The Andy Griffith Show was one of the most successful rural oriented comedies that aired on CBS in the 1960's. It ran from October 1960 until September 1968 and produced 249 episodes and has been running in syndication ever since it left the air. It introduced to the world the major stars of Andy Griffith,Ron Howard, and Don Knotts who went on to appear in other hit series. On top of that when the show went off the air in 1968, it was one of just 3 shows (I Love Lucy, and Seinfeld were the others) that ended its run rated #1 in the nation.
For more on The Andy Griffith Show go to the mini-page right here at Sitcoms Online.
Here's an Article on Producer Sheldon Leonard from Time Magazine.
The Punk Who Made Good
Friday, Nov. 19, 1965 Article
On 3.7 acres of Hollywood real estate, he is king. Nine sound stages sound the alert when his footfall is heard; five companies now shooting television series await his Brooklynese benediction. He controls three of TV's top shows: Gomer Pyle, Andy Griffith and Dick Van Dyke. I Spy, a rising comedy-adventure show, he owns outright. Yesterday, however, it was a different story. Producer Sheldon Leonard's climb has largely been from rags to rags; the riches are a very new addition.
Light Heavy. Born Sheldon Leonard Bershad on Manhattan's East Side, Leonard went through Syracuse University on a scholarship, then began a Wall Street job on Black Friday, 1929. The job failed with the market, and after a while, Leonard decided to try acting. Broadway, inundated with epicene chorus boys, welcomed the swarthy, unsubtle Leonard, cast him as a light "heavy" in seven long-running shows, including Three Men on a Horse, until the Depression caught up with the theater.
To survive he moved to Hollywood and quickly established himself as a character actor in the tough-guy tradition—a kind of punk's Bogart. Today old movie buffs still see him on TV reruns, barking at his moll, Gloria Grahame, Vivian Blaine or Marie McDonald: "I fought I told ya to wait in da car." He ran his luck through nearly 150 movie roles, but by 1941 gangster parts were declared bad for the image of a nation at war. As the clean-cut types moved in, Leonard moved out to the one medium where he could be heard but not seen: radio.
Just for laughs, Jack Benny, Judy Canova, Phil Harris all used him—usually as the voice of a sleazy racetrack tout. But Kiss-of-Death Leonard, as he was beginning to be called, soon found himself in still another dying medium. Radio was moribund, television was thriving and once again Leonard was jobless. He had no compunction about trying his hand at TV scriptwriting. "The minimum price in those days was $550 for a half-hour show," Leonard recalls. "No respectable writer would sell for that, but I would." Leonard was no Paddy Chayefsky, but he was cheap, and in Hollywood cheap is good.
Clever Ape. His luck finally turned when his work struck the fancy of Danny Thomas, who made him the director of his show, later elevated him to coproducer. The fat years, when they came, were obese. He has made and sold eleven pilot films, now sells shows on his name alone, without bothering to film a trial episode. His 1965 income for the first nine months is $350,000.
What makes him so successful in a field where the mortality rate of new shows is over 75% ? "Native arrogance," admits Leonard. A rival producer at Ashley-Famous Artists takes a tougher view: "Leonard doesn't think. That's why he's successful. He's like those gangsters he used to play. What he likes in his gut the public likes in their guts—or else. He has the primitive instincts of a clever ape. On television, that's worth more than a crystal ball."
Here is Frances Bavier's Obituary
Frances Bavier Dead; TV Performer Was 86
AP
Published: December 08, 1989
Frances Bavier, who played Aunt Bee on ''The Andy Griffith Show'' on television in the 1960's, died at her home here on Wednesday. She was 86 years old and had been released Monday from a hospital, where she had been in the coronary-care unit.
Miss Bavier, a native of New York City, attended Columbia University and was a graduate of the American Academy of the Arts. She had more than 20 years of stage experience, including stints in vaudeville and on Broadway, where her credits included the F. Hugh Herbert comedy ''Kiss and Tell'' and Paul Osborn's ''Point of No Return.'' Among her films were ''The Lady Says No'' and ''The Day the Earth Stood Still.''
