• Andy Griffith,  Animals

    Andy Griffith, America’s Sheriff, Dead at 86

    America’s Sheriff Andy Griffith

    Rest in Peace, Andy.

    Actor Andy Griffith, who won the hearts of 1960s TV viewers with his role as gentle Sheriff Andy Taylor in “The Andy Griffith Show,” then returned as a folksy 1980s lawyer in “Matlock,” died Tuesday at his home on Roanoke Island, N.C., at age 86, NBC News has confirmed.

    Griffith began his entertainment career with comic monologues and moved into movies, debuting in 1957’s “A Face in the Crowd” with Patricia Neal. But it was as the widower sheriff Andy Taylor on “The Andy Griffith Show” that he really made his mark. The show, which also starred comedian Don Knotts as bumbling Deputy Barney Fife, ran from 1960-1968. Its setting, in the fictional, friendly small town of Mayberry, became almost as famous as any one episode.

    I am in Indiana and there is a Mayberry RFD restaurant in an Indianapolis suburb. Alice and I will probably head over that way sometime in the next few days.

    Andy, thank you for the memories of a simpler American era.

  • Andy Griffith,  Obamacare

    ObamaCare Shill Andy Griffith Takes a Beating

    Actor Andy Griffith shilling for ObamaCare

    Sorry Andy, I loved your show when I was a young boy growing up but you and Opie (Ron Howard) gave us Obama as President and ObamaCare.

    Shame on the both of you.

    Too bad about your brand but you deserve it.

    How bad is it for Democrats in North Carolina? Even Sheriff Andy Taylor is taking a beating in the polls.

    Andy Griffith – star of the Andy Griffith Show, a Manteo resident and noted endorser of Democratic causes and candidates – has seen his approval ratings plummet, according to a poll published Tuesday by Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling.

    The Democratic pollster found that Griffith’s approval rating has fallen 25 points since 2008. Griffith has been a closer for Democrats, an unimpeachable saintly figure who fills his rare political spots with folksy charm and obvious references to his role as a small-town North Carolina sheriff.

    In July he cut an ad for the U.S. government promising “good things” to come from the Democratic-backed health care law. The ad prompted five Republican U.S. senators to accuse the Obama administration of using taxpayer money to bolster his policies.

    And as the poll suggests, the ad may have tainted the Griffith brand.