At the beginning of Andy Griffith's career, he was basically a stand-up comedian, though what he mostly did was tell stories. His most famous story was probably about football, called "What it was, was football," and all this led into him getting signed to star in the Broadway play, No Time for Sergeants which was a huge hit -- running for three years -- and he repeated the role when it was made into a film. The show all had a couple of unexpected connections to his later career -- the first is that the plot (about a country bumpkin who joints the army and drives his sergeant crazy) is pretty much similar to what was used when they spun off Gomer Pyle, USMC from The Andy Griffith Show. And the other is that a small role in both the Broadway play and movie was played by a young actor who developed a friendship with Griffith, named Don Knotts. (In fact, as the story goes according to Knotts, when he found out that Andy Griffith was going to have a TV show, he called his friend and suggested that a small town sheriff should have a deputy.) And all these success lead Andy Griffith to be signed to star in a Broadway musical, Destry, based on the film Destry Rides Again, which had a score by Harold Rome and ran for over a year with 472 performances, And as it happens this too had a connection to his later career -- in fact a big one, since the plot was about a sheriff who didn't carry a gun. So, Andy Griffith works often overlapped with his later work. Anyway, though the best known of Andy Griffith's monologues was likely that one on football, he had a few others that were popular -- and wonderful, as well -- including his telling of the tale of Romeo and Juliet. I've decided to post this one, not just because I think it's terrific, but also because it too had an overlap with his later career. In an episode of The Andy Griffith Show, he tells Opie the story of Romeo and Juliet, and it's an edited-down version of his original monologue. But the original is far better -- not only more whimsical and clever, but the live audience rich laughing tops a TV laugh track. And as a bonus, here's the way they adapted it later for The Andy Griffith Show. In turns out that there are a couple of star-crossed young lovers in Mayberry, and although Andy as sheriff could marry them, the families don't get along, so he wants to sort things out. And he explains it all to his son Opie, as a bemused Aunt Bee listens on. Left out of this clip is the last line of the scene, when Opie says to his pa that, boy, "....that Romeo and Juliet sure would make a good TV show!"
1 Comment
Douglass Abramson
2/8/2021 06:46:59 pm
OK, so what in Andy's early career overlapped with Salvage 1? ;)
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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