Hi I'm new to this board. I would like to say I think "The Andy Griffith Show" during its first five years was one of the best written and funniest shows ever presented on tv.

However, the color episodes are not as well done. Part of it has to do with Don Knotts leaving the show, but for me another problem was a definite change in the demeanor of Sheriff Andy Taylor. In the earlier B&W shows Andy is more home spun and down to earth with a quiet and well developed sence of humor. In the color episodes, Andy seems to be much more dryer and humorless. He seems to get much more exasperated more easily.
It is like two different characters--the likable low-key Andy of the B&W years and the boring and quick tempered Andy of the color years.

However, there are exceptions--when Don Knotts returned to the Griffith show for guest appearances in the color shows these episodes were often much more like the early shows and Don and Andy could pick up it seems where they left off. The Andy is very much like the Andy of old.

Has anyone else ever noticed the change in Griffith's interpetation of Andy Taylor? or am I just out in left field?

Thanks

It seems like you are in the same boat as I am. I am a big fan of TAGS during the first five years, but those last 3 seasons just aren't good. You mentioned the things I've talked about with some of my friends, Don Knotts leaving, Andy's attitude, but you left out one thing that ties in with Andy's attitude. Andy and Opie's relationship- Maybe my definition for their relationship is a bit harsh, but its true to me. Look at Andy and Opie in the black and white episodes, they hung out and went fishing and just had a true father and son relationship. In the color episodes, it seemed like Andy was verbially abusive to Opie. I recall one episode where Andy storms into the house (angry as usual) and asked Aunt Bea, "Where's the boy?" It's just the way he said it.

To make a long story short, I do know what you're talking about. I'm a fan of the b & w episodes, but I can't sit through too many color ones.

BTW, Welcome to the boards! :)

The color eps are more boring than the b+w ones.

I'd like to add that in season one Andy is a real giddy southern hick. His best work is in seasons two thru 5.

Sorry to rain on anybody's parade, but I prefer the color ones!

:rolleyes:

I can understand you liking the color ones better. The show looks more modern in color than in b+w. Not only that but some find b+w depressing.

I agree that the early episodes of the Andy Griffith show were great. I really do not care much for the episodes after 1965.

I even like the episodes with Miss Ellie better than the ones with Helen Crump. Those Black & White Episodes were special.

I prefer the Black and White shows. In my opinion these shows were great. They were FUNNY and just plain WONDERFUL.
The shows seem to have a way of bringing a smile to my face.
Andy, Barney, Floyd seem to get a great deal of attention, however,.......Otis..... ALWAYS makes me laugh.

I am not sure if Barny left before color or after. But its not really a color issue it
seems to be a people issue. Especially Barny. He was such a big part of the show
it could have been called the andy and barny show.:lol: Any way andy himself
said in an interview he did not feel right about the show after dons departure.
But due to contracts he stayed.

Alptech, I believe Barney left before the show went to color. He was on the show for the first 5 seasons.

Yeah, you remember that 'Guitar Playin' Deputy' episode with Jerry Van Dyke? That was the last b & w wasn't it? Don wasn't in it, so he did leave before the color episodes.

Ignore- double post

my theory on why andy changed in the color episodes: andy griffith originally said he would only do 5 seasons, which is why don knotts agreed to only 5 seasons, but the network made andy such a great offer to stay on that he couldn't refuse--andy griffith was an incredibly talented actor (just take a look at "face in the crowd") but he was very conservative and he got stuck in a rut and it began to show--i think don knotts leaving and also producer aaron rubin had left (to do "gomer pyle, usmc") and that certainly had a big effect on the show and on andy--i think andy of the color episodes and elvis of the movie years had a lot in common, they were bored!

The show wasn't as good after Barney left but it was and is still a great show. After all, it still has Andy, Opie, Aunt Bee and Goober and others after Barn left.

There are plenty of good color eps. Any that feature Howard Sprague are very good and some with Emmet. Opie as a young boy was the best but eps showing Opie's teen years are good as well. Ones featuring Aunt Bee are quite good; remember when Bee learns to drive and fly a plane.

