Maybe not, but when the actor did make a decision, it was usually a smart one. "I never saw no sense in rushin' things." "Jest wanted to know who I wuz dealin' with," Griffith answered in his trademark "aw shucks" manner. "Why all this advance rigmarole?" Leonard recalled asking. He let the producer wait a good while before having his manager call Leonard in for yet another talk, then quickly put his name on the contract when the producer arrived. In the second meeting, he began slowly but deliberately asking questions about the show, where it would go and the money behind it in an exaggerated drawl (Griffith slowed his speech down and exaggerated his Southern accent to disarm people), then left without signing anything.
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Griffith Show producer-creator Sheldon Leonard told TV Guide in 1961 that when he initially presented his idea for the show to Griffith, who'd already made a name for himself with a hit comedy record and some memorable work on Broadway and in movies ( A Face in the Crowd, No Time for Sergeants), the star-to-be, rather than jumping at the idea, just sat silently and let Leonard think he was a rube. For my cousin it was an art for Griffith it was a business. A late orthopedic-surgeon cousin of mine used to do much the same thing, talking about the "'lectric television" and playing the hayseed before running conversational rings around whoever took the bait and made fun of him at the dinner table.
The Mount Airy, N.C., native's usual MO was to play the slow-minded hick to the hilt, to soften up those who foolishly thought themselves his intellectual better a tactic that served the University of North Carolina graduate and former high-school teacher well in negotiations. It was probably one of the few times in Griffith's entertainment career that he ever started off with a more complex image and then simplified it. Then the producers decided the character should be more sharply defined and they quickly limited him to wearing the badge. When The Andy Griffith Show first launched as a spin-off of The Danny Thomas Show and began its eight-year run on CBS in October 1960, Sheriff Andy Taylor ( Matlock's Andy Griffith) not only enforced the law in Mayberry while raising young Opie (future filmmaker and Happy Days star Ron "Ronnie" Howard), he was also the town's justice of the peace and its newspaper editor, among other things.
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