Ellie Or Helen - The Andy Griffith Show (1960) Discussion

[–] JosephQCat (706) 3 years ago

Based on personality - Ellie. Based on looks - Helen.

reply

[–] kwestmo (4385) 3 years ago

Helen? Looks? Oh, come, now.

reply

[–] Enigmaticocean77 (2490) 3 years ago

I thought Ellie was better looking than Helen.

reply

[–] JosephQCat (706) 3 years ago

Corsaut was better looking than the wardrobe and makeup that she was given. Also, it has been speculated that Donahue did not have much in the way of chemistry with star Andy Griffith so she was cast aside. Also, I would speculate that Ellie was perhaps a pinch too independent for early 1960's America which was still quite male centric.

reply

[–] Enigmaticocean77 (2490) 3 years ago

I recently found out that Ellie left the show because she was burnt out on acting. Prior to The Andy Griffith Show, she had starred on Father Knows Best for many years. She was signed on to The Andy Griffith show for three seasons, but asked, and was granted her release, after the first season.

reply

[–] JosephQCat (706) 2 years ago

Did not know this. The idea that she lacked chemistry with Griffith has been around for a long time. It was also speculated that the age difference was an issue. Sheriff Taylor really did not need a girlfriend early on as the show was fresh with Howard MacNear (Floyd) and Don Knotts (Barney). In my mind having a steady girlfriend for Andy became important when MacNear's health was failing and Knotts plus Jim Nabors were leaving the show.

reply

[–] kwestmo (4385) 3 years ago

I agree tho I prefer Ellie

reply

[–] kwestmo (4385) 2 years ago

"Corsaut was better looking than the wardrobe and makeup that she was given." I'll give you that, but based on the context of the show Ellis was more attractive.

reply

[–] kwestmo (4385) 3 years ago

Ellie

reply

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7983) 3 years ago

I admit I have only seen like 3 episodes with Helen and haven't seen any of the ones after they got romantically involved. Everyone seems to think she got annoying later. To be fair there is that episode with Ellie where she refuses to give an elderly woman medicine she wants because she insists she doesn't need it. That was annoying.

reply

[–] Enigmaticocean77 (2490) 3 years ago

I believe that that was the first episode with Ellie in it. It was suppose to represent that she had come from the city, and didn't understand how the locals had a different way of going about things.

I have never seen any of the color episodes or Mayberry RFD which was the spinoff series from the 1970s that lasted for a few seasons. I did however seen the reunion special from the early 1980s. It was pretty terrible, but it was cool seeing everyone again. Almost everyone came back for it. So, it was watchable if only to see the characters again.

reply

[–] JosephQCat (706) 2 years ago

Mayberry RFD started in the fall of 1968. Andy Griffith let it be known he was getting tired of doing TAGS and made the 1967-68 season the last for that show. CBS was completely done with rural based comedies by 1971 and was punctuated by the runaway success of Mary Tyler Moore and All In The Family.

reply

[–] kwestmo (4385) 3 years ago

[deleted]

[–] strntz (12773) 3 years ago

To be fair there is that episode with Ellie where she refuses to give an elderly woman medicine she wants because she insists she doesn't need it.

Ellie's refusal to sell the medicine wasn't based on need, it was based on the fact that the old lady didn't have a prescription. Ellie was fresh out of college and, as a licensed pharmacist, was trying to not break the law by selling drugs without a prescription. Ellie even offered to call the woman's doctor for her to verify her prescription, but she was stubborn and said she didn't need a doctor. In a plot twist, it turns out Ellie's uncle sold the old lady the pills for years without a prescription because the pills were just placebos, so Ellie ended up doing the same.

reply

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7983) 3 years ago

From what I remember it's that the meds didn't even require a prescription and weren't actually doing anything helpful for her. Still, she felt she knew better than the elderly woman in the episode and admits she didn't want her to have the pills.

reply

[–] strntz (12773) 3 years ago

Ellie didn't know the pills were placebos when the old lady came in and asked for "her pills". She did the right thing by first asking for a prescription and then asking for her doctor's name, and the woman refused to offer either.

I'm pretty sure that Ellie broke the law even when she later sold the placebos without a prescription.

reply

[–] kwestmo (4385) 2 years ago

"she felt she knew better than the elderly woman in the episode " Ellie went to college to become a pharmacist, so, yes, she knew better than someone who didn't and thought sugar pills were medicine.

reply

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7983) 2 years ago

Sorry. After making this post I watched the episode and had forgotten the pills did nothing. She was trying to convince her she didn't need them. And that at the end she goes ahead and gives her them. Old people can be pretty stubborn.

reply

[–] kwestmo (4385) 2 years ago

no need to apologize. I am annoyingly pedantic

reply

[–] strntz (12773) 3 years ago

Ellie Or Helen

For reasons I can't explain, I never cared for Helen. Of all the women they had as love interests for Andy, she was at the bottom of my list except for the "fun girl" skanky blonde with the smoker's rasp.

reply

[–] [email protected] (6247) 2 years ago

Helen was pleasant at first. But the writers turned her into a jealous shrew! She always seemed to distrust Andy and she became angry at the drop of a hat. He was forever apologizing to her.

