TVSquad

New TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• The Andy Griffith Show - The Complete Series
• Charlie and Lola - Vol. 4
• The Closer - Season 2
• F Troop - Season 2
• The Kids in the Hall - Best of Vol. 2
• Rawhide - Season 2, Vol. 1
• Weeds - Season 1 (Blu-Ray)

Now here's an interesting idea: a line of food based on a TV show.

They're called Mayberry's Finest, and they are a line of "southern comfort food" based on the type of stuff The Andy Griffith Show's Aunt Bee used to cook for Andy and Opie (and anyone who was sick in town, like Clara): beef stew, mustard greens, and mixes for buttermilk biscuits and lemon icebox muffins. They're being launched at the Food Marketing Institute's convention in Chicago. Each package will be based on a character from the show and will include snippets of show scripts and episode info.

This could start a trend. How about a line of food based on Gilligan's Island (canned pineapple, coconut cream pie) or Survivor (bugs)?

You folks might recall that a man running for Sheriff in Grant County, Wisconsin changed his name from "William Harold Fenrick" to "Andrew Jackson Griffith" so he could run under the name "Andy Griffith" and hopefully use the iconic name to win the election.

He didn't win.

He did, however, have a lawsuit filed against him by Andy Griffith, the actor who played Andy Taylor on the Andy Griffith Show. Recently, however, a judge dismissed the case, saying that Fenrick did not violate any copyright and that what he did was protected under the First Amendment. I'm not a fancy big city lawyer, so I can't say much about this.

One of the saddest changes in the television landscape has been the disappearance of the theme song. They're really not that important to the people who create TV shows now (or the networks who want to get more commercials in). Lost has just a single note as their theme song, ER has changed and shortened their theme song, Jericho has static, and Heroes doesn't have a theme song or credits either.

Luckily, the shows that still have theme songs also have opening credits. Shows like The Office and Dexter all have theme songs and opening credits. They're classic TV openings. Of course, it's nothing like years gone by, where almost all shows had theme song and opening credits. The Onion has picked 22 that they feel fit their shows perfectly. I don't know if that is the same as "best opening sequences," but the choices are interesting, quirky, a little maddening, and they left out a few, as I'm sure you'll agree.

So I was watching an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show this weekend. What does this have to do with Buffy The Vampire Slayer/Firefly mastermind Joss Whedon? Read on.

The episode I was watching was "Scratch My Car and Die," the one where Rob buys a new sports car and Laura accidentally scratches it while shopping. Watching the credits (I often watch the credits to see who was in an episode and then I run to the comptuer to check the IMdB to see what else they've done, if they're still alive, etc) I noticed that it was written by someone named John Whedon. Now, Whedon isn't the most common name, and he did work in television, so I checked and...yup, it's Joss Whedon's grandfather! He wrote another episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show and also wrote episodes of Leave It To Beaver, The Donna Reed Show, The Wonderful World of Disney, and several episodes of The Andy Griffith Show (though it's hard to figure out how many exactly with the IMdB's odd credits system).

Whedon died in 1991.

Last week we told you how plans to create a Barney Fife statue in Mount Airy, NC in honor of the late Don Knotts (he died last February) were stopped because CBS and Paramount had to pull their support of the project because they didn't have the rights to say yes or no to such a project. Knotts' family was against the project as well because they wanted a statue of Knotts that wasn't of Fife but of Knotts as himself.

Now they might get their wish. Officials in Morgantown, WV, where Knotts was born, are well on their way of raising the $50,000 they need to erect a statue of the actor. They already have a small version of the statue (designed by the guy who designed the back of the WV quarter). The statue will show the actor dressed in regular clothes, sitting down, reasding a script.

The town also has a bronze star honoring Knotts on their city sidewalk, and they plan to name a park after him as well.

[via TV Tattle]

• The Andy Griffith Show - Season 8
• Dog The Bounty Hunter - The Wedding Special
• Full House - Season 5
• Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. - Season 1
• Law and Order: CI - Season 2
• Masters of Horror - Fair-Haired Child
• Stacked - Complete Series
• Voltron: Defender of the Universe - Collection 2: Yellow Lion