As unlikely as it seems, Andy Griffith almost didn’t star on The Andy Griffith Show.
In a resurfaced interview with the TV Academy, the late actor recalled meeting with Abraham Lastfogel, the then-president of the William Morris talent agency, in the late 1950s about the state of his career after a string of dead-end opportunities.
“I had not done well in the last number of years, professionally,” Griffith explained. “I had done a movie that was a turkey called Onionhead. I went back to Broadway with [Destry Rides Again], a musical. It ran a year on a ‘twofer,’ you know — where you have two tickets for the price of one.”
Griffith remembered telling Lastfogel, “I’ve struck out at movies and in the theater. And I don’t want to go back to nightclubs. Maybe I should try television.”
His venture into a new realm of the entertainment industry progressed when Sheldon Leonard — who ultimately created The Andy Griffith Show — visited him in New York with a pitch for a new TV series.
“He told me this notion he had for a show about a sheriff in a small town,” Griffith said. “And I didn’t really like the idea but I liked Sheldon a lot. And I asked him to come back and see me, which he did.”
Even after Leonard returned, Griffith was hesitant about the concept.
“I still didn’t like the idea,” he confessed, “but I liked him, so I went with it.”
The Andy Griffith Show skyrocketed Griffith to fame as he portrayed Andy Taylor — the sheriff of the fictional Mayberry, North Carolina — on the CBS sitcom for eight seasons from October 1960 to April 1968. He starred alongside Don Knotts as Andy’s best friend and deputy, Barney Fife, Frances Bavier as his aunt, Bee Taylor, and a young Ron Howard as his son, Opie Taylor.
The show has remained a vital part of Griffith’s legacy since his July 2012 death at age 86 following a heart attack.
