aw, pa

I’ve recently been watching The Andy Griffith Show Seasons 1-3.  When it comes to old school sitcoms, The Dick Van Dyke Show takes the cake in my book.  I’ve seen every episode several times and I continually laugh at its timeless humor, good comedic acting (I love me some Mary Tyler Moore), and funny situations.  Andy has its funny moments, mostly with Barney Fife (Don Knotts) but it’s not up to par with the excellence of DVD(haha).  The one absolutely GREAT thing about  Andy is the cute little kid named Ronny Howard.

That is until he lost all his hair, turned director, and started winning those Oscars.  Ron(ny) Howard has directed some of my very favorite movies from Apollo 13 to A Beautiful Mind to Parenthood.  He has made his mark in the cinematic universe as one of our finest directors.

But before all that, he was not such a bad actor either.  His most memorable role is without doubt Steve inAmerican Graffiti, but he also starred in the series Happy Days with Henry Winkler.  Before all THAT he was Opie Taylor, the cutest kid in Mayberry.  Lately I’ve been tuning out to most of the Andy eps that my mom watches but I always watch if it’s about Opie.  In my opinion, he’s one of the greatest kid actors to pass through the screen and especially on TV.  He doesn’t just recite his lines, but he listens to what the other characters are saying and treats the scene like a scene out of real life.  I’ve heard that he and Andy Griffith had a good relationship, and Andy Taylor the character was a good father model.

Hold that thought.

One of the WORST 50′s shows, Father Knows Best does nothing but prove that Father doesn’t always know best, or at least this father doesn’t.  I’ve seen two seasons of this show and its so covered in cheese you can’t even see the crust on that pizza. Not only is it cheesy and corny but it’s ridiculous!  I stopped watching for good when Father and Mother knows best teach Betty that she shouldn’t learn to be an engineer, she should dress in her pretty dresses instead so that she can IMPRESS the intelligent engineering guy.  Whatev.  However, it all comes to a hilarious end when I read that Billy Gray (Bud) was later arrested for possessing marijuana, and Lauren Chapin (Kathy) became a heroin addict and prostitute.  Not that I should be rejoicing in their poor future lives, but I KNEW that Mr. Knows Best was full of crap.  I don’t think I need to cover twice what happened to little Ronny Howard, but let’s just say his future turned out a lot differently than the other two.

I’m not even sure what point I’m trying to make with this.  That Andy Taylor is a better father than Jim Anderson?  (yes).  That Ron Howard is a good actor and director?  (and better than those other two kids combined).   That trivial bits of information that have nothing to do with anything are a lot of fun?  (sure).  See, this is why I suck at writing.  I sit at the computer, something pops into my head, I decide on a whim to write about it without any direction in mind.  Oh well.  I’ve come this far, I might as well publish it.