Who Did the Art on the Ending Credits of the Andy Griffith Show

May 04, 2022 Post a Comment

Everyone knows the basic facts of Mayberry: Andy was a widower with an adorable son. Barney was his childlike deputy. Andy didn't wear a gun, and Barney was allowed only a single bullet for his. Aunt Bee was quite a cook — except for those pickles.

Yet, most fans of The Andy Griffith Show know considerably less about what went on behind the scenes of that classic 1960s sitcom. Here are a few lilliputian-known backstage facts, culled from the new Simon & Schuster volume Andy and Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American Idiot box Show.

Andy loved practical jokes

As the undisputed dominate of the Griffith Show, Andy Griffith ready a festive, frolicsome tone. And he loved to phase practical jokes, specially when they targeted Don Knotts. In fact, Andy teased Don daily merely by calling him "Jess," which was short for Jesse, Don'due south start proper name, because he knew Don didn't like it. For all his manic on-screen free energy, Don Knotts was surprisingly dignified and reserved off-photographic camera, and Andy delighted in shattering his friend'southward at-home. He sometimes interrupted Don's nap past dropping a metal film canister onto the floor. George "Goober" Lindsey once awoke from his own slumber to detect Andy had strung duck guts around the dressing room. Some of the high jinks came at Andy's expense: Once, the bandage made off with one of Andy'south moccasins, forcing him to go dwelling wearing his Andy Taylor wardrobe shoes. They bronzed it and returned it to Andy at the flavour's end.

The Andy Griffith Show Photo — Andy Griffith and Don Knotts shoot their start scene on 'The Andy Griffith Show.' The production was supposed to revolve around Andy; simply once producers saw the magic between Andy and Don, they set up about reordering the evidence around their human relationship.

Photograph: CBS Photograph Archive/Getty Images

Don might take lasted just one episode

Few Andy Griffith cast members arrived in Mayberry with contracts in hand. Several beloved characters, including Barney Fife himself, joined the ensemble without a firm offer of continued employment. For Don, that inverse after the very first solar day of shooting: Executive Producer Sheldon Leonard was and then moved past the chemical science between Andy and Don that he offered the deputy a one-year deal, subsequently lengthened to v years. Likewise, when Hal Smith arrived to play the part of town inebriate Otis Campbell in the second Andy Griffith episode, "Manhunt," he was bodacious of but a single appearance. Producer Aaron Ruben took him aside afterwards and said, "Hal, this might develop into quite a part for you." In season three, actress Aneta Corsaut so impressed producers as Opie's earnest schoolteacher that they developed her graphic symbol into Andy'south steady girlfriend. Had they known what electricity the couple would spark, surely they would have chosen a more attracting name than Helen Crump.

Aunt Bee was not amused

Griffith ran the Griffith Show set like a large ole family picnic, joining his cast-mates in song, dance, laughter and general merriment when the camera was off. Perhaps the but bandage fellow member who didn't appreciate the frivolity was Frances Bavier, the veteran New York extra who played Aunt Bee. A consummate professional, Bavier played her part to perfection and became the merely Griffith cast fellow member other than Knotts to win an Emmy for her piece of work, in 1967. Onscreen, Bee's domestic pampering provided the perfect complement to Andy's fatherly gravitas and Barney's artless vulnerability. Off stage, though, she seldom joined Andy and the others in their daily antics. She was not one to dance and sing with her colleagues, and she disliked practical jokes and coarse language. Her rapport with Griffith himself was especially prickly, although they patched things up before her death in 1989, according to surviving cast and crew. George Lindsey recounted in his memoir that Bavier in one case grew so distressed with his cursing during an episode of the Griffith spinoff Mayberry R.F.D. that she struck him over the head with her umbrella.

Opie's rock never hitting the lake

When cast and coiffure of The Andy Griffith Testify ventured out to Franklin Coulee, near Beverly Hills, to motion picture the opening credits in summer 1960, their program called for Andy and Opie to amble forth a clay road with their fishing poles and for Opie to suspension and bung a stone into the water. Alas, half-dozen-twelvemonth-old Ronny Howard could non throw quite so well as he could act. When he and Andy reached the appointed spot, Ronny threw the stone — and information technology landed short of the water. The crew stopped and filmed another take. Once again, Ronny'due south throw failed to striking its watery marking. So, assistant manager Bruce Bilson planted a prop human being behind a bush. They filmed nevertheless another accept, and when Opie hurled the rock, Bilson yelled "THROW IT!" and the prop man lobbed a unlike stone into the reservoir. In the resulting shot, acute viewers will notice a slight, gravity-defying lag between Opie'south throw and the subsequent splash.

Don offered to render to Mayberry

Andy, Don and the residuum of the Griffith Bear witness ensemble had expected the program to run its form in v years. So, when flavor five commenced, Don began looking for other work —and he quickly plant it, agreeing to a five-pic film deal with Universal. Then, sponsors and network brass persuaded Andy to return for a sixth season. (And a seventh, and an eighth, every bit it turned out.) Don politely declined to reprise the office of Barney Fife; that, at to the lowest degree, was the official line. But in that location was more than to the story, every bit Andy revealed to Don'due south manager decades afterwards, subsequently Don'southward expiry. In a individual meeting midway through season five, Don told Andy he would render to the sitcom — only only if he could take an ownership pale in the production. Andy and his manager together owned more than than half of the Griffith Evidence, while Don owned none of information technology; he was a salaried employee. Much as Andy loved working with Don, he balked at his friend's asking: Andy mistakenly thought Don wanted half of Andy'southward ain share, or a quarter stake in the show. In fact, Don probably would accept settled for a far smaller sum. But Andy and Don were friends, not deal-makers; this talk had taken both men out of their comfort zone, and information technology came to goose egg.

Andy and Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American Television Testify past Daniel de Visé is on sale now.

Daniel de Visé is an author and announcer who has worked at The Washington Post, The Miami Herald, and three other newspapers in a xx-v-year career. His investigative reporting has twice led to the release of wrongly convicted men from life imprisonment. He shared a 2001 Pulitzer Prize for borderline reporting. A graduate of Wesleyan and Northwestern universities, de Visé lives with his wife and children in Maryland. His starting time book, a memoir of amnesia, I Forgot to Retrieve (with Su Meck), was published in 2014.

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Source: https://www.biography.com/news/the-andy-griffith-show-facts

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