Andy Griffith played the bad guy once, in the 1957 film A Face in the Crowd. There, director Elia Kazan had the shrewd sense to turn Griffith’s folksy charm into something sinister. Otherwise, from his early 1950s comedy records through the 1980s series “Matlock,” Griffith’s persona was served straight.
His image became indelible through his long running, self-titled CBS comedy (1960-1968). The whole thing, all 249 half-hour episodes, has been released on a DVD set big enough to bust a window, “The Andy Griffith Show: The Complete Series.” Griffith starred as Sheriff Andy Taylor, but in idyllic Mayberry, SC, windows were never broken and crimes were few. The sheriff had little to do but raise his boy, settle disputes at the barbershop, go fishing and keep Barney Fife, his officious deputy, in line.
The question facing any comedy from bygone times: is it still funny? “Andy Griffith’s” answer is “Yes, siree—sometimes.” The plots are admirable for concisely delivering a story within the half hour (minus time for commercials) format, yet the mechanism that makes them work depends less on the screenplays than on the set of characters brought vividly (and amusingly) to life. Rivaling Griffith’s amiable sheriff without a gun for attention is Don Knotts as Barney Fife. Bug-eyed and tightly wound, he was a loveable twit whose hopelessly failed authoritarian personality is held in check by Sheriff Taylor. The character of Taylor’s son was standard issue kid stuff from the era, but the kid was played by Ron Howard, who went on to “Happy Days” and a big career directing films when he grew up.
The curious thing about “The Andy Griffith Show,” given its time and setting, was the utter lack of reference to the civil rights struggle. Perhaps the question was solved in advance. There were no “whites only” seats in the barbershop because Mayberry was a white’s only town. But if protesters had arrived on a freedom march, we trust that Sheriff Taylor would have greeted them his plainspoken common sense. His main task might have been preventing Fife from opening fire on the marchers.
