I thought I had seen him before - maybe playing heavies in movies.’ … By the late 1950s, Sheldon had tired of acting and ascended into management, serving as both producer and director of the Danny Thomas vehicle ‘ Make Room for Daddy.’ The program would remain on the air for eleven years, one of television’s longest-running sitcoms.The Mayberry town band is the worst in the entire state and Mayor Roy Stoner refuses to allow them to go to the state capital to perform. And one night, after the show and curtain calls - which didn’t take very long - I passed the stage door on my way to my dressing room. ‘A little time went by and I didn’t think much more about it. ‘I was told that a man named Sheldon Leonard would come to see me one night,’ Andy recalled. One winter night in 1959, Sheldon traveled to New York, where Andy was in a 472-show run of ‘ Destry,’ to see him backstage. What’s the show going to be? He’s going to be a country boy.’ ‘Thinking of something for a personality is the easiest part,’ he recalled. Can you think of something for him?’ It didn’t take Sheldon Leonard long to respond. Sheldon replied, ‘Yeah, he did a record, a funny record.’ Lastfogel said, ‘He’d like to do television. Lastfogel, I’ve struck out in movies and now on Broadway, and I don’t want to go back to nightclubs, so maybe I’d better try television.’ Lastfogel went to see Sheldon Leonard, the powerful producer of television’s Danny Thomas Show. ‘I’d always been afraid of it,’ Andy recalled, ‘because I figured if you strike out there, that’s it.’Īndy and his manager, Dick Linke, set up a meeting with Abe Lastfogel at William Morris. Though well entrenched by 1959, television was nonetheless viewed as the least desirable option for a performer-an actor’s Last Chance Saloon. Andy had yet one more card to play: television. Andy wasn’t likely to get another crack at a leading film role after Onionhead, and now his Broadway currency was in decline. In the New York and Hollywood of the 1950s, one flop could sink a promising career. At thirty-three, Andy sensed he was on a downward trajectory. In light of this, it is amazing to think that the series was merely created as a last-ditch effort to revive Andy Griffith’s career following a major career setback with Onionhead in 1958. The first “official” episode hit television screens across America on October 03, 1960, and the following five seasons (159 black and white episodes) has since become an indelible part of pop culture. “ The Andy Griffith Show” is one of the most beloved television sitcoms of all time, and it is still in heavy syndication even today (albeit in heavily edited form to make room for even more commercials). They went right along with it.” - Andy Griffith (as quoted in “American Legends: The Life of Andy Griffith ,” 2014) During the second episode, ‘ Manhunt,’ you knew that Barney was going to get tied up by this escaped convict, and so the audience - the audience loved that. You knew that Barney was going to goof up sometime during the show. Like ‘ Barney in the Choir’ was pretty well an out-and-out comedy, and ‘ Barney’s First Car’ was pretty well an out-and-out a comedy… The comedy came out of characters. We could do all kinds of different stories. And all the actors loved each other, too. Notes: The first season of ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ was released on Blu-ray in 2014, but this release marks the first time that Seasons Two – Eight has seen a release on this format. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)Ģ.0 English Linear PCM Audio (Season One)Ģ.0 English DTS-HD Master Audio (Seasons Two – Eight).Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019).Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004).Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
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