Even Ellie and Opie were great together in those shows! I really liked her in them. Wasn't she in another show with John Forsythe?
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RIP Andy Griffith age 86 Ben Metlock/Andy Taylor
- Thread starter oldiesfan2
- Start date
WLTX, the CBS Affiliate in Columbia SC used to brag that "The Andy Griffith" never left their airwaves since its debut. I don't know if that has been true in the recent past though. They were down to two episodes a week on Saturday evenings but I believe that was dropped. Lately they have been using it to fill time in between infomercials. Ain't that sad?!?!
RadioStarOne said:
You're thinking of Robert Young. She played the oldest (teenage) daughter years before landing the role on the Griffith show.
Lkeller said:
My personal opinion is that the Ellie character was close in popularity to that of Sheriff Andy Taylor thus the decision was made (by whom I do not know) to remove Elinor Donahue from the show.
Also note that of all the people who co-starred with Andy Griffith there has not been one word from Donahue about Griffth's passing. So what does that tell you?
It is my belief that if Donahue had left on amicable terms then an explanation would have been given as to why "Ellie" left Mayberry when the second season started. But as noted by other posters not word one about her character was mentioned in future episodes. Its like she never existed. To me that indicates that Donahue's departure was not on the friendliest of terms.
Lkeller said:
I agree with you totally on that. There was much more chemistry between "Ellie and Andy" than there was between "Helen and Andy". So I don't buy the reasoning given for Donahue's departure.
Not to speak ill of the dead but if you fast-forward to Griffith's role as Matlock, look at how many co-stars came and went from that series. It tends to make me believe that "Andy" wasn't that easy of a fellow to work for or with.
Mark_Giardina said:
Here are a list of the cast over the years Matlock was on TV and, according to Wikipedia why they left or were fired.
Linda Purl
Kene Holliday
Nancy Stafford
Julie Sommars-Gone
Kari Lizer
Clarence Gilyard, Jr.
Brynn Thayer
Daniel Roebuck
Carol Huston
Originally, the series premiered with Ben Matlock having a law practice with his daughter Charlene (played originally by Lori Lethin in the pilot movie; Linda Purl took over the role when the series went to air). Matlock also employed Tyler Hudson, a stock market whiz played by Kene Holliday, as a private investigator. Tyler would often go undercover for Matlock in various guises trying to gather information. Matlock's most frequent prosecutorial adversary was Nebraska native Julie March, played by Julie Sommars. Although the two had a professional rivalry- with Julie being a prosecutor and Matlock a defense lawyer- their relationship outside of court was very cordial and the two often spent time together outside of court.
Toward the end of season one, Matlock also took on Cassie Phillips, a cocky young lawyer played by Kari Lizer, as an assistant. After the season was over, Linda Purl departed from the series due to disputes regarding her character and her castmates and Charlene was written out of the series by having moved to Philadelphia to start her own law practice. To begin the season, Matlock went over to England to try a case and met Michelle Thomas, an American lawyer living in London played by Nancy Stafford, while doing so. After the case was over, Michelle followed Matlock back to the United States and took over Charlene's role as partner. Cassie stayed on as file clerk until the end of the second season, when she disappeared for reasons never made clear. With Lizer's departure Julie Sommars became a regular cast member.
After season three, Kene Holliday was fired due to misconduct and Tyler was written out as having quit.[3]) Matlock hired a former North Carolina deputy sheriff, Conrad McMasters (portrayed by Clarence Gilyard, Jr.) to be his new private eye. Like Tyler, Conrad would go undercover to gather information about the cases at hand. However, since the two characters were polar opposites — Tyler, being the day trader he was, carried himself with more of an aristocratic air while Conrad was more of a blue-collar worker type man— there were some differences in the manner in which Conrad went at his job. He and Matlock became fast friends as well, as they were alike in many ways. Also during this time, Andy Griffith's old co-star Don Knotts began making frequent appearances as "Ace" Calhoun, Matlock's annoying next door neighbor.,
On the last episode of the sixth season, Brynn Thayer made a guest appearance as Ben Matlock's other (and to that point unmentioned) daughter Leanne MacIntyre, who had become a prosecutor in Philadelphia and who had married and divorced. She joined the cast full-time the next season playing a similar role to Linda Purl's as her sister Charlene in the first season. Daniel Roebuck joined Thayer as a new regular for the seventh season, playing the role of ne'er-do-well Cliff Lewis who seemed to bounce around from job to job. Warren Frost also joined the cast in a recurring role as Cliff's father Billy, an old nemesis from Matlock's past as Ben had stood his sister up at the altar in order to pursue his law degree. The move to ABC caused a fair amount of cast turnover as Nancy Stafford left the series and Julie Sommars followed, although she would play a recurring role in several episodes, while Don Knotts' character was cut from the series. Clarence Gilyard remained on, but with the addition to Roebuck to the cast and the character of Cliff Lewis becoming a second private investigator, his role was diminished somewhat. After season seven, Gilyard left to play Texas Ranger Jimmy Trivette on Walker, Texas Ranger and Cliff took over Conrad's role as Matlock's chief PI.
