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5 reasons Andy Griffith's flop 'Headmaster' deserved to be a hit
Mayberry fans were not ready for a cutting-edge Andy.
Image: The Everett Collection
Even legends have their flops. When Andy Griffith ended The Andy Griffith Show in 1968, it was the No. 1 show on television. Mayberry fans might look down on those later color episodes, but that eighth and final season was the only year the sitcom ranked as the most-watched show in America. Following up that cherished franchise was going to be a challenge for the star no matter what. He made it harder on himself by trying something radically different.
In that regard, Headmaster is the Mr. Bad Guy of television.
What is Mr. Bad Guy, you rightly ask? (Heck, you might even be asking what Headmaster is.) In 1985, Freddie Mercury, inarguably one of the greatest rock frontmen of all time, dropped his debut solo album, Mr. Bad Guy. It was a platter full of synthetic pop music. He dedicated it to his cat. Queen fans rejected the glossy discotheque ambitions of Mercury. The record peaked at No. 159 on the charts.
The moral of the story is: Don't alienate your fanbase. Alas, Andy Griffith opted into Headmaster 15 years earlier, before he could learn that lesson. He left behind his Mayberry settings for — gasp! — a private school in Southern California. His character, the titular headmaster of the Concord School, tackled the issues facing the youth of the day. The content was closer to Room 222 than Mayberry R.F.D.
The premiere episode was about a boy (Butch Patrick!) being peer-pressured into doing drugs. The next episode centered around a teacher wearing a miniskirt. The rest of that brief first season featured parent-teacher crises, marital problems, and rebel youth. You can imagine the Aunt Bees in the audience fanning themselves and nearly fainting.
After 14 episodes, Headmaster was drastically retooled and transformed into The New Andy Griffith Show — which was set back in idyllic North Carolina.
Headmaster had its merits. Despite Griffith deeming it "a very bad show." He was probably just sore from getting drubbed by The Partridge Family in the ratings. Here are some reasons Griffith's first bold step away from Mayberry deserved more of a chance.
Watch The Andy Griffith Show on MeTV!
Weeknights at 8 & 8:30, Sundays at 12 & 6 PM
*available in most MeTV markets1. It featured the first reunion of Ronny Howard and Andy Griffith.
Ronny Howard (pictured here in the Disney TV movie Smoke that same year) was still a mere 16 years old in 1970. Following the end of The Andy Griffith Show, he made an appearance on his brother Clint's series, Gentle Ben. Then, he teamed up with his ol' TV pa, Andy, on Headmaster in the episode "Will the Real Mother of Tony Landis Please Stand Up?" Howard played an incorrigible youth needing straightening out. While this was the biggest Mayberry reunion on Headmaster, it was not the only one. Olan Soule, who played Mayberry's choral director on The Andy Griffith Show, popped up in the episode "Bach Rock" as the school's music teacher.
Image: The Everett Collection
2. It foreshadowed 'Coach.'
Claudette Nevins costarred as the headmaster's wife. Rounding out the cast was Jerry Van Dyke, no stranger to working with Griffith. Remember, he had played a potential Barney Fife replacement in "Banjo-Playing Deputy." Headmaster cast Van Dyke as the lovable-loser football coach. Sound familiar? His Coach Jerry Brownell was basically a dry run for Luther Van Dam, his character on Coach. That sitcom ran for a decade, so clearly there was potential for more sports humor here.
Image: The Everett Collection
3. Linda Ronstadt sang the theme song.
The iconic singer was just getting her career started in 1970. She had recently scored her first hit (and first Grammy nomination) with "Long, Long Time," when CBS roped her in to sing "Only a Man," the theme song to Headmaster. It was perhaps the folkiest thing about the show. Listen to it here. She would go on to win a dozen more Grammys and many more nominations.
Image: Capitol Records
4. It featured the screen debut of Mark Hamill.
In one episode called "The Experiment," headmaster Andy Thompson sends a group of teens into the woods to "start a society" as a social studies exercise. One of those kids is "Allan," portrayed by Hamill, a drama major from Los Angeles City College. Luke Skywalker met Sheriff Andy Taylor and there is not a single image to show for it. Good luck finding a scrap of this episode.
Image: The Everett Collection
5. There was no laugh track.
Headmaster took a bold chance by eschewing a laugh track. Certainly, it was a more dramatic series, but it still featured Jerry Van Dyke and Andy Griffith. Even M*A*S*H, the king of dramedies, relied on a laugh track. The use of laugh tracks would eventually fall out of favor in Hollywood. Headmaster was years ahead of the curve.
Image: CBS
SEE MORE: Andy Griffith was unexpectedly brilliant in his TV movies, playing killers, sociopaths and alcoholics
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33 Comments
"M*A*S*H" didn't "rely" on a laugh track -- the show's producers hated it, and unsuccessfully fought CBS to drop it (they were allowed to eliminate the laught track for a few fully dramatic episodes, most notably the great "The Interview").
To the credit of 20th Century-Fox Home Video, the DVDs of the series feature an alternative audio channel with no laugh track, so that viewers have the option of watching the show as the producers intended.
Blessed for his entertainment.
"Viewing this series now is a rarity, despite the big name lead. It is not on YouTube, has had no DVD release, did not show up in syndication, and seldom is available with private collectors. One episode, "One for the Gipper," is archived in the collection at the Paley Center for Media."
Production company: ADA