Andy Griffith said that Andy Taylor was ''too good'' of a person

Andy Taylor was a wonderful character, but difficult to write for.

CBS Television Distribution

Let's be honest: If we were all a bit more like Andy Taylor, the world would be a better place. Taylor is strong, honest, and morally upright. These are all qualities you'd look for in a mentor or even a friend.

However, striving for perfection is a futile effort, as no one can be just as good as Andy Taylor. Even Andy Griffith, who shares a name and a face with Taylor, has said that the impression that Griffith was simply playing himself in The Andy Griffith Show is "nonsense," according to an interview with The Charlotte Observer.

However, being too good can sometimes be an issue, as Griffith was well willing to admit. It turns out that when a character is always doing the right thing, they're not as interesting to write a series about. While we liked Andy Taylor, many of the episodes centered around his attempts to resolve the conflicts of others, rather than within himself. Griffith said that this was intentional.

"Andy Taylor was such a good man," Griffith said. "But you know, until about the last year [of the show], we could not write shows that were about Andy. Because Andy was too good."

"You have to have a weakness somewhere in order to write a show for you. There has to be a flaw. And Andy was a good man. So we never wrote, if you look back on all those shows, they were never about Andy. While I was in every show, in almost every scene, it was always about one of the other characters."

Griffith has often been considered the "straight man" of The Andy Griffith Show, while other Mayberry residents are so zany, Griffith said that the show's director Bob Sweeney called Mayberry "a normal small town, but it has a border of insanity around it." Luckily, Sheriff Taylor was always there to keep things in line.

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6 Comments

Rick 4 months ago
It's a pretty successful sitcom setup - my friends and I call it having the "sane center" who is surrounded by eccentrics. The Bob Newhart Show, Newhart (again), Barney Miller, Seinfeld (well, I guess he wasn't "good," but he was a lot more normal than those around him)...
Griselda 4 months ago
Andy Taylor could also be a controlling jerk. Who did he think he was forbidding Aunt Bee from learning to fly or even drive, or to open her own restaurant or get a job? She's not a child, or a wife ( back then a husbands could do what is unacceptable today).
McGillahooala 4 months ago
Andy Taylor was perfect in a lot of ways and Andy Griffith was far more flawed than most. I could see him thinking Sheriff Taylor was too good. Overall, I’m glad the show went off the way it did. I can’t imagine a comedy with Andy Griffith playing himself. Child neglect, rampant adultery, and a manipulative nature are not very endearing qualities.
Runeshaper 4 months ago
It's difficult to entertain people with a guy that has no issues, but if he's helping to correct the issues then that makes sense (-:
Rick 4 months ago
Very true. There are a couple of early episodes where he does dubious things (like drumming up a reason to jail Bobby Fleet and his Band with the Beat, or a couple of times when he crossed with Ellie and he was in the wrong), but once his character settled in to being the wise, perfect Andy, about the only dpisode I remember that was about Andy's character was Mr. McBeevee, where his trust of Opie is strained.
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