Re Andy's real-life relationship to Elinor Donahue and his
make-believe one to Ellie Walker, I can't help but imagine
him thinking what Lou Grant would say to Mary Richards
a decade later: "You've got spunk. I hate spunk."
I notice that nobody has mentioned Andy's girlfriend between
Ellie and Helen: Peggy Macmillan, the county nurse played by
Joanna Moore. IMO, there was even less chemistry there than
with either Elinor Donahue or Aneta Corsaut. But at least there
was some explanation as to why Andy and Peggy broke up: he
was stricken with an inferiority complex when he found out her
father was a wealthy businessman.
make-believe one to Ellie Walker, I can't help but imagine
him thinking what Lou Grant would say to Mary Richards
a decade later: "You've got spunk. I hate spunk."
I notice that nobody has mentioned Andy's girlfriend between
Ellie and Helen: Peggy Macmillan, the county nurse played by
Joanna Moore. IMO, there was even less chemistry there than
with either Elinor Donahue or Aneta Corsaut. But at least there
was some explanation as to why Andy and Peggy broke up: he
was stricken with an inferiority complex when he found out her
father was a wealthy businessman.
Joanna Moore had substance-abuse issues later in the '60s and beyond(she was married to Ryan O'Neal around the time she played Peggy, so that il-fated relationship and its consequences may have have had something to do with her losing what appeared to be a regular role on Andy's show).bpatrick said:
Elinor Donahue had a three year contract with the show and asked to be let out of it due to personal reasons that had nothing to do with anyone on the series. She said in an interview that she was exhausted from going right from Father's Knows Best into the Andy Griffith Show and that she really needed a break. She has wonderful memories of working with Andy Griffith and Don Knotts in fact the whole cast, she saved her thoughts of working with Ronnie Howard till almost the end by saying he was wonderful to work with and a gifted actor. I would be surprised to learn that she is not deeply saddened by the passing of Andy Griffith. It's all out there if one looks around the internet to find out the real story, she is a wonderful lady to say the least.
Oh just remembered: Elinor Donahue participated in "Mayberry Days" in Mount Airy a couple of years ago. She was even in the parade.
bpatrick said:
I'm not sure what you think Andy did to Elinor Donahue but according to several sources it was Elinor who volunteered to leave the show because she thought the boyfriend-girlfriend relationship between herself and Andy wasn't realistic. Andy is reported to have stated at the time that he was not able to portray the necessary "loving" relationship on-screen.
And that wasn't the only lack of chemistry between cast members.
Francis Bavier (Aunt Bee) and Andy reportedly did not get along at all and there is a well known incident where AG and Ron Howard actually went to visit Francis in 1972 and she refused to see them.
I don't know whether the fault lies with Andy or Francis but Andy was known in the industry as a rather prickly person in private life and in business dealings.
Re: RIP Andy Griffith age 86
I think that moving production of "Matlock" from L.A. to N.C. was a factor in a few of those cast changes, in addition to the network change.
Baiscally, "Matlock" was a southernized Perry Mason - Dean Hargrove, the show's creator, was the one who brought Raymond Burr back as Mason in several TV-movies which he and Fred Silverman produced. "Matlock" initially used the same crew and producers as the Mason movies.
I don't recall Elinor Donahue saying anything cross about Andy, but I know that other cast members spoke of how often Frances Bavier complained about the scripts.
I think that moving production of "Matlock" from L.A. to N.C. was a factor in a few of those cast changes, in addition to the network change.
Baiscally, "Matlock" was a southernized Perry Mason - Dean Hargrove, the show's creator, was the one who brought Raymond Burr back as Mason in several TV-movies which he and Fred Silverman produced. "Matlock" initially used the same crew and producers as the Mason movies.
I don't recall Elinor Donahue saying anything cross about Andy, but I know that other cast members spoke of how often Frances Bavier complained about the scripts.
