Andy Griffith Lives.

[John Battles]

    Andy Griffith . It's like losing Johnny Cash or James Brown....What do you add to such a legacy. ONLY THAT HE SEEMED TO MAKE BEING HILARIOUS SEEM EFFORTLESS.

Well , I'm not laughing , now , but , I will be. Reruns are eternal.  You just have to wade thru 1000 "Rosanne"s to get to one "Andy Griffith Show". What he represented to me was a philosophy that "People should'nt fuss and be so ornery with one another. NOOOOOO, NOT A'TALL. ". Spoken word often means "Suckin' word" , but , Andy recorded his own hilarious recitations in the 50's , before his TV show took off. He even recorded versions of the hits of the day , with his own , inimitable comic monologue , when not recording credible Country Blues numbers. I Don't know anyone who actually knew him , but Griffith came off as being genuine , with one of the truly great comic sidekicks in Don Knotts , arguably the only TV Comedy duo that could....not steal Gleason and Carney's thunder , outright , but , "Jest borry it fer a spell".

When Tex Ritter read some of the names that were etched in gold in "Hillbilly Heaven", Andy's name was there , near the top. Of course , he called Will Rogers  "The Hillbilly Philosopher"in the same song  , and rightly so , but , Griffith was surely his successor in our time. It goes without saying , there won't be another one like him.

Wish I could have told him in person , but, Thanks , Andy.