The Andy Griffith Show: 16 Episodes (1960)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Series Created by Sheldon Leonard
Starring Andy Griffith, Don Knotts, Frances Bavier, Ron Howard, Jim Nabors, Hal Smith, and Howard McNear

Released by: Brentwood.
Rating: NR
Region: 1
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Rent it.

Andy Taylor (Griffith) lives in Mayberry, North Carolina with his son, Opie (Howard) and Opie's Aunt Bea (Bavier). Andy is the Sheriff of this tiny little town where virtually no crime takes place. Instead, Andy spends most of his time putting out the small fires that erupt because of the hijinks of his Deputy Barney Fife (Knotts).

What more can be said about this show that hasn't already been said? It's a classic of American television. For eight years, American families plopped themselves down to watch Griffith and company do their stuff. Andy Griffith simply was the Sheriff of this fictional little southern town and he made it perfectly believable that he could do so without a large gun on his hip. He ruled the town with an iron will when necessary, but mostly he found that following the Golden Rule was a much more effective weapon to combat the very mild evils of the town.

He and Knotts had such an amazing relationship on screen and Knotts played his character perfectly. Who else but Knotts could pull off playing a character who did wear a gun on his hip, but only because his Sheriff wouldn't let him keep it loaded; indeed, he was only allowed to carry one single bullet in his shirt pocket! Not only that, but America was introduced to little Ronnie Howard and literally got to watch him grow up on television, and then later on Happy Days as well. Honestly, when you consider all these things that do not even begin to scratch the surface of all that this show is, how could it have possibly have failed?

Since this is basically a collection of sixteen episodes and nothing more, we're not going to beat them up too badly. Although, seriously, we still have Griffith, Knotts, and Howard still with us. Somebody really needs to get these three into a studio and have them record a commentary track or something. There's probably a jillion different interviews with not only those three but also the actors who are no longer with us--but I'm sure those things are being held by somebody who wants some coin for the rights to use them. We can only hope that somebody digs around and finds them for the official Complete Andy Griffith Show DVD release (because I'm going to demand one...).

There's one other thing about this DVD that really got on my nerves: the choice of the menu music. I understand they weren't able to secure the rights to use the theme song, but at least they could have nabbed something that sounded like North Carolina bluegrass. Instead, we get a really cheesy sounding saxophone jazz track which plays while you are choosing whether you want to watch all the episodes or just to choose one. It was just a bad choice. To their credit, they did put a little "About the Show" paragraph together which, when selected, scrolls by and lets you read a little of the history of the show, but it's just not enough to make a good DVD.

So, this one stays on the rental list even for those true fans of the show. Wait until they release a more extensive DVD set with some bonus features that not only do the show the justice it deserves, but also to do homage to those fans that have almost devoted their lives to the world of this historic television program.