Barney's shoes were impossible to fill but they did a good job bringing in other characters and giving old players more to do.

I don't go along with the Andy is grumpier in the color eps crowd. It's just that Barney was the main recipient of his ire and after he left they had spread it out over most of the other characters.

I thought TAGS was awesome all the way through, but I definitely like the black and white episodes best. It wasn't quite as funny when they switched to color. And also, it was never the same after Barney left.

Originally posted by sar
The show wasn't as good after Barney left but it was and is still a great show. After all, it still has Andy, Opie, Aunt Bee and Goober and others after Barn left.

I agree sar that there were still some talented actors left on the show, but Don Knotts won 5 emmys for his role as Barney Fife.

None of the other characters could come close to having the same chemistry he had with Andy.

To me it was like taking Vivian Vance from Lucille Ball, or taking Art Carney from Jackie Gleason.....It just didn't work well...

Black and white or color has nothing whatsoever as to the quality of any show. It is the script or the acting or both. I have seen just has many bad color programs as black and white. Funny is funny, and serious is serious. The shows after Knotts left were just not as good. Color did nothing to help them.

R.K.

the b&w shows with barney were the best i think they could have done a better job replacing barneys character. warren was terrible!:crazy: :barf:

It seems like you are in the same boat as I am. I am a big fan of TAGS during the first five years, but those last 3 seasons just aren't good. You mentioned the things I've talked about with some of my friends, Don Knotts leaving, Andy's attitude, but you left out one thing that ties in with Andy's attitude. Andy and Opie's relationship- Maybe my definition for their relationship is a bit harsh, but its true to me. Look at Andy and Opie in the black and white episodes, they hung out and went fishing and just had a true father and son relationship. In the color episodes, it seemed like Andy was verbially abusive to Opie. I recall one episode where Andy storms into the house (angry as usual) and asked Aunt Bea, "Where's the boy?" It's just the way he said it.

To make a long story short, I do know what you're talking about. I'm a fan of the b & w episodes, but I can't sit through too many color ones.

BTW, Welcome to the boards! :)

Wow, I remember that "Where's the boy?" moment well.

Andy didn't seem to adjust to "the boy" growing up as well as might have been expected.

the b&w shows with barney were the best i think they could have done a better job replacing barneys character. warren was terrible!:crazy: :barf:

Howard was quite a bit better in basically Barne's spot, though.

"Where's the boy" was a bad moment in the show. In an early episode of that sixth season they also had Andy repeating a trivia fact he just read in the paper, just like Barney used to do. Andy Griffith was lost at that point. He was trying to redefine the characters. If Don was still there he wouldn't have felt the need to do that. If Aaron Ruben was still there he probably would have talked him out of it. Andy was usually given credit for all the good decisions about the show and it seems to me it was Andy and Aaron with a big assist from Don. Andy and Bob Ross didn't have that same great judgement.

I think Howard really helped the show and helped Andy as an actor. He gave Andy a fresh character to react to when Andy was having trouble figuring out how to react to the old characters.

I agree sar that there were still some talented actors left on the show, but Don Knotts won 5 emmys for his role as Barney Fife.

None of the other characters could come close to having the same chemistry he had with Andy.

To me it was like taking Vivian Vance from Lucille Ball, or taking Art Carney from Jackie Gleason.....It just didn't work well...

Dino without Jerry...

He was trying to redefine the characters

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

:)

10 Reasons Why the Colorized Episodes of Andy Griffith Show Sucked
(http://juniorspacecadet-brainsquish.blogspot.com/2009/12/10-reasons-why-colored-episodes-of-andy.html)
And then this offers an nice counterpoint about why it's worth it to keep watching: The Color Seasons of Andy Griffith Show are Great and Here is Why (http://www.metv.com/lists/the-color-seasons-of-the-andy-griffith-show-are-great-and-heres-why)

