Tuesday, October 3rd | The Andy Griffith Show!

Welcome back, everyone. Today is Tuesday, October the 3rd. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

That's right. If you guys want to help us keep the conversation going, you can do so by sharing the show. You can share it online with your friends and family. You can leave us a good review on iTunes or Spotify and where you get your podcasting content from.

Absolutely nothing less than five stars. We're going to leave a link in the description so you can do just that. Today's verse of the day is coming to us from 2 Corinthians 11.30. It says, If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity.

Isn't it interesting that in God's economy, things are flipped on their head? Oh, yeah. He had every reason to boast. He had every pedigree, every achievement. If anybody had a reason to boast, it was him. But he says, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity because he knows that when he is weak, he is strong, and it's not his strength, but it's Christ's strength and his weakness.

And Christians, I think, are notorious for this because it's nothing for the secular world to boast. There's entire genres of music about, look how rich I am, look how many women I have. Look how much better I am than this person. I'm skilled. I'm the best.

Nobody's better than me. There are really cultures around that, but with Christians, we find creative ways to humble brag. We find creative ways to name drop, especially in worship music. It's like, I was actually on tour with so-and-so back in the day.

Oh my gosh, I love them. Yeah, yeah. It is what it is. I did this or I did that, and it's not a big deal. But Paul says, I'm going to boast in things which make me look weak, things that actually weaken me because it's in those things that Christ displays his power. Christ is not necessarily glorified just because I go off and cut a great album or I lead a great worship service or I hit all the notes. All these things that I'm proud of, like yeah, Christ is the one making me do it, but is he being glorified in that? It's much better when it's like, hey, I had no control over this sickness.

I couldn't do anything at all, but Christ still saw me through. That's right. Yeah. Speaking of which, actually it has nothing to do at all with what we just talked about, but last week or it might've been the week before last.

Well, this person has been a fan of the show for a while and they've seen us through all the different ups and downs of the show. There you go. There you go. They wrote in, I don't know if it was last week, it might've been the week before, but we had a gripe vine on McDonald's employees rushing me all the time, rushing me.

And you know, the crux of my gripe was y'all are rushing me. You always, is that it? Can I get you anything else? Is that it? Just a hundred percent of the time just talking about, is that it? Is that all? Are you done? Is that all? Every order.

So this person wrote in. So fun fact, I worked at McDonald's for six or seven years. Oh, long time to work at McDonald's and managed for three or four. It's actually part of their process.

At least when I was there, they have time goals for every part of the process, order taking, money taking, time at the presenter window and total DT experience time. David, what is DT? Drive through.

Okay. I've asked David because he worked in fast food. So the idea is to try to nudge people along to keep the line moving because some people take forever in all caps to decide what they want.

And we couldn't stand those people. The drive-through is for people that know what they want and can get through quickly. If you need to take time to decide and come in, look at the menu and let the drive-through move. Although it should be more suggestive selling, like you guys said, can I get you some dessert with, what is it?

Like you guys said, can I get you some dessert with that rather than are you done? And then he switches and says, but yes, Chick-fil-A's customer service is unbelievable. David, as someone who was in Chick-fil-A, is there any validity to this? Like do people take forever at the drive-through? Yes.

Really? So at Chick-fil-A, we do have, or did, we did have time goals. Like we're trying to get 250 cars in this lunch hour.

So that's like from 12 to one. That's what the goal is. So yeah, that is, it's true that we have goals and it is true that people, I don't know what they think if they think that they can just sit there, but it's like, okay, welcome to Chick-fil-A. How can I take your order today? It's like, yeah, let me get, let me do the number one. Okay. Chick-fil-A sandwich with fries and a drink. No, actually I'm gonna get the number three. Okay. You want the 12 count nugget meal with fries and a drink. Hold on one second. Can I actually switch that? Can I get seven milkshakes at this point?

No, you may not. And then seven milkshakes takes forever. And then they're like, get to the window. And they're like, actually, I know I ordered seven milkshakes, but I did want to add, um, can I add two large fries? Is that a bad day or is that common? That's more common than not, but also a bad day. Wow.

