Life’s Funny

Ted Talk

A few serious words about humor

by m ar i a Johnson To: Ted Koppel

From: Me

Re: Stay in your lane

Dear Mr. Koppel:

“How do you do, Mrs. Wile-y?”

Do these words mean anything to you?

Didn’t think so.

I’ll explain them later.

As you might have g uessed by now, I’m writing to you about your piece for CBS News Sunday Morning, the one you repor ted f rom the cit y of Mount A ir y, N.C., which was the hometown of Andy Grif fith and the inspiration for Mayberr y, the fictional setting of the The Andy Griffith Show.

Some people have called your stor y a hit piece on the show.

I don’t think it was a hit piece. ’Cause I think you missed the point entirely.

But first, I’ll give you kudos you deser ve. You’re awesome at crises. Really. W hen Iranian militants took 52 American hostages in 1979, you rightly dogged that stor y ever y night for 302 of the 444 days they were in captivit y. Your show, Nightline, ushered in an era of 24/7 news channels.

So, um . . . thank you?

A lso, a few years ago, you w rote a helluva book, which war ned about t he v u lner abi lit y of U.S. power g r ids to ot her count r ies. You did t his count r y a ser v ice in w r it ing t he book . In fact, I stood in line so you cou ld autog r aph my copy af ter your Br yan Ser ies lect ure here in 2018.

I gotta hand it to you. You’re a newshound ’s newshound, with a deep understanding of foreign actors.

But your understanding of comic actors?

Bro.

Stay home.

In your piece for Sunday Morning, you made an air tight case that Mayberr y was an idealized place, a fantasy island that failed to recognize political and racial tensions in the years the series was shot, 1960 –’68.

Ver y tr ue.

In fact, the spirit of the series was rooted even far ther back in time — in the

1930s and ’40s.

How do I know this?

Opie told me.

Ron Howard, the actor who played Opie Taylor on the show — and who has gone on to become one of Holly wood ’s most respected directors — recently teamed up with his brother, Clint, to tell the stor y of their growing up in Holly wood.

T he book is called The Boys, and, as you might expect, it spills a decent amount of ink on The Andy Griffith Show, which launched little red-headed Ronny to stardom.

As adult Ron tells it, Grif fith, who died in 2012, was at the height of his power when he created the show that bore his name.

He was coming of f a successf ul radio career — “W hat It Was Was Football ”— and a stint on Broadway. He’d just scored a major hit film, A Face in the Crowd, in which he played L onesome R hodes, a t wo -bit radio host who gains a following and “transforms into a lust y, egomaniacal demagog ue.”

Interesting, huh?

“Elia K azan was a brilliant director,” Howard writes. “But he had manipulated and provoked Andy to summon his darkest, ugliest thoughts and impulses, and the process about wrecked him. ‘I don’t ever want to do that again,’ Andy said. ‘I like to laugh when I’m work ing.’”

Howard continues.

“Andy, born in 1926, consciously set out to evoke the atmosphere of his youth in the 1930s and ’40s. People are nostalgic for The Andy Griffith Show now, but it’s impor tant to realize that, even then, it was

an evocation of a bygone era, and an idealized evocation at that.”

Still, Grif fith showed that he felt the pinch of discrimination — in maybe the only way that he, a handsome, successf ul white man, could have. He was eager to dispel the myth that all Southerners are stupid hayseeds.

“One of his major motivations for the sitcom was to por tray his world with humanit y and depth,” Howard writes.

And Grif fith did so, brilliantly, using humor.

Against the backdrop of innocence, Mayberr y’s stories unfold, time af ter time, with fools and their foibles.

No character is spared.

Sherif f Andy Taylor himself falls shor t in several episodes.

Because the stories are made up — and the writers could make them end with fair y tale precision — compassion and understanding always prevail.

Humilit y is usually the lesson.

L aughing at our own shor tcomings, as acted out by others, delivers the goods.

W hich brings us to a character named Ernest T. Bass.

If he existed today — which he does, in many forms — he might be called developmentally challenged. He’s r ude and cr ude, and he throws rocks through windows to get attention.

In one episode, “My Fair Ernest T. Bass,” a rif f on My Fair L ady, Sherif f Taylor and his bumbling sidek ick, Deput y Barney Fife — one of the f unniest T V characters of all time — tr y to remake Bass into a well-dressed, well-spoken gentleman so he might snare a girlf riend at a societ y f unction.

Are they condescending to presume that they could, or should, change Ernest T.? You bet.

But they press on. T hey coach him on how to greet his hostess properly — “How do you do, Mrs. Wiley?” Ernest T. labors mightily to learn the greeting and a few other pleasantries. At the par t y, he str uggles to make his well-rehearsed lines fit mismatched moments.

And we laugh. Because we feel the prick ly heat of his discomfor t. Because who among us hasn’t been caught flat-footed?

T he episode has a happy ending, of course. At the par t y, Ernest T. finds another sow’s ear pretending to be a silk purse — a woman who’s just as unpolished as he is — and they literally leapf rog into the sunset together.

W ho’s the fool here?

I dare say anyone who watches the rer uns could tell you, regardless of their political par t y. You made a serious misstep, Ted, in bringing presidential politics into your Sunday Morning piece.

Here’s my best Mayberr y-esque arm-round-your-shoulder advice: Stick to hostages and power outages.

And leave us Mayberr y fans alone, on our couches, with the laughter that takes us to places a news stor y can’t.

Best A lways,

MJ OH

Maria Johnson is a contributing editor of O.Henr y. Email her at ohenrymaria@gmail.com. By Maria Johnson

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