Comments for The Easygoing Lies of Andy Taylor at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 32 out of 20 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Thu, 23 May 2013 04:55:37 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15598 Given that our modern shows are 'Sixteen and pregnant' and 'Housewives of blah blah blah' I will take Andy Griffith and his courtly charms and easy going ways any day. - Abigail Wilder Fri, 01 Feb 2013 14:54:28 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15548 Thank you, Sue. I used MTM as an example only because it had been mentioned by a commenter. Dick van Dyke had tremendous talent that we enjoyed, but I didn't recognize the incipient feminist propaganda, since she was a housewife and RoseMarie was a spinster secretary, either of which were not unfamiliar to me. Fortunately for us, our TV broke shortly after we moved to Seattle in 1968, and we couldn't afford a new one. We bought one again just before moving back east in 1980. I did see an episode of "All in the Family" and disliked it immensely. I had had enough of hippies during the previous 12 years. Those hippies are still around, of course, and haven't changed an iota, but now they dress better. I haven't watched a sitcom since. - Maggie-Louise Mon, 28 Jan 2013 04:36:54 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15546 Maggie Louise, if you think Mary Tyler Moore was harmless, you should read "Prime Time Propaganda: the True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took over your TV". It has a chapter on the Dick Van Dyke Show, and another one on the Mary Tyler Moore. Of the former, it connected Kennedy-era glamor with nascent feminism of the time. Of the latter, it claimed (and proved imo), "there is a direct and purposeful line between Mary Tyler Moore and Friends and Sex and the City". "Andy of Mayberry" is not in the book, but "Happy Days", "All in the Family", and many other socially transformative sitcoms are. The author explains the general mindset of Hollywood to go after the youth audience, and connects this to the Frankfurt School's purpose of entrenching cultural Marxism. In fact, many of Hollywood's corrupting personalities were Frankfurters imported via Paul Lazarsfield of Columbia University. The book is a fascinating read for those (like myself) who grew up on sitcoms. - Sue Mon, 28 Jan 2013 01:58:21 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15538 In the interests of understanding (I hope), let me say that this discussion falls under the category of trying to judge one era on the cultural circumstances of another. In the era of Griffith and Mary Tyler Moore, people were more relaxed, the mood of the country was optimistic, more trusting, less uptight than now. We knew that TV was not reality and didn't expect it to be. Yes, a lie is a lie is a lie is a lie. However, in those days, everyone knew that Griffith's lie was a lie and we went along with the fun. What else is a magician's performance, after all, but a lie from beginning to end? But Lord help the real flesh-and-blood student, child, politician, or business man who was caught lying. In those days, real-life lying was not accepted and the consequences were real--in forming the character of one's child or when the stability of the body politic was in jeopardy. In the area of politics and families, teachers and students, a lie was roundly condemned and called by its name, and incurred real-life punishment. These days, we demand that Andy Griffith tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth but we let politicians and presidents and Secretaries of State get away with the most vile, blatant, outrageous lies. However, to speak aloud the word "lie" is so politically incorrect that people turn verbal cartwheels to avoid using it. Today we say, "mis-spoke" or, if really blatant,"falsehood", all the while lying to ourselves that what we just heard was not REALLY a lie. The whole discussion is but one more example of what I have been trying to say all along: The revolution of 1968 was so successful in throwing previous generations down the memory hole, that no one who reached adulthood after 1968 has even a mental picture of what life was like when people didn't lie to themselves and each other. (Of course there were exceptions, bad people, etc.etc. etc., but you get the picture.) People who had come through the Depression and the two world wars knew reality when they saw it or heard it. So, please, let's give Andy Grifiths and Mary Tyler Moore a break. As far as Griffiths' later political advocacy, well, we'll just pretend that we didn't remember him as the Sheriff. - Maggie-Louise Sun, 27 Jan 2013 15:58:17 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15533 Mary Tyler Moore Show was the same - "The Lie" was the basic plot element in every episode. But she lied so cutely! - Tom Sun, 27 Jan 2013 10:44:23 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15525 Sorry, meant to say the 19th century. - Sue Sun, 27 Jan 2013 05:40:50 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15523 Another point in favor of trashing Santa Claus and reviving Saint Nicholas. Santa looks disturbingly like Karl Marx (google a picture of Karl Marx's gravestone and you'll see what I mean). Santa's rise as a secular figure of profligate benificence also tracks the Marxian goal of replacing God with the State in some never-never Utopia. Yes, Virginia, there is no Uncle Santa. Another recent appearance of Santa is his disturbing cameo, in flagrante delicto, in the movie Les Miserables. Which some Catholics too easily ignore, falling over themselves to laud the movie because it tips the hat to the Church in certain ways. All the same, the very last (not the penultimate) scene of the movie is a Marxian, not a Christian, apotheosis. If you read up on Hugo and history, Marx and Santa (who both got their first American jobs as propagandists for the North in the Civil War) the eighteenth century provides a fascinating backdrop to the century that followed. - Sue Sun, 27 Jan 2013 03:29:26 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15515 Thank