I grew up wishing Andy were my father. More than anything, I wanted Andy for a dad. He was always loving to Opie and fair and proud of him, and was just about the exact opposite of the one I got, though I love my father and know he did his best under hard circumstances. So, please, excuse me, Dana, but me and the girls at the Dime Store never once said (or even implied) that Andy was brutal with Opie or anyone else in our last post. It is simply not in the nature of the man to be brutal with anyone. What we meant was that when you compared the Andy in the black and white episodes to the Andy in the colored episodes there is a clear change in his demeanor--much like during the first season Andy has more of a hillbilly-kind of talking character and then he changed that part of him. He is Southern, just not so hillbilly, and frankly, I'm glad this change was made. If you'll notice, when the colored season first starts, Andy is not nearly so laid back. It may be because he's missing his friend Barney. But for whatever reason, Andy does seem grumpy and this is more apparent with Opie, I think. When Opie is taking care of Dolly the horse, Andy shows a remarkable lack of tenderness toward his child that I think the old Andy would have shown. This is my opinion. You are welcomed to disagree.
But I never said he was a bad parent or that he mistreated anyone. I said he often tried to play the nice guy to help those he loved, and his anger got shown to Opie more often than anyone else because Opie was the one who would take it. I never said he mistreated Opie. Big difference. And I do think there are several shows where Andy is just clearly more annoyed with Opie than maybe he should be, but that's my opinion. But can anyone explain to me why Andy did not tell Helen about the mix-up on "Dinner at Eight." I think the episode would have been better if Andy had gone to Helen's house first, then to Howard's. It would have been easier to understand his eating the third dinner without any explanation at all to Howard and his scary mother. For heaven sake's, Helen was his girlfriend! Just my feeling. Laura Lee Hobbs, Dime Store Clerk and Gold Truck Watcher and the one thing everybody knows is that Andy is a good father "But I do believe in Opie." ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more. _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list WBMUTBB@wbmutbb.com http://mail.wbmutbb.com/mailman/listinfo/wbmutbb_wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
