From the Goodreads synopsis: A lively and revealing biography of Andy Griffith and Don Knotts, celebrating the powerful real-life friendship behind one of America's most iconic television programs.
Andy Griffith and Don Knotts met on Broadway in the 1950s. When Andy went to Hollywood to film a TV pilot about a small-town sheriff, Don called to ask if the sheriff could use a deputy. The comedic synergy between Sheriff Andy Taylor and Deputy Barney Fife ignited The Andy Griffith Show, elevating a folksy sitcom into a timeless study of human friendship, as potent off the screen as on. Andy and Don -- fellow Southerners born into poverty and raised among scofflaws, bullies, and drunks -- captured the hearts of Americans across the country as they rocked lazily on the front porch, meditating about the simple pleasure of a bottle of pop.
But behind this sleepy, small-town charm, de Vise's exclusive reporting reveals explosions of violent temper, bouts of crippling neurosis, and all-too-human struggles with the temptations of fame. Andy and Don chronicles unspoken rivalries, passionate affairs, unrequited loves, and friendships lost and regained. Although Andy and Don ended their Mayberry partnership in 1965, they remained best friends for the next half-century, with Andy visiting Don at his death bed.
Written by Don Knotts's brother-in-law and featuring extensive unpublished interviews with those closest to both men, Andy and Don is the definitive literary work on the legacy of The Andy Griffith Show and a provocative and an entertaining read about two of America's most enduring stars.
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My review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book! One of those ones that you have to tear yourself away from to go to work, with regret. One of the most beloved shows on the air, and hugely popular in the South (this book review coming from a small town in Alabama), they play episodes so much here. Though not totally surprising, as I read more and more about famous actors and public people, it was saddening to read the humble and traumatic beginnings of both actors. Don was slapped around by his schizophrenic father, who would chase him around the house with a knife, and an older brother would bully him and slap him as well. His Christian Fundamentalism he was raised under, fire and brimstone preaching, kept him worried about if he was saved or not, finally driving him to agnosticism. He worried a lot that since he never had a rush of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues and jumping around, that he wasn't saved. It bothered him greatly. He also had a tendency to illness, turning over time into hypochondria, so he was often ill even when he wasn't, and in denial when he really was ill. The human mind is an odd thing sometimes. Nonetheless, he used comedy, as many an actor with difficult childhoods, as a protection. If he was bullied at school, because he was thin and sickly, he would make them laugh and gain a friend instead of an enemy and thus survive. He spent many hours at his uncle's barbershop, which he was able to draw on to ultimately contribute into Floyd's barbershop on the Andy Griffith Show. His father passed away when he was 12, allowing him to then begin to grow and blossom.
Also of interest is his joining the army. He tried to get out of it, not enlisting until he was drafted, he thought he would get a waiver because he was 1 lb. underweight, but was horrified to find out later that he had gained 10 lbs. and would not be exempted! He then started trying to find the safest options of where to go, and thought he had a way out when he was sent to Detachment X, the Army's version of the USO, where various army men were drawn from the different branches that had a background in entertainment. They were to go to the front lines, just after an attack, to try entertain the soldiers and raise morale. It rained constantly much of the time, mud was in abundance, bombing from the Japanese all around, so when sirens would sound they would stop performing, dive into foxholes, then continue the show. He eventually feared for his sanity and wondered if he was turning into his father, until he was sent for a while to Australia, where it was warm and dry, to rest, and restored his spirits.
The book goes back and forth between Andy and Don's stories throughout. Andy was a mamma's boy, she dressed him in hand sewn clothes and exerted her influence on him greatly, pampering him and pretty manipulative, and he tended to be more private, staying at home, as she did not approve of him going out and getting dirty. She could do more for him than some other families could for their children because he was an only child as vs. to some of the other boys that came from a family of say 8 kids, and the budget was much more stretched, so he was poor but they were poorer. This caused him to be bullied as an outsider since he didn't run outside wild getting dirty and staying out late with the other boys, especially as he was somewhat shy and naturally clumsy. He felt second-class most of the time due to this and took what actions he did to try to get out of his home town. He also learned to use humor to his advantage, turning the tables and getting his antagonists to laugh with him and not at him.
Andy and Don were extremely close, more than they were with anyone else, even their wives. Andy felt little jealousy in playing straight to Don's comedy, which was unusual for him. He could be jealous, suspicious, and have an explosive temper. He also could hold a grudge for 50 years. But when it came to his friendship with Don he was willing to make the sacrifice most of the time, in fact if he was given a great joke and he felt in read-through that Don could do it better, he would give up the joke for Don to do. And he was a man of many emotions and character, in the words of Andy's nephew, "Andy was famous, but he was also a decent fellow, the sort that would hand you a $20 bill and the car keys on a Friday night".
The book also goes into both men's full careers and brief meanders into many of the Mayberry characters such as Howard, Gomer, Goober and Aunt Bea.
Well researched and thoroughly pleasurable, delightful book, 4 stars.
I received this book as an Advanced Reader Copy from Netgalley.com