She says in this interview that she started performing at the age of 2 in VAUDEVILLE!RadioStarOne said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5EJxdRUtrM&feature=related
Al Timiter said:
Yes it is sad. Not only that, WLTX is WFMY's sister station.
landtuna said:
Perhaps I am wrong about the working relationship between Andy and Elinor (I've been wrong before) but I do wish, with hindsight, that some explanation had been given about Ellie's disappearance from the show. But I will not change my opinion that, regardless of whatever Andy thought about their chemistry, they were great together, better than with either Joanna Moore or Aneta Corsaut. But the show did misuse Jack Burns, giving him Don Knotts' lines. And while Barney had a likeable streak despite his unsuccessful attempts to be a tough law-enforcement officer, Warren was just plain overbearing, and I personally wasn't too sorry to see Burns go back to working with Avery Schreiber on variety shows, including their own on ABC in 1972.
I also know that Frances Bavier was known to complain about the scripts within earshot of the writers. One notable example was at a Christmas party for cast and crew one year when she said something to the effect that she could enjoy working on the show if they had better scripts, with two of the show's writers just a foot or two away.
I've told this story before, but Ron Howard came to Siler City to visit Ms. Bavier, stopped a friend of mine to ask directions to Ms. Bavier's house, then (as I understand it, I wasn't living here then) got turned away at the front door. I also find it noteworthy that Andy was filming "Matlock" in Wilmington, about 150 miles away, yet did not come to Ms. Bavier's funeral.
It's rather interesting that when a celebrity is living in a small town, they often contribute little to it. Most people I know who were here in the '70s and '80s remember Frances Bavier as a recluse who did little for the community; people in Shelbyville, KY, say that Col. Sanders didn't do much for the town (but then again, he was on the road a lot).
The cable access TV station in my town had been running a 24 hour Danny Thomas marathon and one of the shows featured Andy Griffith, which eventually lead to the start of Andy's program.
What I found interesting is that one of the numerous character actors that appeared on that segment was none other than Francis Bavier who played the part of a widow (not Aunt Bee) whose husband was buried in a rented suit. She lamented to Sheriff Andy that she rented the suit because she wanted to late husband, who was a failure in life, to go out in style. But because she had to pay for the rented suit after her husband was buried in it, she could not afford to pay her taxes.
Any ways the point I am trying to make is that its ironic that Bavier, who was basically an unknown actress at the time, went on to achieve fame because of this series yet here we read how she didn't get along with cast members and complained about the show's scripts yet she not only stayed with the Andy Griffith Show for most of its run but also was on Mayberry RFD until Fred Silverman (then at CBS) cancelled the program.
Bavier's attitude reminds me of the old adage about biting the hand that feeds you.
Here is a situation where a number of actors came and went from that show, yet Ms. Bavier sticks around for its entire run, yet it appears all she did was complain. Maybe instead of Elinor Donahue leaving after the first season it should have been Ms. Bavier who should have been asked to leave if she didn't enjoy working with the cast and crew.
What I found interesting is that one of the numerous character actors that appeared on that segment was none other than Francis Bavier who played the part of a widow (not Aunt Bee) whose husband was buried in a rented suit. She lamented to Sheriff Andy that she rented the suit because she wanted to late husband, who was a failure in life, to go out in style. But because she had to pay for the rented suit after her husband was buried in it, she could not afford to pay her taxes.
Any ways the point I am trying to make is that its ironic that Bavier, who was basically an unknown actress at the time, went on to achieve fame because of this series yet here we read how she didn't get along with cast members and complained about the show's scripts yet she not only stayed with the Andy Griffith Show for most of its run but also was on Mayberry RFD until Fred Silverman (then at CBS) cancelled the program.
Bavier's attitude reminds me of the old adage about biting the hand that feeds you.
Here is a situation where a number of actors came and went from that show, yet Ms. Bavier sticks around for its entire run, yet it appears all she did was complain. Maybe instead of Elinor Donahue leaving after the first season it should have been Ms. Bavier who should have been asked to leave if she didn't enjoy working with the cast and crew.
Somewhere I read that Andy Griffith wasn't really acting when he played the part of "Lonesome Rhodes". That the character was very close to Griffith's true personality.landtuna said:
Griffith and Howard reportedly did try to meet with Bavier and she refused to see them. She was at the stage in her life of being a recluse and didn't want anything to do with anyone or be reminded of once being Aunt Bee.
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