The unique tone of the Andy Griffith Show explained
Howard's remarks capture how unique The Andy Griffith Show is among many other shows. The show would not do anything for a chuckle; instead, it would be more crucial to give character development first priority. With this endeavor, The Andy Griffith Show essentially produced a show whose slow tempo accentuates its poetry, extracting Comedy from the daily rather than the production of extravagant, highly doctored events.
In a somewhat related vein, Howard carried on his conversation by outlining some of the original dialogue scenes from The Andy Griffith Show. Usually running between Andy and Barney, The Andy Griffith Show had shots of two people just chatting about their days or the outside temperature. Howard clarified that these sequences developed from the requirement to cover extra minutes when their shows arrived under schedule following a week of shooting. Griffith would thus sit down with Knotts or another actor and simply have an impromptu discussion.
"Andy Used To Kill Jokes": Ron Howard's Rule for Comedy Expressed in the Andy Griffith Show
For The Andy Griffith Show, Ron Howard outlines the one basic guiding principle of Comedy. Originally six years old, Howard, now a director, originally participated in the program acting as Opie Taylor, the son of the main character Andy Taylor. Howard maintained performing the part over The Andy Griffith Show, which ran eight seasons from 1960 to 1968. Apart from Howard and Andy Griffith, the actors of The Andy Griffith Show comprised Don Knotts, Frances Bavier, Colin Male, George Lindsey, Howard McNear, Tom Jacobs, Aneta Corsaut, and Jack Dodson.
Howard spoke on comedy on The Andy Griffith Show in an interview with Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. The host, O'Brien, observed that the "character comedy" nature of the 1960s Sitcom is "unafraid of a long pause." At this point, Howard said Griffith "used to kill jokes if they were too broad."
Unique dialogue scenes from the Andy Griffith Show
The way the humor and the dialogue moments are described emphasizes how much the skills of The Andy Griffith Show's lead drove the show. The lead was rather good in highlighting a really human quality and spotting the funny rhythms in daily life. The Andy Griffith Show was "tailored to his sensibility," as Howard pointed out, and fortunately sensibility guided the program toward success.
Source: Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend
Andy Griffith Show: a Classic
Still seen today, the legendary TV Sitcom The Andy Griffith sitcom from the 1960s Some of the jokes, however, are out of date and do not fly anymore.
Watching the Andy Griffith Show with the whole family is fantastic.
The lead actor objected to the Andy Griffith Show being anything like Beverly Hillbillies or Petticoat Junction.
The primary actor felt The Andy Griffith Show should not be modeled after TV shows like Petticoat Junction and Beverly Hillbillies, which he felt overly dependent on slapstick and sketch-based comedy. View the complete Howard quotation below:
It served so much as a type of single creative voice. Not that Andy wrote—you know he wasn't even given a producer credit. Still, it was his presentation, customized to his sensibility. And this old character actor who had become this amazing television producer was Sheldon Leonard, the executive producer and very engaged on the show. For a brief period, he was like the comedy producer; he had enormous success with Danny Thomas, Van Dyke, and the Andy Griffith program. Still, he was there constantly and they were always stressing character. And Andy used to kill jokes if they were very general. And he just maintained, "the south is plenty funny on its own," without reaching for it and doing slapstick and other forms of comedy. Like he disliked Petticoat Junction and Hillbilly Elegy—not Hillbilly Elegy, a film I directed—he disliked Beverly Hillbillies. Beverly Hillblues. And you know, practically speaking, they were drawing sketches. And thus, I'm not sure if there have been any other single-camera shows with that kind of tone; perhaps Real McCoys a little bit, but they lacked Don Knotts.
