What happened to Andy Taylor?

This past Sunday, Cheryl and I watched a bunch of the old "Andy Griffith Show" episodes on TV Land.  They were all from the first season.  Andy doles out advice to young and old.  Andy puts two young lovers on the path to martial bliss by stopping the feud between their fathers.  Andy teaches Opie about character and how when you give your word, you need to stand by it.
And, just watching these old black and white shows made me wonder just what happened to Andy Taylor?  Why don't we see sitcoms on TV where the parents teach their children right from wrong? Why don't we see sitcoms where the fathers are more than cartoonish men who fail at life, love and fatherhood?
I realize that society never was like Mayberry.  I realize that many children are being raised in fatherless homes and 50% of marriages end in divorce.  I do pay attention to what goes on in the world.
But, don't our children, who spend more time watching TV than playing catch, deserve to see stand up guys on TV as fathers?
Where else is a fatherless boy going to find a good role model? (Yes, Dad, I know there's still the Boy Scouts.)
Where is a child with a bad father going to learn what a father should be?
When I was a kid, we had to be home at six to eat dinner.  It wasn't until I reached my teens that I discovered that not all families gathered around the dinner table and ate their evening meal together.  It was a shock to my system.
I realize that life has changed since 1960 - the year the Andy Griffith Show premiered.  I know that women no longer wear dresses and stay at home.  I get that, but did we have to sacrifice the stand up sitcom dads, like Andy Taylor, to have progress?
Someone please bring back Andy Taylor next fall.  That's a show I would watch.

Off the Top Of My Head

Maybe, I'm having these thoughts because my knee hurts. Maybe, I'm having these thoughts because I'm doped up on the generic version of vicodin. Maybe, it's because it's 3:20 in the morning and I'm unbelievably NOT tired! But, anyway, here's some thoughts...

1. I really don't want to talk about, read about or hear about that nutcase woman in California who had six kids she wasn't supporting and somehow was allowed to have 8 embryos implanted in her. I hear she wants a reality TV show. Any station that signs her up deserves to go out of business. Let's not encourage irresponsible parenting anymore than we've all ready had with "Jon and Kate plus 8" and "17 and Counting".
2. Speaking of the moron in California, just where the hell did she get the money? Does welfare pay for that? And, while I don't believe in controlling anyone's right to reproduce, shouldn't there be a set limit to how many embroyos can be implanted at one time?
3. Joaquin Phoenix -- I don't know him, nor do I know a lot about him, but his performance as Johnny Cash in "Walk the Line" was amazing. His singing was terrific. Now, I read he wants to be a rap star and he's giving up acting. I can see wanting to give up acting, but becoming a rap star? Please. White guys should never rap -- they don't have that whatever it is black guys have. It never sounds right -- at least not to me. And, besides, throughout music history, white people have borrowed (stolen) from black music, can't we just let them have something of their own without ruining it? Joaquin, if you want to have a music career, I'll buy your album, just pick a genre other than rap, please.
4. I'm not thrilled with the stimulus package. I think too many concessions were made for the Republicans and then not enough of them came over to make it truly bipartisan. The $13.00 a week really isn't going to make that much of a difference in my life. I'd rather know that more of my fellow citizens will be able to keep their jobs. Also, I think we could've given more than 200 million (I'm pretty sure that's the figure I heard) to infrastructure.
5. What the hell is wrong with corporate America? Laying off more Americans is NOT going to make your profit margins get any bigger. For every laid off employee, that's money that isn't going into the economy, which means that's less money flowing to corporate America, which will lower profit margins. Dummies.
6. The true bailout should've been for homeowners who still have mortgages. For singles who earned less than $70,000 per year and married couples who earned less than $140,000 a year. Instead of the money going into the coffers of the banks and leaving homeowners hanging and the banks not lending it out again, the mortgages could've been paid off -- good and bad. Personally, I'm going to turn 200,000 miles on my Suzuki Vitara. While I love my Suzie, if I had my $750.00 mortgage payment in my checking account, I could afford the Chevy Malibu I fell in love with when I drove one for a month. So, the money would roll back into the American economy. A perfect plan? Maybe not, but the TARP bailout isn't even close to perfect and it hasn't saved one job.
7. Am I the only American who could give a rat's butt about American Idol? I don't care who wins, I don't care who gets kicked off and frankly, quit telling me about it. I have a life that doesn't leave room for most reality TV shows -- I'm saying most because I'm not sure where Dominick Dunne's "Power, Privilege and Justice" and "Forensic Files" fall, but I love those shows. I can hear you saying, "But you make time for 'The Ghost Whisperer'". Yes, yes, I do, but I watch TV to escape reality, not have screaming morons and bad singers shoved in my face.
8. Can we ban Reality TV? Haven't we gone too far? How much longer will it be before a real version of "The Running Man" becomes a reality?

Wow! That's a lot off my chest!

God Bless and Good night or, I guess, since it's now almost four am, good morning.

Law & Order

I know that there are a lot more things to think about in the world than a Dick Wolf TV show, but sometimes your mind just wants to deal with fluff.

Why is it that on the other two L&O's, the person in charge (PID) holds the rank of Captain, but on the original show the PID is only a Lieutenant -- the only show that has a woman as the PID I might add? Is this an oversite? Isn't it time to promote Lieutenant Van Buren to Captian?

Just a thought.

God bless