I love Andy Griffith
Misc. rantings...
Talk about a "comfort" show. I always liked Aunt Bee. She reminded me of some of my Aunts. Always cooking something delicious and a spotless house. A bit of my Grandmas thrown in too.
And of course Don Knotts. I can still watch this expert in action and am amazed at the ease he can make a scene funny. As I get older, I enjoy watching the scenes where he is NOT over the top doing something goofy, but just easily bragging and telling 1/2 truths in a voice of experience. Or just quietly talking philosophically. Darn he was good.
Off the subject...who were the characters you DIDN'T like in the show?
For me, there were three.
Floyd the Barber....that guy's voice just sounds to me like a pervert. The hmmmmin and the hawwnnn. What is it with Floyd? Would you be comfortable with that guy cutting your hair? I bet he licked the combs before he put them in the solution. I imagine him having his mom stuffed in the basement a la Norman Bates.
Goober....while Gomer was obnoxious in kind of a funny way, Goober was obnoxious in all the worst ways. The guy prattles on and gossips like a woman. Heck, he crosses his legs like a woman! And what is with that hat? Only Jughead from the Archies has a hat like that. Where does one get a Jughead hat? What is it called? A modern Joker hat? All it needs is some bells sewn onto it. And what the hell is Goober short for anyways? Goobert? Gooberman?
Howard....When Don Knotts left, the best part of the show in my opinion, they tried to replace some of the spark with Howard. For some odd reason, they purposely made Howard so boring, and the producers thought this was funny. It wasn't funny, it was boring. Then they also made Howard cheap. Uncomfortably, squirmingly cheap. The worst episode was when he and the bakery lady fell in love, and took the train trip with Andy and Helen to get married. Howard wanted to cheap out on everything, the cheapest dinner, etc. His girlfriend wanted to live it up a little, and who can blame her. She was about to get stuck with Howard. Thankfully for her, and us, the marriage was called off. Lucky girl. I think she went on to be Ken Berry's wife on Mayberry RFD. You may remember that show, the depressing version of Andy Griffith, with carry over characters including, unfortunately, ahem, Howard and Goober.
The upside to Howard was seeing him in "The Getaway" with Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw a few years later. He played a vet in that one, with his sexually repressed wife Sally Struthers. I would imagine Jack Dobson had some fun with this character, who he played just like Howard. His character was, of course, boring, and his wife became interested in the loser criminal that came to visit them for help and takes them hostage. When Howard the Vet finds out the crook and his wife are sleeping together, he hangs himself in the bathroom. If you want to see Howard hang himself and painted a grisly color, see "The Getaway". I have a feeling that Dobson enjoyed hanging the most boring character ever created!