One of her worst bouts of jealousy was in the episode when Andy's cousin came to visit. She was a very attractive woman who she had just broken up with her fiance and was nursing a broken heart. Andy was being extra kind to her and Helen went ballistic!

reply

[–] db20db (17743) 2 years ago

Exactly! She seemed to constantly exhibit that pursed lip, glaring, jealous facial expression and attitude.

reply

[–] strntz (12773) 2 years ago

Yes, I remember that episode (Andy's cousin was Mira Romain on Star Trek).

I read some time ago that viewers didn't care for Ellie which surprised me. My guess is that people with 1960s views might have found her too independent for a female - she ran her uncle's pharmacy and ran for council in the town. Too bad, I liked Elinor Donahue a lot.

reply

[–] [email protected] (6247) 2 years ago

A fellow Trekker?? haha I remembered her from ST but I couldn't remember the character's name (just that Scottie had the hots for her!).

I've also read that Elinor Donahue asked to be released from her contract after one year just as another poster wrote.

I just watched the episode when Ellie ran for town council. I thought it was funny how TAGS did a sort of g-rated version of Lysistrata. The men withheld the money. In return the women withheld housework and cooking chores when we know they were "withholding" a lot more than pot roast! lol

I've also read that Andy Griffith said that it was his fault that Andy Taylor had so many love interests. The show wanted to pair him up with a girlfriend but Griffith felt like he didn't have chemistry with the actresses who were cast. I never understood why he felt like he had chemistry with the sulky, perennially pouting Helen! But then I read that the two actors dated. Their off screen chemistry didn't really carry over on the small screen! At least not to me.

reply

[–] strntz (12773) 2 years ago

.....when we know they were "withholding" a lot more than pot roast! lol

To be honest, I think losing the pot roast would bother me more. I'd have voted for Ellie!

Their off screen chemistry [Andy and Helen] didn't really carry over on the small screen! At least not to me.

I think for a lot of people, including me.

I like both Ellie and Peggy. I guess one can make an argument that Ellie might have been too young for Andy.

reply

[–] kwestmo (4385) 2 years ago

too young for Andy?

consenting adults can decide who they want to see regardless of modern day prudes who cry " age gap" while clutching pearls.

i I know you are not one of those.

reply

[–] strntz (12773) 2 years ago

I know you are not one of those.

I might be one of those. I do like pearls ...

I was talking about the times. Ellie was just out of college and would have been 22 or so, Andy was 40ish with a son. Hell, they would never had any of Andy's girlfriends (even the older ones) divorced or even widowed - that would suggest that they had been previously "used". I'm not saying I would have been against their age difference if it was my call, what I said is that one might/could make an argument about the age difference.

If this show was made today, there certainly wouldn't have been a big deal made about the age difference.

reply

[–] kwestmo (4385) 2 years ago

Age gaps were quite common in films and TV shows of 50's and 60's. Gen Z makes a big deal out of age gaps today.

reply

[–] [email protected] (6247) 2 years ago

strntz-- It's a well known saying that "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach"! I guess you're proof of that!

I never thought the age gap between Andy and Ellie was too obvious. In real life they were only eleven years apart. Over a decade later Susan Saint James would play Rock Hudson's wife on "McMillan and Wife" and she was twenty years younger than Hudson. But Hollywood has always paired the younger woman with the older man.

I think it all came down to Andy Griffith just thinking he had no chemistry with the actress.

reply

[–] strntz (12773) 2 years ago

I'm just young enough to have missed Father Knows Best when it was first run, but a lot of viewers of Andy Griffith would have been contemporary viewers of FKB where Elinore Donihue was just seen as a high school girl. Given the short time between Betty Anderson and Ellie Walker, I could see how people *could* make that argument about the age difference. That was my point.

I never had that problem with her age and indeed, liked her better than anyone except Peggy.

Regarding the heart/stomach relationship.. yeah, I suspect it gets more that way for me the older I get!!!

reply

[–] [email protected] (6247) 2 years ago

I also missed the first run of Father Knows Best. But yes, Elinor Donahue played a very popular character and viewers back then might've wondered why teen-age Betty Anderson was now dating a widower with a young son.

I have a cookbook that Elinor Donahue wrote. She includes a lot of anecdotes about her television career. The actress tells a story from her Father Knows Best days that I find amusing. While still a teen, she ran off and got married AND got pregnant right away. She said that the show was furious with her because Betty Anderson would not be an unwed teen-age mother. They had to hide her pregnancy.
Today they'd just write it into the show.

"Heart/stomach" haha, I feel that way about "Sleep and Anything Else". All things being equal, I'd rather be sleeping. I recently asked my sister, "Are we the SAME girls who used to start getting ready at 9PM to go OUT?"
Now if we call each other at that time, we're both in our pajamas. I have friends like that too.

reply

[–] JosephQCat (706) 2 years ago

Yes.

reply

[–] JosephQCat (706) 2 years ago

That episode was a clear indicator that the show was losing its creativity. The show was lucky that it had recurring characters such as Floyd, Briscoe Darling, and Gomer Pyle the first few years it was on. Howard, Goober, and the Fix-it man were not the characters that the early ones were.

reply

[–] RichardBlaine (303) 2 years ago

Ellie, Ellie, Ellie. No contest. Not even close.

reply