There are many great B&W episodes such as Aunt Bee with the Medicine Man, that is classic in so many ways, Malcom, Ernest T. Bass or say Opie the Birdman. But there are some great colors such as the Baseball Game which is right at the top and tremendous. I like the perfect bowling game and many others in the colors they are great. I think Howard going to the Virgin Islands is really hilarious too. The colors are definitely not duds albeit when Knotts didn't get to share in the profits of the show with Griffith and made his surprisingly low salary and left Griffith sure was mad. He wreaked hotel rooms, cars, sets and so on and beat-up performers over not having Knotts to beat-up. But then he got to have sex every day with Helen Crump in the hotel and that kind of smoothed things over for him. He lost Ellie Walker because she wouldn't have sex with him and she just said that they didn't have on-screen chemistry or Andy was supposed to have married her for the sit-com. Boy he was such a bad guy. George "Goober" Lyndsey would say that he would keep away from him because he was scared of him and didn't want to get beaten-up. Griffith's daughter says he was just like his character in the film Waitress...

Somewhere, somebody, posted about a behind the scene book about the
Andy Griffith Show. Does anyone know the title?

Wow after reading all the posts about Andy's disposition I can't believe how anyone would want to work with him. Afraid you might get beaten up if you approached him? Andy Griffith actually wrecked hotel rooms and cars? Doesn't sound like the Andy who loved Opie, got Malcolm to come back, helped Barney look like a hero, got Aunt Bee that bed jacket and stood there and let Miss Crump yell at him. He was incredibly sexy with Susan Oliver in Prisoner of Love and with Joanna Moore maybe too sexy. However I can't believe he and Aneta were getting it on during production. Was it really true that Eleanor Donahue wouldn't put out? Anyway I think the real Andy comes through in the later episodes as a big, boring oaf who just phoned it in. In the first 4 episodes, however, Andy Taylor was a prince among men.

When I hear George Lindsay was a creep it floors me as the Goober character needed all the help he could get and should have loved his fans. Maybe he was so sick of playing a mentally challenged person.

Eleanor Donahue left because she felt that she and Andy didn't have chemistry, which sadly caused her to be blacklisted by Andy. Also as much as George Lindsey was difficult to work with (and very nasty with fans) later in life he did grow a heart and was fervent supporter of the Special Olympics and other charities

I actually think that both the B&W and the Color episodes are the best for the show period.

I loved them all. In my opinion, if the show had gone to color in the previous year, it would have been better received.

Somewhere, somebody, posted about a behind the scene book about the
Andy Griffith Show. Does anyone know the title?

"Andy and Don" is the book. It is a must read for fans of TAGS. Most everything rings true. As long as you don't put actors on a pedestal it is a wonderful book. If you want to think of Andy the way he was in the black-and-white days some of it is quite jarring, but it showed thru in the color episodes without Don in them. They kept each other grounded, especially Don with Andy.

Watching the marathon on TV Land today (only the BW episodes--TV Land rarely shows the color episodes) one thing dawned on me that I never thought of before. Watching the BW episodes you really get the "flavor" of the South. And this is really unique on TV, as you almost never get a view of "Southern hospitality." For most of the first five seasons Andy kept his southern accent, but yes, he kind of toned it down a little in the later seasons. We had the Darlings, country/mountain music, Ernest T., and the Fun Girls.

Contrast this with the color seasons. Andy had virtually lost the Southern accent, and Mayberry kind of became, well, a little snobby. Clara had a snooty attitude, and Aunt Bee had a soiree for the guest preacher. You could be watching a show emanating from Boston, without the accent from there. No Fun Girls in these seasons, and very limited appearances by Ernest T. and the Darlings.

Not partial to the color episodes and Andy lost his spirit. It was like he phoned it in. He really was not kind to George Lindsay as Goober and it shows. Andy and Barney were unforgettable together.

I don't watch much Andy Griffith, but in general I love black and white more than color. It just makes it feel nostalgic.

