Mayberry, Matlock, & More:A few ways to enjoy, aprreciate and celebrate Andy Griffith

[let'swatchtv]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...W_story_1.html

NEW YORK-Through his decades-long career, Andy Griffith was beloved, yet somehow taken for granted.He early on gained immortality as Sheriff Andy Taylor,But his skill at playing cornpone blinded fans to his ability to master other roles.

It simply seemed that, as a denizem of make-believe Mayberry,N.C.,Griffith, with his wide grin and gentle draw, wasn't acting but instead a natural.(Note the Griffith was overlooked for so much as an Emmy nomination for "The Andy Griffith Show"while his comical co-star Don Knotts,bagged five trophies as deputy Barney Fife.)

Sure, being Andy Taylor would've been plenty.But for Griffith who died Tuesday at age 86, there was more to the act.

-As a reference point in understanding Griffith's range,their's no better place to starts than with his first film,"A Face in the Crowd."Released in 1957, it would have been notable for just the other names attached:director Eliza Kazan, writer Budd Schulberg, co-stars Patricia Neal, Walter Matthau and Lee Remick.But the film belong to Griffith as Larry "Lomesome" Rhodes, a drifter who becomes power-mad media star with an evangelical streak. The film is a pioneeering exploration of the corrupting influence of television in the wrong hands,and Griffith is riveting as a ruthless TV guru.

-A year later Griffith showed his stuff as a comical actor in "No Time For Sergeants."In this hit film he repriss his role from the Broadway play Will Stockade, a country lad whose simple-mindedness is matched by by his external good cheer,No wonder he turns the military upside down when he is drafted into the Air Force.Griffith is able to keep the performance riotously broad,yet belivable and appealing.He produly demostrates his ability to read by struggling through a children's book "Once they was a boy named Tony, who wanted a pony.So he went to his Mama and sayed,May I Have a Pony?"And His Mama says, Naw, Tony, you may not have a pony."Hearing him,you laugh but also share his pride at plowing through it.And there's the scene where,overeager as ever,Will rigs up the toilets in the latrine to respectfully "salute" the officers.

-The success of "Sergeants" elped pavd the way for Griffith's hit sitcom(as well as inspiring a spinoff, "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C"). Serving as a pilot for his prospective new series ws an episode of the popular comedy "The Danny Thomas Show," in which Thomas' character was sopped for speeding in a small town where Andy Taylor was not only the sheriff, but also justice of the peace and edit of the paper.Playing bumpkin-boss to the hilt, Giffith was an ideal foil for the city slicker Thomas, whose condescending attitude finally got him thrown in the clink.The episode was a success, and afew months later,in October 1960 "The Andy Griffith Show" premired. in that series' early episodes,Griffith's sheriff retains his clownishness.But soon he realized he was surronded by comic giants (particularly Knotts), so Andy Taylor claimed his role of down-home dignity amidst his eccentric fellow citizens.Sheriff Taylor still carried the show, butyou coudn't really tell-it rested light as a feather on Griffith's sholders.

-"Heart of The West"is an amusing, if largely forgotten, comedy released in 1975 staring a baby-faced Jeff Brigdes as a 1930s writer of Wild West novels who heads to Hollywood, where he is cast in a B-movie westerners.In a supporting cast that also includes Blythe Danner and Alan Arkin,Griffith plays Billy Pueblo,a crusty western actor in a performance with as much grit as charm.After Bridges' character has injured his privates by landing on a horse for a scene without wearing his cup,Bill exclaims with harsh compassion,"Didn't anybody tell him?" Then he righteously lectures him on how to deal with the powers-that-be:"Whatever they want something special,like that kind of a jump,you've got to wait 'em out.You wait till the price gets high enough to make it worth your while."

-"Matlock" which ran nine years starting in 1986, was a plesant,prolonged postscript to "The Andy Griffith Show" in the form of a light-hearted. formulaic drama.A Southern lawyer instead of a Southern lawman,Matlock, with his slower gait and head of silver hair, could have been Andy Taylor at a large stage of life.Set in Atlanta,there was no sense of community on the show, as there was a mythical Mayberry, but Matlock, as a steadfest individual,embodied the same upright values and sense of order that helped make Sheriff Taylor so endearing.Matlock was a reassuring figure for viewers to visit,and Griffith made him that way.

-Griffith's Ritz cracker commercial.Nearly every actor who can do commercials does them,even though,too often,these mini-performances trivialize substantial work they may have done in other spheres.Not so for Griffith and Ritz,for which he served as a spokesman in the 1970s.So memorable were those ads that, 20 years later, he would speak to fans still approching him and echoing the tagline: "Gooood crackuh"No wonder.The ads captured what people knew,or thought they know, about Griffith,and loved: the Andy Taylor in him.Griffith did grand work, maybe it did too well to have been granted the full compliment of roles that he deserved,and that his Andy Taylor image may have denied him.But when he told the world,"Everything tastes better when it sits on a Ritz," there could be no dispute.In those few words he was exhibiting good-heartedness, a love of life,and appreciation for life's small delights.And viewers got it."Mmmm-mmmmm! Gooood Crackuh!" Good Guy.

[eng51squad51]

METV show one of Andy Griffith's Post Cereal TV Commericial's toward the end of Make room for Daddy (Pilot of Andy Griffith show)

[Zoneboy]

One of Andy's more obscure roles was in Pray for the Wildcats. William Shatner, Robert Reed, Marjoe Gortner and Angie Dickinson costarred in this ABC movie of the week from 1974.

[Mr. Television]

I really enjoyed watching Andy on The Mod Squad today.

[let'swatchtv]

Andy Griffith-related Post cereal ads:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTjbtovUQd4

Post Sugar Crisp Cereal:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkFjbxlVkyQ

Post Toasties:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmZSMSX65vg

Post Oak Flakes:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSLMiUpHTuU

Grape Nuts w/Don Knotts:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1paBouSxsVk

enjoy the breakfast of Nostalgia folks!

[eng51squad51]

Andy Griffith Sanker Coffee Related Commercials

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eks7YnFhZvE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxbcQ6lV00s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN48GJhRJ9w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5eS5ijLzdE


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldJfHBsAlJY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ7bPqArnn8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhKPAxAdg_k

[let'swatchtv]

Thanks for the Sanka Coffee Commercial uploads with Andy Griffith eng51squad51!

[caladon]

It didn't last very long, but I enjoyed his short-lived late 70's series: Salvage-1, where he played a very enterprising junk-man named Harry Broderick; who built a spaceship that flew to the moon to salvage the stuff that NASA had left behind.

[let'swatchtv]

Originally Posted by caladon

It didn't last very long, but I enjoyed his short-lived late 70's series: Salvage-1, where he played a very enterprising junk-man named Harry Broderick; who built a spaceship that flew to the moon to salvage the stuff that NASA had left behind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHUWIEB6N1s

[comedyfreak]

Originally Posted by let'swatchtv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHUWIEB6N1s

I loved Salvage 1 too bad it didn't last.

[let'swatchtv]

Originally Posted by comedyfreak

I loved Salvage 1 too bad it didn't last.

i hope you saw the clip of the show.