you, Mr. Grump. You are very kind, especially for your assurance that I am not in over my head among such erudite people. May God be with you in your coming surgery. I will write the date on the calendar and my husband and I will offer Mass for you that day. It will be at 5:30 PM (EST), so you should be on your way to recovery. It is so good to read your comments. I hear a new voice lately. --M - Maggie-Louise Sat, 26 Jan 2013 08:33:08 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15513 My Dear Maggie-Louise: No apology needed. I can commiserate with your vision problems. I have been blind in my right eye since birth and have cataracts in both eyes. In fact, the one in my good eye is scheduled for surgery Feb. 20 and I am hoping for a good outcome. Thank YOU for being part of this forum. God be with you and yours. - Grump Sat, 26 Jan 2013 03:42:49 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15511 Anyone who has followed the late Andy Griffith's career knows that as an actor he has a mischievious side. A FACE IS THE CROWD remains a classic early study of the diabolical power of mass media and the frauds who exploit it. Sheriff Taylor also loves to tease Deputy Fife over his love life. There's a touch of devilishness to it. Even a bit cruel if you stretch it a bit. In fact Andy Griffith would have been quite believable in a remake of THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER as Mr. Scratch. I'm not arguing for situational ethics but you do have to put Andy Taylor's behavior in the context of the stories. And stories are everything in the South that I also claim as my personal and cultural heritage. And sometimes telling a story involves telling a whopper. As you may know the show is still used by evangelical Bible study groups. And please, if you can, watch the Mr. McBeevee episode. If a sitcom can be powerful, this is exhibit No. 1 for that case. How many parents will acknowledge that they have failed to have faith in their own child? I never fail to tear up when I see it. And keep in mind that most of what Hollywood produces today is based upon one lie after another about who we are as human beings, about God, about the Church, about the Sacrament of Marriage, and about the sanctity of human life. And as the South once again finds itself in the sites of the Left (see Rep. Charlie Rangel's recent comments) I'm going to defend one the best shows every made about it. - Graham Combs Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:28:30 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15510 My dear Mr. Grump, I do apologize for the mistake. I promise to be more careful in the future, since this is the second time I have done this. I have a cataract in the center of the vision in my left eye and scar tissue on the retina of my right eye that leave black spots and that make straight lines wavy, but I'm so used to the distortions that I don't always notice that I am not tracking properly. I will make a greater effort in the future. Thank you for reminding us of that wonderful word "chivalry". It's a beautiful word and still in force here and there--in our house and yours, for a start. - Maggie-Louise Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:49:51 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15509 Grump, i always make a point of giving a big thanks and warm smile to any man brave enough to be chivalrous and give up his seat, open the door etc. for a woman, not knowing what reaction he will get! Keep up the good work. - Louise Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:37:24 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15508 Maggie, you misdirected your comment as I was not the one who suggested "we need to start where we are now." I am the most conservative of people and do not like change for change sake. When the government announced that women will now be allowed to fight wars just like men, the knee-jerk liberal reaction was to evoke "equality." Now women can die just like men. Wow, what an achievement in the name of "civil rights." That men and women differ physically, biologically and in other ways makes no difference to the modern mind. We must strive for "equality" in everything; not just in opportunity but in outcomes. What folly! Chivalry, if indeed it ever existed in pure form (even the 14th knights were selective) is totally dead. I'd still give up my seat in the subway to a woman half my age if I were still living in NYC. I'm the odd duck in the pond for sure. - Grump Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:02:55 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15507 "If were going to change our culture we need to start where we are" But Mr. Grump, how can we "start where we are" to rebuild a culture if we don't have a model or picture of what is possible or a goal toward which to move? When the intact family is a thing of the past, or at best an anomaly, ridiculed at that (as I read recently), how can anyone aspire to recreate it? As Hilaire Belloc said in his book on the Reformation, two generations after the monasteries were destroyed, no one knew what those demolished buildings were for. No one knew that there was a Faith to return to. " that so much of it was an unsustainable facade" I don't agree. My husband and I have sustained our family life and it is no facade. It has held up for almost 58 years and in no danger of collapsing. Our children have told us that they appreciate the fact that they had a stable home and family, and structure to come home to. A facade? I don't think so. My parents sustained their family life, raising five children during the Depression-- often without work or heat in the home--and then sent three of them off to war. That was no facade. Society, of course, wasn't perfect. It is always in need of reform. It is commonly thought that the civil rights era began in the 60s. It had its roots in the '40s and early '50s, right after the war, and even during the war. I was 12 at the end of the war and very much aware of that need of reform. A moral society can be achieved only by moral people, but when the very idea of a moral