The Andy Griffith Show Analysis
Elijah Plemmons
ENGL 101-08: Writing & Rhetoric
Jen Harris
September 31, 2014
The Andy Griffith Show The Andy Griffith show was a situational family comedy created by Sheldon Leonard and Aaron Ruben that ran from 1960-1968. The show was quite popular and successful in its eight years of air time. Episode one of season one was written by Charles Stewart and Jack Elinson. The Andy Griffith Show portrayed many different themes in the very first episode. Some themes demonstrated focused on loss, acceptance, and non-traditional family, embracing the future, childhood honesty, loyalty, and fear of change. The main theme that really stuck out to me was the fear of change. In my eyes, it is what supported the purpose of the whole episode and immediately gave viewers something to relate to. The fear of change is present in my life as I would assume its present in most people’s lives. When I feel as if something is going my way, I don’t want to screw it up by changing everything. I am more comfortable with consistency over a long period of time than frequent change in life, which is a common human characteristic. In this episode of The Andy Griffith Show, Opie (Andy Griffith’s son) portrays fearfulness towards having a new woman raise him. He claims to like his old sitter Rose a lot. When Rose is leaving due to her recent marriage, Opie complains and ask if she can stay longer, clearly showing his fear of change. Opie is not open-minded to the idea of having a new person come into his house and raise him. He shows comfort in Rose taking care of him and is happy with how things were going at home. Andy doesn’t seem to be too upset with the change and is excited to have Aunt Bee replace Rose because that’s who he was raised by. Aunt Bee is excited for the change at first because it gives her something to do and a purpose. Later she is distraught because Opie doesn’t open up to her. He is shy around her and compares everything she does to Rose. Opie’s shy
ENGL 101-08: Writing & Rhetoric
Jen Harris
September 31, 2014
The Andy Griffith Show The Andy Griffith show was a situational family comedy created by Sheldon Leonard and Aaron Ruben that ran from 1960-1968. The show was quite popular and successful in its eight years of air time. Episode one of season one was written by Charles Stewart and Jack Elinson. The Andy Griffith Show portrayed many different themes in the very first episode. Some themes demonstrated focused on loss, acceptance, and non-traditional family, embracing the future, childhood honesty, loyalty, and fear of change. The main theme that really stuck out to me was the fear of change. In my eyes, it is what supported the purpose of the whole episode and immediately gave viewers something to relate to. The fear of change is present in my life as I would assume its present in most people’s lives. When I feel as if something is going my way, I don’t want to screw it up by changing everything. I am more comfortable with consistency over a long period of time than frequent change in life, which is a common human characteristic. In this episode of The Andy Griffith Show, Opie (Andy Griffith’s son) portrays fearfulness towards having a new woman raise him. He claims to like his old sitter Rose a lot. When Rose is leaving due to her recent marriage, Opie complains and ask if she can stay longer, clearly showing his fear of change. Opie is not open-minded to the idea of having a new person come into his house and raise him. He shows comfort in Rose taking care of him and is happy with how things were going at home. Andy doesn’t seem to be too upset with the change and is excited to have Aunt Bee replace Rose because that’s who he was raised by. Aunt Bee is excited for the change at first because it gives her something to do and a purpose. Later she is distraught because Opie doesn’t open up to her. He is shy around her and compares everything she does to Rose. Opie’s shy