Andy may bury Andy

[kuranes]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061111/ap_on_fe_st/andy_griffith

[Ivy]

Oh, wow. On one hand, he doesn't own the name, but at the same time, we all know who the guy was impersonating.

Andy Griffith has a reputation on the NC Outer Banks for being a bit of a stick-in-the-mud. I was so disappointed to hear that, since on TV he's such a nice, humble man.

[omnirook]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061111/ap_on_fe_st/andy_griffith


Sherrif Taylor would never have sued for that! He would have said, "Well, gee, some folks just don't always do what they should, but you kinda have to understand, so Barney put your gun away - and give me your bullet. Now, Barn - I'm taking the bullet back for 2 weeks on acount of you don't know when not to try and shoot strangers ..."

The name-change fraud might have to spend a night or 2 in the cell next to Otis - if'n Otis gets drunk again and comes in as always to lock hisself up for the night. Aunt Bee will make breakfast for them!

[C.J.Woolf]

The dude was a fool. Andy Griffith was never a sheriff, Andy Taylor was! ;)

[kuranes]

I saw Andy Griffith play a villain once, and he was good at it since it was already a jarring contrast with the typecast he's allowed to build up around him. Same with Henry Fonda, although he always seemed like a "cool" actor, vs. a "warm" one like Jimmy Stewart.

[omnirook]

The dude was a fool. Andy Griffith was never a sheriff, Andy Taylor was! ;)

True, but an octegenarian and cranky Andy Griffith might have sued him, anyway. He's known for being kind of fussy about that old show. Like a lot of celebrities who are widely thought to be warm, lovely, and chipper, Griffith is probably sick of having to play along w/the perception. In the long run, it's probably better to have played a villain. At least then people won't expect you to be Sheriff Taylor more than 40 years down the road. That has to wear the hell out of your nerves.

[omnirook]

I saw Andy Griffith play a villain once, and he was good at it since it was already a jarring contrast with the typecast he's allowed to build up around him. Same with Henry Fonda, although he always seemed like a "cool" actor, vs. a "warm" one like Jimmy Stewart.

Yeah, he was some sort of town boss in the South just about the time that the Civil Rights Movement was picking up steam.

I don't know much about the South; I've been through as a tourist several times, and, coming from the North-east, well, the South was not what I had expected.

My father hated the South because he had been sent down there after he got drafted. He was abused by everyone, including the drill sargeant, because he was from New York and was Italian and Catholic on top of that. "They'll never be any different. They hate everything that moves. The towns are owned by one or two families, and the cops are thugs in the pay of the town bosses."

That was the type of boss that Andy Griffith played. And that was what I expected when I went down there. Either the South has changed or southerners are real good at being polite to strangers - or the South really wasn't like that. I don't know. I had a nice time and was treated very well by everyone, white and black.

I remember the one scene where a young black man was caught siphoning gas out of a white man's tank. Griffith's character made the man rest his hand on the frame of a car door - then Griffith's character slammed the car door shut on the man's hand, crippling him for life. No jury, no trial, just a local yokel who thought he was God - even at the end, when he was in his cell on death row, his head shaved for the electric chair, ranting about how it was "My town!"