So bad days are common. Should I recant and apologize to Ronald McDonald live on the air? I think you should. I think, I think Mr. McDonald deserves a look up. Let me look up a corporate apology.

Hang on one second. Let me issue an apology to Mr. McDonald himself. Oh, Ronnie corporate apology.

Um, here we go. I'm Mick. Sorry.

I'm Mick. Sorry. The issue happened because we hear it clear view today. Uh, insert what caused the issue. Uh, misunderstood the time goals dedicated are required to running a multi-billion dollar corporation such as yourselves to prevent it from happening.

Again, I will insert what you will do. I will undergo fast food training. We care deeply about your business.

It's fast food sensitivity training, and we fail to meet our required, our regular quality standards. We should have been more careful. And I'm very sorry for the issues that my gripe fund has caused. Sorry.

We said that. I'm not sorry. Don't y'all still rush me at the window. I mean like I got a lot of orders. Just don't rush me. I understand you got time goes and I'll do my best to make it in a timely fashion, but we got a lot of mouth.

I hate to say this, but I just got a cease and desist from McDonald's. I got the email. They're getting a live version of this.

How unbelievable. Well, we'll have to address that at a later date. We're going to move forward in the show, but if you guys have any questions or suggestions, send us a text to two five two five eight two five zero two eight. Or you can visit us online at clearveetodayshow.com.

We're going to get Dr. Shah. We'll be back after this. Hey everyone. My name's Ellie and I'm David and we want to take a minute and let you know how we can actually serve you as you're listening to Clearview today. The Bible paints an extraordinary picture of who we are as a church body. The mission of Clearview church is to lead all people into a life changing, ever-growing relationship with Jesus Christ. A huge part of leading people is praying for them. A big reason that Christians have unanswered prayers in their life is because they're not praying.

You know, first John five 15 says, and if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. If you're listening to the Clearview today show, we want to know how we can pray for you as well. There's a number of ways that you can get in touch with us at Clearview and share your prayer requests. But the best way is by texting us at two five two five eight two five zero two eight. You can also send us an email at prayer at Clearview BC dot O R G or you can download the Clearview app on iTunes or Google play.

You know, on that app, there's a dedicated prayer wall that helps us to get to know what's going on in your life, how we can pray for you and how we can take any necessary steps to get you moving in the right direction. Thanks for listening. Now let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Clearview today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at Clearview today show dot com, or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to two five two five eight two five zero two eight.

That's right. If today's your first time ever joining us here on the Clearview today show, or maybe if you've just been away for a while and you're coming back, or even if you're one of our day ones, we want to let you know exactly who's talking to you today. Dr. Abbadan Shah is a PhD New Testament textual criticism professor at Carolina university, author, full-time pastor and host of today's show.

You can find all of his work on his website. That's AbbadanShah.com. One of our day ones. I like that classification. You've got to give respect to your day ones. One of our day ones. We started from the bottom, now we're here. Started from the bottom, now the whole squad is here.

I don't know what you're referencing, but I'm going to go along with it like I do. Your day ones. People who've been with you from the beginning. You never heard of your day ones?

How do you show respect to your day ones? There you go. It's the salute into the point. There you go. There you go. Love that. No idea what he's talking about.

Okay. We're going to have embroidered hats that say Clearview today. Clearview today one.

Like Michael S. from North Carolina. He's one of our day ones. Every episode has been there for a long time. Clearview today one. There you go.

There you go. Well, today is a very special episode, especially for you, Dr. Shah, because we were talking about one of our favorite shows, but I know your all-time favorite TV show. The Andy Griffith Show. Today is the anniversary of the first episode, the airing of the first episode of The Andy Griffith Show. It's like, why would you dedicate an episode to a TV show? I don't know why it is. I don't know why, but Christians love Andy Griffith.

It's like a staple of not only growing up in the South, but just being a Christian in the South. We love Andy Griffith. It's such a wholesome show. I mean, you don't have to worry about trash or questionable stuff on there. It's just, you can enjoy watching it and not have to be like, am I going to have to change this or mute it at the drop of a hat?