All long-running shows generally decline over time, mostly because the writers run out of ideas and bad recasts. Recasting did hurt TAGS badly, some more than others. Of course, Warren replacing Barney was the worst, followed closely by Emmitt replacing Floyd. Goober was not Gomer, but he did okay...it's just that they overused his character. The Helen Crump character never said a funny line in her entire time on the show, and had neither the spunk of Ellie nor the warmth of Peggy. Opie, like his sitcom neighbor Beaver Cleaver, went from cute to awkward. The only really unique addition was Howard Sprague, who generally was a plus for the show.

black and white everyday

I thought Andy's voice was even different in the color episodes...even when Barney comes back to visit, Andy still talks with that "proper" accent lol

You are so right. Andy changed completely in his mannerisms and accent when color came. He talked like a Northerner. What happened to his southern drawl and cute expressions like “You better know it.”

Helen Crump was kept around for one reason Andy Griffith wanted her. She was consistently humorless and so annoying. I liked the actor who played Howard because he didn’t mind playing a complete nerd. I think the ep. when he decides to shirk his job and go live in the south seas was hilarious. (Who does that?) He comes home and his job is waiting for him. When he is going to marry Milly and doesn’t even know her he finds out quickly that she likes to have fun and “gamble” and Howard has a strict itinerary of boring activities. It’s very funny.

Goober (Lindsay) didn’t mind playing it stupid and when he grew the beard and became an intellectual or dated Lydia Crosswaithe it was the best. Opie I don’t think ever got as awkward as Jerry Mathers. Anytime they showed them dancing it was cringeworthy.

Ah, Helen Crump. She wasn't as annoying in the b/w years. In the color years I can't think of one thing Andy did that pleased her. Really they don't make a good couple.

Andy meets with a female lawyer and has to lie 'cause he knows how she'll react. Andy goes out with Mavis Neff (she feels all bubbly-wubbly) because Helene Alexian Dubois is spending too much time with her publisher (this is one of the better color episodes). Anyway she does her usual slow boil and as usual Andy grovels.

Opie had his problems with dancing but right, he didn't have the awkward problems Beaver had.

Hi stevea! That’s right you’re a TAGS fan. Low the “slow boil” of Helen Crump. That episode is the one that came to mind in the color episodes when Andy got that weird red sunburn hanging around the pool one day with that lawyer. Helen was always so jealous I don’t know what kept them together. It was hard to watch Helen always angry at Andy. Mavis Neff was really funny.

Mavis kept talking about Andy's "lap wrinkles". She was a pretty good substitute for the fun girls.

That would have been even better. "Sarah, get me Daphne over in Mount Pilot." Then Andy comes in the diner with Daphne. "Hello doll."

I think the transition from B&W to color would have been smoother if season 5 (Don's last) had been in color.

Hey, that's a great thought! Wish it had happened. It would have been perfect for CBS, put one of your most popular series in color a year before most of the others.

I grew up in the Western part of Montana and then went away to college in Maine before staying in that state to start my teaching career. So I have spent my 24 years in the northwest and now the northeast. Now both areas I have lived in have been kind of quiet towns, but nothing like Mayberry and nothing like the Southern hospitality that the show exudes especially in the black and white episodes. Many people say of my hometown and where I live now that it is laid back and maybe it is compared to the big cities, but both places are nothing like Mayberry and what was shown on the Andy Griffith show. I have always enjoys the black and white episodes more and that is mostly due to Barney.

Some AG fans think the color years were inferior. But what did critics of the time have to say?

"Where's the boy" was a bad moment in the show. In an early episode of that sixth season they also had Andy repeating a trivia fact he just read in the paper, just like Barney used to do. Andy Griffith was lost at that point. He was trying to redefine the characters. If Don was still there he wouldn't have felt the need to do that. If Aaron Ruben was still there he probably would have talked him out of it. Andy was usually given credit for all the good decisions about the show and it seems to me it was Andy and Aaron with a big assist from Don. Andy and Bob Ross didn't have that same great judgement.

I think Howard really helped the show and helped Andy as an actor. He gave Andy a fresh character to react to when Andy was having trouble figuring out how to react to the old characters.

Agreed, Howard was a good addition, as was Emmett.

Goober would have worked better if they'd kept him less stupid. A goo example of how I'd liketo have seen Goober go in was the episode where they go out of town to the auto show and run into the bragging guy Goober went to school with, and Andy is more like his old self, helping Goober see he's a success, after all.