Executives loved the show’s Americana appeal, Andy’s warm smile, and Mayberry’s budding magic.ĬBS budgeted Griffith for 32 episodes at $58,000 apiece, or about $1.8 million the first season.
#WAS ANDY GRIFFITH MEAN SERIES#
Danny Thomas sponsor General Foods bought the series even before it aired. On screen, Andy, Opie, and the future Aunt Bee melted hearts. Sheldon had already hired six-year-old Ronny Howard, who was playing Andy Taylor’s son, Opie (named after Southern bandleader Opie Cates, a favorite of Andy’s), and Frances Bavier, who had been acting since 1925. Holding Fort: Griffith gladly played straight man to capitalize on his co-star’s inspired lunacy. Finally, his manager called: The part was his. Sheldon told the fretful actor his idea “would be taken under advisement.” He immediately wanted to hire Knotts but for tactical reasons kept Don waiting three weeks, during which Don filmed his final Steve Allen Show. In an hourlong meeting, Don recalled, the producer “prodded me with questions about what I thought this deputy character should be like.” Don said he envisioned him as a grown man with the mentality of a nine-year-old boy, given to flights of Tom Sawyer fancy and prone to wearing his emotions on his sleeve. Walking into Sheldon’s office, Don carried a sheaf of old scripts to suggest he was brimming with offers. Founded by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Desilu would be responsible not only for I Love Lucy but many a memorable series, including My Three Sons, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and Star Trek. Barely a week after the pilot aired, Don was at the Desilu Studios lot on Cahuenga Boulevard near Melrose. They decided to have Andy’s manager, Dick Linke, convey Don’s pitch to the producer. “Don’t you think Sheriff Andy Taylor ought to have a deputy?”Īfter a long pause, Andy’s voice crackled back on the line. The next day Don telephoned Andy in New York, where he was back on Broadway, playing the lead in a revival of Destry Rides Again.
A part on Andy’s show might just rekindle his career-and their friendship.
Don had no inkling Andy was working on a television show.
Offstage between 400-some performances the two had hit it off personally as well, but once the play closed they fell out of touch. In the Broadway production, Don had been an $85-a-week bit player, but in their scenes together he and Andy generated audience-pleasing hilarity. He and Andy had met on Broadway in 1955 on the cast of No Time for Sergeants, the comedy on which a hit film, also starring Andy, would be based. Ronny “Opie” Howard is there, but Sheriff Taylor has no deputy.ĭon was riveted. Frances Bavier comes to see Andy, but she is not Aunt Bee she is the widow Henrietta Perkins. But the sot isn’t Otis, and Hal Smith isn’t playing him. The town drunk shambles into frame, announces, “I’m under arrest!” and locks himself in a cell. The episode, concocted by Danny Thomas producer Sheldon Leonard as a cheap way to float a pilot for a series he was pitching CBS, contained bits and pieces of what would become legend. “Name ain’t Clem,” Andy replied, with a wide smile. “You picked on the wrong guy this time, Clem,” Danny warned. Griffith’s character, a backwater lawman, had caught Danny Thomas running a red light. He was escorting the show’s star and family into a soundstage town called Mayberry. “Tonight’s special guest,” the announcer intoned, “…Andy Griffith.” The lens descended to a street, where the special guest, wearing a khaki sheriff’s uniform, sat in a Ford Galaxie 500 rigged as a squad car. The screen filled with a sketch of a man who looked like a sinister ventriloquist’s dummy. he halted Tuesday evening’s card game so he and his guests could watch that night’s episode. NBC was about to cancel Steve Allen, so Don and Pat were looking for work Pat was up for a guest role on The Danny Thomas Show. Don and Pat had become friends as members of the cast of The Steve Allen Show, where Don had attained semi-fame as the Nervous Man. The evening of February 15, 1960, actor Don Knotts and his wife, Kay, were at Pat Harrington’s house in Los Angeles, California, playing bridge. Sheriff Taylor Hires a Deputy: Barney Fife and The Andy Griffith Show | HistoryNet Close
0 kommentar(er)
