Whatever higher power you may believe in, thank it, because nothing short of divine intervention led to one of the greatest television series of all time. 

Can you imagine a world without The Andy Griffith Show? It would've meant a completely different television landscape for the 1960s. American culture would be significantly different. Because what would we hold onto if there wasn't a Gomer Pyle, or even a Barney Fife? How different would Hollywood be if little Opie Taylor hadn't had the chance to observe and soak in what happens on a Hollywood set? Would Ron Howard still have grown up to conquer the movie theater?

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Luckily for all of us who exist in this timeline, we'll never have to really answer those questions, because of course, The Andy Griffith Show exists. But, for part of his youth, Griffith was more committed to his faith than his funniness. That's because, while he was growing up, the boy who would be Sheriff of Mayberry wanted to be a minister.

 So, what changed? What steered Andy Griffith away from the altar and towards the limelight? To hear Griffith tell the story, the decision was based in that same faith that compelled him to preach in the first place.

"God has been part of my life, part of my decision and the cause of success," Griffith told the Baraboo News Republic in 2005. "I suppose I have thought about this many times: perhaps God has—and I thank him for it—a reason for me not to go into the ministry. I wouldn't have been any good at it anyway. He led me these different ways, including teaching for a while, and he gave me an idea one day to write a comedy monologue on a song that Johnny Ray sang called 'Please Mr. Sun,' and I got laughs. I said 'Wait a minute. I think I am onto something here.'"

Thank God.

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