Theme song origins

CHICAGO SUN-TIMESImage via Wikipedia

October 3, 2010
…[It] may be the most recognizable television tune ever — the one that accompanies Mayberry sheriff Andy Taylor and his young son, Opie, as they amble on down to the local fishing hole with poles in hand.

Image via WikipediaImage by Getty Images via @daylifeWritten by the late Chicago-born composer Earle Hagen — who died in 2008 …— the opening theme to “The Andy Griffith Show” immediately evokes a more innocent time and place where honesty, integrity, friendship and family were always paramount. It currently can be heard in a commercial for the Volkswagen Routan minivan …

Chances are you’re whistling it — out loud or in your head — right now.

Here, according to Hagen’s widow, Laura … is how it came to be. The charmingly unpolished version that played early on was reportedly the same version Hagen recorded in one take as a mere demo.  
“Sheldon [Leonard, a producer and director] told Earle [the show] was set in a hometown, kind of a backwoods little quiet town called Mayberry, and they wanted something that would fit that. And Earle told me, ‘It just took me quite a while to decide on what to do. And then I realized it just had to be something really simple. Something you could whistle.’ And that’s when he came up with it. He said he penciled out the piano part, called up some musicians, went into the studio that night and recorded a demo. And he had his son, Deane, who was 11 at the time, do the snapping fingers. And Earle whistled it and these guys played it and he gave it to Sheldon, and Sheldon loved it and he said, ‘We’re just going to use that for the opening shot and we’ll have Andy and Opie walking down a little mountain road there by a stream with fishing poles over their shoulders.’ And it’s all history after that.”
Mike Thomas

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The Voice of Reason Regarding a VW Commercial

Image via WikipediaI have commented a number of times about the "Slug-Dub" commercials and the ire they trigger in some people. Some people just spit out their strained peas when they saw people hitting others while a Routan drove by and the theme from "The Andy Griffith Show" played.

Image via WikipediaThe response of some is as if Volkswagen is a vestige of the Third Reich attempting the Fourth Reich by instilling the spirit of fascism in America. For the record, it was Mussolini and the Italians who were Fascists--never mind VW, watch out that Fiat doesn't corrupt America through Chrysler! The Third Reich was the invention of the National Socialists under Hitler. I never meant to bring politics into this, but if you listen to the Tea Party, Obama is trying to nationalize socialism here. How ironic, since the Nazis looked down on those of African descent as much as Little Rock and Montgomery did in the 1950s.

For those who are counting, I apologize that I can't work in Stalin, the Yugo and Bosnia, the Hutus and Tutsis, or General Tojo who supported Mitsubishi and the parent companies of Mazda, Suzuki, and Subaru. I can only offend so many people or car companies at a time.

The real reason for this blog entry is the reaction generated by this Volkswagen Jetta commercial:


Jason S. Harry, professional truck driver/blogger posted When Special Interest "Shoot the Gap" . The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) has posted a comment on their Facebook page taking umbrage to this commercial and allowing others to vent their spleen. Jason takes a very reasoned view of the VW vs Safety vs Professional Drivers vs OOIDA issue, and comes to the conclusion that the majority of viewers would not assume that VW was instructing people to drive dangerously. Unfortunately, the majority of commenters seem to want to send a blitzkrieg against Wolfsburg (ironic because blitzkrieg was a German-named tactic and the advertizing agency is based in New York and Los Angeles) for having the audacity to show something that 1% of all drivers have never thought of doing and how the vilified professional driver will get the blame.

Jason makes some very good comments about the responses OOIDA receives. I'm sure he's indicating that the majority of professional drivers are not as knee-jerk as the commenters, just as the majority of Jetta (or any other 4-wheeler) drivers are not so brain dead as to pull a stunt to deliberately put 3 vehicles and their occupants in peril.

It occurs to me that the highways would be a safer place if we could put all the knee-jerkers and brain dead 4-wheelers in one room (the Superdome would be adequate, I think) so that they could act out their own nationally socialistic fascism upon the each other. The winner gets to clean up the mess.

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