The New Andy Griffith Show

[Duster76]

The Andy Griffith Show ends in the spring of 68, two years later Andy reappears with Headmaster on the CBS 70-71 schedule. This begins one of the strangest chapters in the history of the CBS network as Griffith arrives just in time to sail right into the hurricane known as the Rural Purge.

Headmaster starts on September 18, 1970 and gets off well at least the first week it did. The rating started falling after that, at some point over the next few weeks Griffith and his production team decide to junk the whole project and return to a rural based sitcom, The New Andy Griffith Show. How could this possibly have worked? In less than three months, an entire new cast had to be hired, sets prepared and scripts written and episodes filmed. Why would CBS even approve something like this. Griffith was headed in exactly the opposite direction the network was headed in so the new show was surely doomed from the start.

Here are the questions, when was the decision made to junk Headmaster? Is it possible Griffith knew before it got on the air it was a flop and work had already begun on the replacement series. Is it possible the back and forth with the network took place prior to the start of the season and that's when the plans for the new series were made and agreed to by the network. It doesn't make sense to greenlight another rural show if the network had already firmed up plans to eliminate the entire genre at the close of the 70-71 season. Why not try to fix Headmaster or cancel the series at midseason instead of rushing a new series on the air that had zero chance of survival.

[vitoscotti]

Originally Posted by Duster76

The Andy Griffith Show ends in the spring of 68, two years later Andy reappears with Headmaster on the CBS 70-71 schedule. This begins one of the strangest chapters in the history of the CBS network as Griffith arrives just in time to sail right into the hurricane known as the Rural Purge.

Headmaster starts on September 18, 1970 and gets off well at least the first week it did. The rating started falling after that, at some point over the next few weeks Griffith and his production team decide to junk the whole project and return to a rural based sitcom, The New Andy Griffith Show. How could this possibly have worked? In less than three months, an entire new cast had to be hired, sets prepared and scripts written and episodes filmed. Why would CBS even approve something like this. Griffith was headed in exactly the opposite direction the network was headed in so the new show was surely doomed from the start.

Here are the questions, when was the decision made to junk Headmaster? Is it possible Griffith knew before it got on the air it was a flop and work had already begun on the replacement series. Is it possible the back and forth with the network took place prior to the start of the season and that's when the plans for the new series were made and agreed to by the network. It doesn't make sense to greenlight another rural show if the network had already firmed up plans to eliminate the entire genre at the close of the 70-71 season. Why not try to fix Headmaster or cancel the series at midseason instead of rushing a new series on the air that had zero chance of survival.

It would be a great read if a Griffith biography covered his whole career in detail. Shows like TAGS are lighting in a bottle. Near impossible to regain on a follow up show. Griffith had some movie success post tags. But tv floundered for him until Matlock. I remember seeing him the heart and soul of TAGS doing a guest shot on Hawaii 5-0. Neither Headmaster or TNAGS made it to 15 episodes. Wonder how his drinking was with those crushing failures? But, he had to be financially secure. Just rolled with it? Failed shows are the norm.

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by vitoscotti

It would be a great read if a Griffith biography covered his whole career in detail. Shows like TAGS are lighting in a bottle. Near impossible to regain on a follow up show. Griffith had some movie success post tags. But tv floundered for him until Matlock. I remember seeing him the heart and soul of TAGS doing a guest shot on Hawaii 5-0. Neither Headmaster or TNAGS made it to 15 episodes. Wonder how his drinking was with those crushing failures? But, he had to be financially secure. Just rolled with it? Failed shows are the norm.

I would love to see a detailed biography of Andy Griffith. In the years between 1960-1975 Griffith made series of career decisions that are fascinating both the good ones and the bad ones. He turned down the opportunity of starring in a movie with Don about two hobos on the move during the depression years of the 1930's. In my opinion that pairing with that theme had great potential why he didn't see that is beyond me. It would have given both talents a major boost when they needed it. Headmaster seemed to be a project that fit where he wanted to be (that is he no longer wanted to be viewed as a comedic personality), there was already a successful series (Room 222) that could have been used to model the show after, so why was it such a mess. His work definitely deserves a much closer examination.

[vitoscotti]

A lot of details (only fans would care about) will never be known about classic era actors and shows. Dark Shadows has tons of well done lengthy interviews with cast, and crew getting show insight from their own lips. This is a rarity. And they really delve deep. A lot of tags interviews are fluff, will no pressing follow up questions only discussing the known already. Some Betty Lynn intetviews are really good. The tags 80s Phil Donahue Show hit on some details, but the setting was more to entertain, not dig.

