Greetings, I know this is a small passing mention, but Barney wrote that controversial column in the school paper called "Pickups and splashes from floor and pool", but it was way ahead of it's time. I have read that Andy Griffith was an influence in the writing of the show, but those small mentions to make things more accurate and reflect the times and culture of North Carolina in the early 60's was not the reason for the show. They were writing to appeal to the entire nation, and as we all agree, did a great job! We can all sit back now, in 2006, with our DVD's and over-anywise the details, but when we do that, we lose the big picture. Back then, they were not writing the scripts each week with the notion that we would notice or even care about all those details this many years later. It was a job that maybe took a few weeks and then it was on to another script, maybe for another show! It was not even convenient to watch an episode from the year before because videotape was nothing like it is now. I had the privilege to meet & discuss directing with Howard Morris in Nashville years ago. He said that he was overwhelmed that this character he played for only 5 weeks over a few years made such an impact on the fans for so many years. To him it was just a job and he actually did not remember very many details of those 5 episodes. I edited a highlight video of the 4 B&W episodes, and he used that to revive the Bass within! He was in Nashville for an ETB Day at Vanderbilt.
We see the show as almost a time capsule of life, and the writers and actors/directors saw it as a weekly job. They probably never even imagined that we would have anything like DVD's of the show to watch anytime and compare all 249 episodes (and the pilot) and pick them apart like we sometimes do. Opie's dad _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://mail.wbmutbb.com/mailman/listinfo/wbmutbb_wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
