characters, as when he played con man turned television personality Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes in "A Face in the Crowd." The dark cynicism of that role contrasted sharply with the general optimism of "The Andy Griffith Show. "

He was also an accomplished Gospel singer. His album, "I Love to Tell the Story" won a Grammy.

As for the role of Sheriff Andy Taylor, Griffith wisely decided to play straight man to Don Knotts and the other folks in Mayberry. He came across as a loving sane person dealing with the craziness around him, something like the sheriff in the Sci Fi Channel series "Eureka."

It's often forgotten that Andy Taylor was an outstanding lawman. He often solved cases that confused the state authorities. I recall one episode where some cattle had been stolen. The state police thought three people were involved because there were three sets of footprints at each scene. Andy figured it out there was just one person involved, and he was putting human shoes on the cows to make the police think three persons were involved.

How did Andy figure it out? Through good police work. He first noticed there were no footprints for the cows. He then noticed the footprints for two of the "culprits" were always the same distance apart, and they moved in step with each other. He then drew the logical answer: someone was putting human shoes on the cows.

Andy caught the thief by tricking him into trying to put shoes on an ornery bull.

I must admit I never watched "Matlock" that much. From what I saw of it, Griffith played a character who acted like a "plain old country lawyer" who often fooled his opponents into underestimating him. That was similar to the formula that worked for Peter Falk in "Colombo."

Andy Griffith was a man of many talents. He certainly will be missed. Like other greats from his era, Milton Berle, Lucille Ball, Danny Thomas, Jim Arness, Don Knotts, and so many others, I believe he'll be one we'll still be talking about years from now.

Big Bad John

[Nessie]

And another part of my childhood passes on. They ran this show heavily when I was young.

Rest in peace, Andy.

I never realized Andy Griffith sang until I received, as a birthday present, the first volume of this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Throats

Some of these tracks are hilarious, but a couple members of my family were stumped by the inclusion of Andy Griffith.

"Why is he on this? There's nothing wrong with the way he sings."

Nessie

[DangerGirl]

He was a gooood cracker. Good cracker.