"Hey"

Live from New York.....it's Tuesday morning.

I was recently drawn to the new movie "Waitress," primarily because of the film production's back story. You may have heard. The movie's writer and director, Adrienne Shelly, was killed in NY last year by a construction worker because she complained he was making too much noise. The film, now serving as her ultimate legacy, showed a lot of promise. Sad.

But, "Waitress" is also noteworthy because it heralds the return of Andy Griffith in a supporting role. He steals the picture. One of those roles where you keep waiting for him to pop up again. Of course, he's now 80 and that's the time where Hollywood gets a lot of mileage by putting an oldtimer in a movie and getting him or her to say outrageous things. In this case, Andy does not disappoint.

It reminded me of how much I loved "The Andy Griffith Show" when I was a kid. It was on Monday nights around 9 or 9:30PM. That would be the one night I would be allowed to stay up past 830PM. And it was a weekly negotiation. If we went out to visit relatives on Sunday and we got home late, my mother would feel compelled to announce that I was severely sleep-deprived and that I would be skipping Andy on Monday. So, I began to secretly hope that we would never ever visit relatives on a Sunday ever again. It was a weekly struggle. I think I won most of the battles.

I am not sure why I loved this show so much. Yeah, it was folksy and cutesy---all the things I hate in entertainment now. But, Andy, Barney, Opie, and Aunt Bee were an extended family. The only difference is that they didn't send me five dollars in an envelope every birthday. For some bizarre reason, I enjoyed the half hour I spent with them every week. It was a very simple life. I wished I lived next door, so Opie and I could have a catch.

I remember one episode, however, that was a bit unsettling. Andy and Barney went to their high school reunion. Andy saw an old flame there and, before long, he was kissing her dead-on in the courtyard. You had never seen that before in Mayberry. Borderline passion. It felt wrong. I'm pretty sure I read a later interview where Andy Griffith actually talked about what an uncomfortable moment that was in the series. I am pretty sure the show was fairly chaste after that. Andy's next love interest, Miss Helen Crump, got limited action---usually a peck on the cheek. I always wondered why that moment was so jarring to me. I suppose it was a harbinger of things to come for all....and how complicated life would get for all of us.

I've probably mentioned that Don Knotts lived in my apartment building for the past twenty years. He died about two months before we moved in. I have yet to see any Emmy Awards in the dumpster. But, I have heard that, when Don was sick, Andy came over frequently to visit. Now, that would have been way too cool. I'm in the lobby throwing out my junk mail and in comes Andy Griffith. And you want to know what I say to him:

"Hey."

Dinner last night: homemade meat loaf and German potato salad.