4 Comments

  1. I did a feature on A Face in The Crowd a few years back. I absolutely love this movie; I think as a social satire it belongs in a group with stuff like Ace in the Hole and Being There. It doesn’t have nearly the reputation those films do, and that’s a shame.

  2. alex

    I grew up in the 80’s and came of age watching re-runs of the Andy Griffith Show during the day and Bill Cosby revolutionize the family sitcom (which was supposedly dying) at night. Both became role models of mine (their television characters). I didn’t put both of these actor’s together but started thinking just recently how similar their television personos were and I was wondering just how much Bill Cosby stole (borrowed?) from Andy Griffith. Especially Andy Griffith’s television persona and also his ability to sell himself as being really folksy sheriff Andy Taylor in real life as well. Because the Real Andy Griffith did a masterful job convince al that he was just like the TV Andy.. and perhaps he was and everything that I have read kind of confirms that. But back to Bill Cosby.. I was reading an old story on Cosby in the 70’s where he was talking about how he looked up to Andy Griffith and considered him a role model. He cited specifically the Andy Griffith Show and the Jello Commercials they integrated into the broadcasts. There’s a few old commercials on youtube from the old Andy Griffith show that you can see on Youtube pitching Jello, Sanka coffee etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j28AcCWxEtc In these bits you can kind of see how Cosby took the Andy Griffith spokesman persona and kind of incorporated it two decades later into his own “pudding pop’s” stick. Also.. some much commonality in Sherriff Andy Taylor and Dr. Cliff Huxtable from the Cosby Show. Granted the shows were very different in nature, but the these two characters in particular kind of seem extremely similar in nature. I guess what I’m getting at is that Dr. William Cosby (Do some research on Cosby’s PhD and also his wife’s PhD. both may have been undeserved) copied a lot from Mr. Andy Griffith and pretty much developed his “Cosby” persona by lifting directly from Andy Griffith.

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