"The Passion of Andy"
I had a chance to duck into the Mint Museum of Craft and Design in uptown Charlotte the other day. The most arresting exhibit is "The Passion of Andy," a series of ceramic figurines by Russell Biles.
The artist explains: "In my series The Passion of Andy I place Mayberry in our contemporary society. The virtues that once sanctified Sheriff Andy now instigate his down fall through the hands of misguided faith. Simply, the outcome reflects the reality of how far our world is removed from the fantasy of The Andy Griffith Show."
In Biles' vision, Andy conducts a same-sex wedding ceremony for Floyd and Howard, incurring the murderous wrath of a Christian fundamentalist, who shoots the sheriff through the heart. Opie vows revenge.
Meanwhile, Aunt Bee is trying to survive without the medications she can't afford. Gomer has been shipped off to Iraq, where he loses his legs. Poor old Goober has to work at Wal-Mart. (He should invite Aunt Bee to get her meds there for $4 each.) Otis and Ernest T. have their stories, too.
In so many words, modern America is now the anti-Mayberry. Those sappy, old-fashioned values get you nothing at the end of the episode.
That's a shocking message, except that all of us who used to watch "The Andy Griffith Show" when we were kids grew up to learn a few things about the real world. But we still appreciate the fictional place where conflicts can be settled in 30 minutes with a little homespun humor, simple wisdom and respect for others, where fast talkers from the big city never get away with taking advantage of the local yokels, where everyone is so trustworthy you can even operate a jail on the honor system.
If our society isn't much like that today, well, shame on us. It ought to be.
Comments (3)
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If our society isn't much like that today, well, shame on us. It ought to be.*Doug Clark
Right! We can get back to hanging Blacks for voting and making real moonshine that won't harm anybody and having our sons drafted into the military along with blacklisting folks who might have attended a communist party meeting by accident or driving a 48 Chev on a very dangerous single lane curve road. Or better yet having Opie working at the local texile mill 12 hours a day without child labor laws. Look on the bright side side Doug. Opie is a billion dollar movie producer, and Andy has defeated Nifong for the 3rd time in the trial of the century. Floyd has open up a chain of Supercuts shops thoughout the nation and lives in Boca Raton Florida with his 5th teenage wife at the Boca Raton Polo club. Meanwhile Aunt Bee though modern medical research has just had her 110 birthday party at the hotest Vegas Trump Casio and dance her way as the top showgirl in Vegas grossing over 40 million a year.
Gomer has just return from Iraq as a war hero and bought peace to the middleeast and now running for Governor of California along with being the biggest Bathhouse owner in the West.
Goober is now the chief CEO of NASCAR and Otis is now a info cable TV star on the power of postive thinking over control substances in your life.
And to really top it off. Ernest T. and Howard were the joint space Shuttle pilots who save the International Space Station for the future helping the children of the Earth.
Oh! And Russell Biles was mug by a rap gang on the new Charlotte Rapid Transit system and serving time for trying to solict sex from the gang members. It's the 21 st century and the information age. Deal with it!
Posted on December 29, 2006 1:53 PM
"If society is much like that today, shame on us".
I suspect society wasn't much like that when the show was first on TV either, thus the appeal of the show.
TV sells fantasy.
Where's that g.d. clicker?
Posted on December 30, 2006 1:28 PM
Connie-girl,
Don't you have anything to do with your time now that your wife lost the election? Please stop barging in on every blog, every strand. It's almost a new year. Turn over a new leaf please.
Posted on December 31, 2006 7:03 PM