Darkness on the Edge of Town

I write today to praise one George "Goober" Lindsay, he of the famous Andy Griffith Show character in the mid-to-late 60s. He was so identified with the character that even on "Hee Haw" in subsequent years the Goober name was part of his persona.

He was always Goober, never just George.

The Griffith Show provided many great moments for Goober, especially the episode with cousin Gomer and the  legendary "Judy, Judy, Judy, Judy, Judy." 

Of course, this "country" humor was beneath many who thought it unsophisticated. And that meant a general disregard for his work, despite the fact the Lindsay appeared on Broadway and was a serious actor before moving to Mayberry.

Case in point: "I am the Night - Color me Black," a taut, 24-minute meditation on hate from "The Twilight Zone" in 1964. This episode is burned into my conscious; I have never forgotten it even after some 40-odd years. The acting is so precise, the story so well told, the message so clear. And there is "Goober," playing a character so far removed from Wally's Filling Station that you have to look twice and listen hard to be be sure that it's really him.

And helping to deliver a message that seems to be a hard one for many to learn.

RIP "Goober"

"I am the Night - Color me Black" -- Part One
"I am the Night - Color me Black" -- Part Two