She became famous for her role in the popular television show starring Mr. Griffith as a North Carolina sheriff. She portrayed his devoted aunt, who was known for her Southern cooking and who helped to rear the widower sheriff's son. She won an Emmy for the role in 1967.
Here is Don Knotts Obituary.
Don Knotts, Actor Known As Shaky Deputy, Dies at 81
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 26, 2006
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 26 — Don Knotts, the skinny, lovable nerd who kept generations of television audiences laughing as the bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith Show," died on Friday. He was 81.
Mr. Knotts died of pulmonary and respiratory complications at U.C.L.A. Medical Center in Beverly Hills, said Paul Ward, a spokesman for the cable network TV Land, which broadcasts "The Andy Griffith Show" and another hit co-starring Mr. Knotts, "Three's Company."
Mr. Knotts had a half-century acting career that included seven television series and more than 25 films, but it was the Griffith show that brought him television immortality and five Emmy Awards.
The show was on the air from 1960 to 1968 and was in the top 10 of the Nielsen ratings each season, including a No. 1 ranking its final year. It is one of only three series to bow out at the top; the others are "I Love Lucy" and "Seinfeld." The 249 "Griffith" episodes have appeared frequently in reruns and have spawned a large, active network of fan clubs.
As the bug-eyed deputy to Mr. Griffith, Mr. Knotts carried in his shirt pocket the one bullet he was allowed after shooting himself in the foot. The constant fumbling, a recurring sight gag, was typical of his self-deprecating humor.
Mr. Knotts, whose shy, soft-spoken manner was unlike his high-strung characters, once said he was most proud of the Fife character.
His favorite episodes, he said, were "The Pickle Story," in which Aunt Bee makes pickles no one can eat, and "Barney and the Choir," in which no one can stop him from singing.
"I can't sing," he lamented. "It makes me sad that I can't sing or dance well enough to be in a musical, but I'm just not talented in that way. It's one of my weaknesses."
Mr. Knotts appeared on six other television shows. In 1979, he replaced Norman Fell on "Three's Company," playing the would-be swinger landlord to John Ritter, Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt.
Early in his television career, he was one of the original cast members of "The Steve Allen Show," the comedy-variety show from the late 1950's. He was one of a group of memorable comics backing Mr. Allen.
Mr. Knotts's G-rated films were family fun, though not box-office blockbusters.
In the part-animated 1964 film "The Incredible Mr. Limpet," he played a meek clerk who turns into a fish after he is rejected by the Navy.
He was among an army of comedians, including Buster Keaton and Jonathan Winters, in the 1963 comedy "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." Other films include "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" (1966); "The Shakiest Gun in the West" (1968); and a few Disney films like "Gus," (1976) and "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo" (1977).
In 1998, he had a pivotal role in the back-to-the-past movie "Pleasantville," playing a folksy television repairman whose supercharged remote control sends a teenage boy and his sister into a sitcom past.
Born in West Virginia, Mr. Knotts began his show business career before he graduated from high school, performing as a ventriloquist locally. He was a speech major at West Virginia University.
"I went to New York cold," he recalled in a visit to his hometown, Morgantown, where city officials renamed a street for him in 1998. "On a $100 bill. Bummed a ride."
Mr. Knotts soon landed a job on a radio western called "Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders," playing a wisecracking, know-it-all handyman. He stayed with it for five years. Then came his series debut on "The Steve Allen Show."
He married Kay Metz in 1948. The couple had two children before divorcing in 1969. He later married, then divorced Laralee Czuchna.
In recent years, he said he had no plans to retire, traveling with theater productions and appearing in print and television advertisements for Kodiak pressure-treated wood. He treasured his comedic roles and could point to only one role that wasn't funny, a brief stint on the daytime drama "Search for Tomorrow."
"That's the only serious thing I've done," he said. "I don't miss that."
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