He scored some great comedy as Briscoe Darling
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Denver Pyle
vexner — 22 years ago(January 03, 2004 08:34 PM)
Today I was lucky enough to see the episode of "The Andy Griffith Show" that introduces us to Briscoe Darling and his family. Denver Pyle made me laugh with nearly every line of dialogue he spoke in this episode. His unique combination of wariness and deadpan earnestness (earnesty?) is a characterization which I don't recall seeing anyone else ever attempt. It's hilarious and completely believable as an existing person. To skillfully portray the character as an intelligent but merely uneducated man as he did was quite an honorable feat. Mr. Pyle's Briscoe Darling now gives Ernest T. Bass some serious competition as my favorite recurring visitor to Mayberry, NC!
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A1nut — 21 years ago(June 13, 2004 06:18 PM)
I agree with you about the character of Briscoe Darling. It can't be easy to convincingly portray a character like that. The thing that I found disappointing about it, however is, can you imagine all the jokes that they could have had with a man named "Darling"?
Andy Taylor on the phone "Hello Mr. Darling"
Darling is obviously agitated "Sheriff, come quick, one of our hogs has been stolen"
Andy Taylor "Calm down Darling, everything's gonna be just fine"
Just then, Helen Crump (Andy's girlfriend) walks in, and hears him say only the last line.
Helen Crump "Andy Taylor, don't you ever think about calling me again!!" and storms out.
I wish they would have done something like that, or at least more often.
"It entered our airspace last night, and made a mockery of our intercept squadrons." -
vexner — 21 years ago(September 29, 2004 12:18 PM)
Wow, you're exactly right! That dialogue would've fit right into the basic comedic structure of the series. I can't believe they missed out on something that would have been so funny. Oh, wellLord knows, Helen Crump certainly got mad and stormed out of many rooms over far more trivial misunderstandings than that! Your
Darling
routine would have been easy for us to believe, since we've already seen her seether act so often. -
tgibbs279 — 12 years ago(December 24, 2013 07:33 PM)
I agree with the original poster that Denver Pyle's delivery makes almost every line of dialogue funny.
A few favorites:- "Got time to breathe, got time for music."
- "More power to you."
- "BREAD!"
- (on Ernest T. Bass) "Thought about killing him. Kinda hated to go that far."
- "Just let that thumb hang free, and enjoy the music."