Andy Griffith died yesterday, and a piece of America’s
collective yesteryear died with him. While he played many characters over his
lifetime, the role he will always be associated with is Mayberry Sheriff Andy
Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show.
Even though he was hysterically funny (remember him
as Will Stockdale in No Time for
Sergeants) he chose to play Andy Taylor as the straight man and it was a
brilliant move on his part. Don Knotts won five Emmy Awards for his hilarious portrayal
of Deputy Barney Fife.
The rest of the cast was stellar, as well, and
Ronnie Howard, who played Andy’s son Opie, was probably the best child actor I’ve
ever seen.
So what was it about the Andy Griffith show that was
so different? Most of my generation enjoyed The
Dick Van Dyke Show as much as The
Andy Griffith Show, but I don’t know of anyone who ever thought how nice it
would be to live in New Rochelle the way we all dreamed of living in the
fictional town of Mayberry.
Mayberry was based, in part, on Mount Airy, North
Carolina, the town where Andy Griffith grew up. My wife and I have been to
Mount Airy twice, and the second time we went we actually spent the night in
the house and bedroom where Andy Griffith grew up. It was one of our favorite
memories of that vacation.
I’ve attached some photos from our first trip to
Mount Airy in 2007. If you ever get the chance to go, I think you’ll enjoy it.
In the meantime, you can still watch The
Andy Griffith Show almost any day of the week, and most of the time, it’s
on several times in the same day.