[Cbalducc]

They’re all dead, and dead men tell no tales.

[stevea]

Originally Posted by vitoscotti

A lot of details (only fans would care about) will never be known about classic era actors and shows. Dark Shadows has tons of well done lengthy interviews with cast, and crew getting show insight from their own lips. This is a rarity. And they really delve deep. A lot of tags interviews are fluff, will no pressing follow up questions only discussing the known already. Some Betty Lynn intetviews are really good. The tags 80s Phil Donahue Show hit on some details, but the setting was more to entertain, not dig.

Yes, interviews are hit or miss. With all the banal things said on the narrations on the That Girl DVDs (Marlo: "Oh, I haven't seen this one for years"), once in awhile you hear something interesting. The producer with her (I think Bill Persky) had some interesting background. Also I might recall some interesting background on Small Wonder narrations, of all shows. Elinor Donahue and Lauren Chapin have had interesting details on various Father Knows Best interviews.

I care less about the fluff and more about production details.

[Mayberry'sBadBoy]

[QUOTE=Duster76;5845138]

Here are the questions, when was the decision made to junk Headmaster? Is it possible Griffith knew before it got on the air it was a flop and work had already begun on the replacement series.

According to the Book The Andy Griffith Story Griffith wanted Headmaster to be different from both his previous show and Angel in My Pocket (A movie made by TAGS greats Jim Fritzell and Everette Greenbaum that portrayed Griffith as a country preacher that bombed at the box office and is infamous for being one of the movies Australian TV Mogul/Gangster Kerry "Get this **** off the air" Packer's family would use in their illegal Australian Porn theatres when the police were near to throw off the actual movies they were showing). As such Headmaster was perceived as a Comedy-Drama about Andy Thompson being a headmaster and that's where most of the problems come from because the comedy wasn't funny and the drama wasn't dramatic. I think if Norman Lear had been in charge of Headmaster the show would've worked better than the producers that were behind it because it seemed like something up Lear's alley.

Is it possible the back and forth with the network took place prior to the start of the season and that's when the plans for the new series were made and agreed to by the network.

From what I heard (and this was on the old IMDB Board) Griffith had wanted to do something different when Headmaster was obviously failing (that's also why he turned down the Hobo movie that's mentioned above because he viewed doing a movie with Don with them playing Hobo versions of Andy and Barney to be going backwards instead of going forwards) but CBS was hesitant to have him do something that wasn't Good Old Boy Country. That's also why Griffith played Sawyer like a more adult Will Stockdale than he played in Andy starting in Season 2.

Why not try to fix Headmaster or cancel the series at midseason instead of rushing a new series on the air that had zero chance of survival? Same reason that the Drew Carey Show ran to 2004, Contractual Obligations. Griffith probably had a full season contract and when Headmaster began bombing it was the made the decision to replace it. According to the old forums the original idea was for Andy Taylor, board with life as a detective to become Mayor of Mount Pilot with Helen and Andy Jr and a yet to be named little girl to make up for Ron Howard not being available to play Opie. However Anita either wasn't available or didn't want to play Helen again, Griffith didn't want to reprise Taylor, and there was concern about how much it and RFD would overlap. So he became Andy Sawyer the mayor of a similar sized town to Mount Pilot and that's why Emmett, Goober and Don Knotts unnamed character cameo in that RFD episode that acted as a spinoff. This worked because sets could be used from Culver City, RFD actors could be used for cameos and it would help keep costs down until CBS could release Andy from contract, which from what I've heard on various forums they really wanted to do at that point. It's worth noting a few year later Griffith would try to do Mayberry again with Adams of Eagle's Lake, which was an even bigger bomb (cancelled after two episodes, three if you count the movie that inspired it as a backdoor pilot)

[Will Dockery]

[QUOTE=Mayberry'sBadBoy;5852929]

Originally Posted by Duster76

Here are the questions, when was the decision made to junk Headmaster? Is it possible Griffith knew before it got on the air it was a flop and work had already begun on the replacement series.

