Goodbye, Sheriff Taylor

My second-ever post—the first real post of any substance, which defined the mission of this blog—used pictures from the Andy Griffith show to make its points. The picture posts have been some of the best posts on this blog (imho) and certainly the most fun to write, and I feel I owe some of that fun to Sheriff Taylor and his friend Barney Fife.

Before leaving you with that whistle (you better know the one!), a bit of film trivia.

In 1957 Griffith made his film début, starring in the film A Face in the Crowd. Although he plays a "country boy", this country boy is manipulative and power-hungry, a drifter who becomes a television host and uses his show as a gateway to political power. Co-starring Patricia Neal, Walter Matthau, Tony Franciosa, and Lee Remick (in her film début as well), the film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg.

I haven't seen all of A Face in the Crowd, but one of the scenes—the early one where Patricia Neal's journalist visits Griffith's convict in the county jail—is indelibly imprinted on my mind.  Griffith could act, a fact that some people who identify him only with the cozy lawman from Maybury might find hard to believe.

Andy Griffith, R.I.P.