society is denied, what chance is there? I have no hope for our country, but our country is not where we are supposed to place our hope. However, that doesn't mean that we should let it turn into a cesspool until the Second Coming. - Maggie-Louise Fri, 25 Jan 2013 11:20:00 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15506 Will Manly, I find it incredible that several on here take offense to Mr. Ruse compact last line. Have you seen network television lately? If is offensive beyond toleration. The sexual perversion pedaled in it is deplorable. By comparison, Mr. Ruse’s last line is genteel. What does a lesbian call herself today anyway? The Catholic Church calls her “imago Dei”. She calls herself a lesbian. Are the homosexuals the first to call themselves by their addiction? I don’t know, but they are wrong about this. The Holy Father says of the marriage controversy “The central question in this dispute is whether the fundamental nature of gender, personhood and marriage is forever fixed or forever in flux.” If you have more empathy for the self named “lesbian” than you do indignation at the deplorable homosexual agenda propagated by our media and universities, you might well consider yourself on the wrong side of our Holy Father’s wise statement. These are changing times, but the virtues never change, and the Truth, the Logos, is immutable. We would be wise to conform to it rather than contrive to have it conform to us. - Augustine Fri, 25 Jan 2013 10:30:04 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15505 @ Augustine Actually the food/sex analogy was an unconvincing one by Lewis. We do in fact display food in ways designed to visually stimulate the appetite. Maybe not in Lewis' Britain never much known for great cuisine. But in France yes...or any other country which has absorbed the gourmet ethos. Watch any of the cooking shows Austin and his daughters do and you'll see food porn in action--mostly comprised of dishes that viewers will never make themselves but end up only fantasizing about, with none of the calories to burn off or the mess to clean up afterwards. Sort of bizarre in a way no? This is very different than real pornography of course--but both things are possible because we know intuitively that food and sex are both or should be immensely pleasurable and never simply functional. @ Grump I agree the JFK assassination changed the country for the worse. But we still can't go back to the 50's and I don't see why so much energy is expended imagining that we can or failing to see why some people (blacks, minorities, some women, gays) don't see this as appealing at all. If were going to change our culture we need to start where we are, not based on the selective memories of how things used to be. - diaperman Fri, 25 Jan 2013 09:49:47 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15503 To Diaperman, et al. Obviously, you were still a gleam in your pa's eye when I was growing up in the '50's. Yeah, we hid under our desks during air raid drills and there were supposedly commies everywhere, but it was an idyllic time to me. After JFK's death, this nation was never the same. You can have your flower kids/long-haired, draft-dodging, flag-burning hippies/drug-trenched/sexually liberated/cool Aquarius generation. I'll take Ike, Ozzie & Harriett and the good old days when the worst thing you could do in class was chew gun. - Grump Fri, 25 Jan 2013 08:33:35 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15502 Please Ed, our Catechesism said "we cannot control" these attractions? Utter nonsense! Public education has destroyed literacy, reason, logic and philosophy. - Augustine Fri, 25 Jan 2013 08:12:44 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15501 The only wholesome tv station is ewtn. If you remember CS Lewis, I think it was in Mere Christitanity, though I don’t remember exactly, he was explaining sexual morals and how out of whack they have become by giving the then ridiculous analogy of imploring us to imagine if one were to bring a fine meal cooked and hidden under a tin and if someone brought it out and slowly and provocatively removed the cover and an audience were to hoot and howl, he pointed out that we would clearly see that we have a problem with our appetites. The food network illustrates that we would no longer see clearly that our appetites are disordered because this is exactly what they do now on the network. Also, it is a network pushing the homosexual agenda of tolerance. It too is bad television. We cut the cable 2 years ago and it has been blissful! The effect on the kids is huge. - Augustine Fri, 25 Jan 2013 08:10:12 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-easygoing-lies-of-andy-taylor.html#comment-15500 An author whose college sociology textbook I was producing asked for "photos of a corny 1950s family on a picnic". When I sent him a selection of family picnic photos, I wrote, "We did not consider ourselves "corny". We were believed we were creating stable, loving families." me: yep...you're about my Dad's age based on your comments. I saw his old family movies too in the DVD edition. To all appearances it is of a stable loving family having a picnic after Church. But unseen in the video is the fact that the father is a serial adulterer and two of the adult women are terrible alcoholics whose two children (happily playing in the video) grow up to be in turn 1) homosexual and 2)married five times. Everything that erupted in the 70's seemingly out of nowhere was there in the 50's too just beneath the surface. The fifties in my mind as you present it is alot like Andy Taylor's Mayberry--Hollywood's fictive creation of a southern town where black people, Jews and Catholics were happily invisible--and homosexuality had never even been heard of. It's not reality. The reason the 50's ethos collapsed so quickly in the 60's Louise was that so much of it was a unsustainable facade in the first place. Yes the 60's and the 70's swung way too far in the other direction but that doesn't mean the 50's could ever have been a permanent equilibrium. - diaperman Fri, 25 Jan 2013 07:44:25 +0100