grant county-related stories
Posted May 8th 2007 10:02AM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Celebrities
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.
Continue reading Judge dismisses Andy Griffith case
Posted Nov 12th 2006 12:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: TV Royalty, OpEd, Syndicated, Celebrities

This is the type of news that would have led Elaine Benes to shout "Get out!" and give one of her patented two-handed shoves, but I like to just call it a "too stupid
not to be true" story:
Andy Griffith, the actor best known for playing Andy Taylor on
The Andy Griffith Show and Ben Matlock on
Matlock,
is suing a man who ran and lost for sheriff of Grant County, Wis., for taking his name and using it during the campaign. I shit you not, TV fans: William Harold Fenrick legally changed his name to Andrew Jackson Griffith and ran for the sheriff's office under that name (the plaintiff's full name is Andy Samuel Griffith, by the way).
Continue reading Andy Griffith sues sheriff's candidate for taking his name