According to the Book The Andy Griffith Story Griffith wanted Headmaster to be different from both his previous show and Angel in My Pocket (A movie made by TAGS greats Jim Fritzell and Everette Greenbaum that portrayed Griffith as a country preacher that bombed at the box office and is infamous for being one of the movies Australian TV Mogul/Gangster Kerry "Get this **** off the air" Packer's family would use in their illegal Australian Porn theatres when the police were near to throw off the actual movies they were showing). As such Headmaster was perceived as a Comedy-Drama about Andy Thompson being a headmaster and that's where most of the problems come from because the comedy wasn't funny and the drama wasn't dramatic. I think if Norman Lear had been in charge of Headmaster the show would've worked better than the producers that were behind it because it seemed like something up Lear's alley.

Is it possible the back and forth with the network took place prior to the start of the season and that's when the plans for the new series were made and agreed to by the network.

From what I heard (and this was on the old IMDB Board) Griffith had wanted to do something different when Headmaster was obviously failing (that's also why he turned down the Hobo movie that's mentioned above because he viewed doing a movie with Don with them playing Hobo versions of Andy and Barney to be going backwards instead of going forwards) but CBS was hesitant to have him do something that wasn't Good Old Boy Country. That's also why Griffith played Sawyer like a more adult Will Stockdale than he played in Andy starting in Season 2.

Why not try to fix Headmaster or cancel the series at midseason instead of rushing a new series on the air that had zero chance of survival? Same reason that the Drew Carey Show ran to 2004, Contractual Obligations. Griffith probably had a full season contract and when Headmaster began bombing it was the made the decision to replace it. According to the old forums the original idea was for Andy Taylor, board with life as a detective to become Mayor of Mount Pilot with Helen and Andy Jr and a yet to be named little girl to make up for Ron Howard not being available to play Opie. However Anita either wasn't available or didn't want to play Helen again, Griffith didn't want to reprise Taylor, and there was concern about how much it and RFD would overlap. So he became Andy Sawyer the mayor of a similar sized town to Mount Pilot and that's why Emmett, Goober and Don Knotts unnamed character cameo in that RFD episode that acted as a spinoff. This worked because sets could be used from Culver City, RFD actors could be used for cameos and it would help keep costs down until CBS could release Andy from contract, which from what I've heard on various forums they really wanted to do at that point. It's worth noting a few year later Griffith would try to do Mayberry again with Adams of Eagle's Lake, which was an even bigger bomb (cancelled after two episodes, three if you count the movie that inspired it as a backdoor pilot)

The most bizarre, confusing setup ever...

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by Duster76

The Andy Griffith Show ends in the spring of 68, two years later Andy reappears with Headmaster on the CBS 70-71 schedule. This begins one of the strangest chapters in the history of the CBS network as Griffith arrives just in time to sail right into the hurricane known as the Rural Purge.

Headmaster starts on September 18, 1970 and gets off well at least the first week it did. The rating started falling after that, at some point over the next few weeks Griffith and his production team decide to junk the whole project and return to a rural based sitcom, The New Andy Griffith Show. How could this possibly have worked? In less than three months, an entire new cast had to be hired, sets prepared and scripts written and episodes filmed. Why would CBS even approve something like this. Griffith was headed in exactly the opposite direction the network was headed in so the new show was surely doomed from the start.

Here are the questions, when was the decision made to junk Headmaster? Is it possible Griffith knew before it got on the air it was a flop and work had already begun on the replacement series. Is it possible the back and forth with the network took place prior to the start of the season and that's when the plans for the new series were made and agreed to by the network. It doesn't make sense to greenlight another rural show if the network had already firmed up plans to eliminate the entire genre at the close of the 70-71 season. Why not try to fix Headmaster or cancel the series at midseason instead of rushing a new series on the air that had zero chance of survival.

I read somewhere that the pilot to this show ran on Mayberry R.F.D.?!?

This show is already bizarre enough but that would take it all the way off the grid, if so...

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by Duster76

I would love to see a detailed biography of Andy Griffith. In the years between 1960-1975 Griffith made series of career decisions that are fascinating both the good ones and the bad ones. He turned down the opportunity of starring in a movie with Don about two hobos on the move during the depression years of the 1930's. In my opinion that pairing with that theme had great potential why he didn't see that is beyond me. It would have given both talents a major boost when they needed it. Headmaster seemed to be a project that fit where he wanted to be (that is he no longer wanted to be viewed as a comedic personality), there was already a successful series (Room 222) that could have been used to model the show after, so why was it such a mess. His work definitely deserves a much closer examination.

Seems to me they didn't give Headmaster a chance, then panic hit and they tried to get back to where they once belonged... but you really can't go hoe again.