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This Andy Griffith Show guest star wrote the unheard theme song lyrics, too
Imagine that hat was yellow — he was Dick Tracy, too.
Is there a more recognizable theme song than that of The Andy Griffith Show? To this day, you can hear Matthew McConaughey whistling the ditty in Lincoln commercials. Anyone who can whistle can — and likely will — whistle this melody.
But that's the thing — it's more than a jaunty whistle. For starters, some folks might not know the title of the song, "The Fishin' Hole." Earle Hagen and Herbert Spencer composed the tune specifically for the show, just as they had for Make Room for Daddy (The Danny Thomas Show), the series that spawned Mayberry. (Remember, The Andy Griffith Show was technically a spin-off.) Everett Sloane wrote the lyrics.
Wait… the lyrics?
Yes! There were lyrics to "The Fishin' Hole," though you never heard them on the sitcom itself.
Well, now, take down your fishin' pole
And meet me at the fishin' hole
We may not get a bite all day
But don't you rush away
Andy Griffith would record the vocal version for the 1961 album Songs, Themes And Laughs From The Andy Griffith Show. Take a listen.
Sloane may not have heard his lyrics on The Andy Griffith Show, but the actor did get a role to play in Mayberry. In the second-season episode "The Keeper of the Flame," Sloane portrayed farmer and moonshiner Jubal Foster. Opie and his pals hold a meeting of their secret society called The Wildcats. Foster's barn subsequently burns to the ground. The old man blames the boys — but in the end, it is his fault.
New York City native began his career on Wall Street. The crash of 1929 put an end to that, and he transitioned to the radio. His most notable role came in the heralded Citizen Kane, in which he played Mr. Bernstein.
But if you grew up in the Sixties, you might be more familiar with his voice than his face. Sloane was the voice behind the super detective with the yellow fedora in the cartoon The Dick Tracy Show. Yep, he was Dick Tracy!
Now you know the trail of clues that tie Dick Tracy to Mayberry!
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32 Comments
it is amazing how many times characters on that show do not in an instant recognize that they just drank hooch...
So the point of this comment is to say if they're just a small station they're going to run what has the most demand.
Send a letter (email) it can't hurt and see if there are like minded people so you can make a point as a larger group. But with Hogan's Heroes I doubt that's going to happen.
Such as when he lost a decision to a slot machine on Twilight Zone.
Or when he was a guest DA on Perry Mason (he didn't win …).
Or when he saved Rob's bacon at a literary soiree on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Or when he might have been a Soviet spy on Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea.
And I'm fairly sure that you can't avoid seeing Everett Sloane at least once in a while on MeTV's daily westerns (he did scads of those).
Everett Sloane passed on in 1965, only 55 years old.
Had he lived a decade longer, who knows how many more shows he would have done?
