To paraphrase sister blog Meck Deck when another North Carolina icon died as we celebrated July 4th — flip a burger for Andy, have a cold one for Andy.
Remember what George ‘Goober’ Lindsey said about Andy:
At that time, we were the best acting ensemble on TV. The scripts were terrific. Andy is the best script constructionist I’ve ever been involved with. And you have to lift your acting level up to his; he’s awfully good.”
I realize there’s some good TV out there today, but I’ll submit The Andy Griffith Show is still the closest the medium has ever come to an art form.
Update: NYT obit:
In 1953, speaking to a convention of the Standard Life Insurance Company in Greensboro, Mr. Griffith, in his preacher persona, told a comic first-person tale about attending a college football game and trying to figure out what was going on. Some 500 discs of his monologue were pressed under the title “What It Was, Was Football,” and it became a hit on local radio. Mr. Linke, then with Capitol Records, scurried to North Carolina to acquire the rights and to sign Mr. Griffith.