Because my kid walks into the room. I've never met a red blooded Christian man or woman who's like, hey, look, he asked me, do you like the Andy Griffith? And they're like, no, not really. We love it. Everyone loves it. We love it.

It's really hard to fail. Well, Andy Griffith first aired on October the 3rd, 1960. Wow. 1960. My dad wasn't even born yet.

Oh really? What year was he born? Sixty-one. Sixty-one. Okay. Almost. Year after that. Yeah.

Yeah. So it's been around a long time and man, my introduction to Andy Griffith's show began when I used to come from the cafeteria at college. This is in college and go down to the TV room, which was near the, the washer and dryer room. And so washing clothes or whatever, I would come down there and go in to the TV room, which is pretty much dark all the time with these couches, with a lot of smelly, sweaty feet.

Sounds like college. And then we would have a TV up there, not a very big TV, just a decent sized TV. And every evening there would be a guy sitting there. He's friends with me on Facebook, Larry Harper and Larry would be over there watching the Andy Griffith show. And most of the time people would come in and groan.

They're like, oh goodness gracious. And they would walk out cause they were there to watch like Monday night football or they were there to watch baseball in Georgia. Baseball was big or something else. But six o'clock, unless you were in there, it would be the Andy Griffith show. Larry had his spot and his routine. My man had that TV monopolized with Andy Griffith.

And it was black and white. So at first when I saw that, I was like, oh no, I guess I'm going to sit here and wait till he's done because it's a 30 minute show. And then maybe somebody else would watch something else. I didn't really like monopolize the TV, but I would watch something, some sports or something like that. But sitting there and just watching the show, it began to grow on me.

And then I would come in there just to join this guy to watch the Andy Griffith show. It's so interesting because it's not what you would label a Christian show. And I don't think it's a show necessarily marketed for Christians. Why do Christians love it?

Why is it so appealing? Well, it's just the values in there, the values of hard work or the values of respect and honor and dignity and just a small townness. I love small towns.

I mean, you guys know that. That's the reason why we stayed in Henderson because I love the small town. And I grew up in a big city.

My hometown, now it's half a million people. Wow. Wow. Wow. Yeah. My hometown now is half a million people. Is that small by India's standards?

Oh yeah. Wow. And when I say it's 19 million, it's not 19 million. It's nine zero, 90 million. Ninety million people. Yes. Wow. And some people have a hard time understanding that.

They're like, no, that's not true. It's 19 million. Have you been to Bombay? No. Have you been driving through Bombay over the overpasses? Everywhere you look underneath is a massive road, shops everywhere. And two o'clock in the morning, both sides are packed. Wow. Keep going, look left and right, packed.

Keep going, look left and right, packed. It's 90 million people. Just to put that in perspective, New York City has a population of eight and a half million. Yeah. Wow. And that's when people say, um, now Bombay is 19. I'm like, do you really think Bombay is just twice of New York? Yeah.

Have you been to Bombay? Yeah. Have you, have you, do you realize how many people are not in the census? They've never been counted?

That's a good point. Yeah. This is just the count. Like how many people are in the city that aren't included in the census?

So 90 million. So Andy Griffith show? Oh yeah. That sold me on the small town. Imagine like coming from that where like you're used to like 90 million people in a city and then you see like Mayberry, it's like you can finally breathe.

Like, oh man. It's one of those things. Cause life is so, I mean, they have their problems and they have their like issues to sort out, but life is simple in that show. And it's, it's, it's almost, I don't want to say deceptively simple, but it just draws you in because you're like, I could live there and I could be happy there. What is that feel good programming where everything is solved in an episode? Like the problem is introduced at the start of the episode.

It's not carried on for multiple episodes or multiple seasons. It's like, we're going to wrap this up in 30 minutes. And I think people living really complex lives see those extremely simple problems and it's, it just makes you feel good. Even though they're having to solve those problems, the problems are so simple compared to what we have to go through. And granted that much of what we're watching on the show is, is make-believe. Small towns do have big problems. So let's not ever forget that. They do have big problems.

They have their issues. Don't, don't think that small towns is where it is. Now, many times small towns have a lot of dark secrets, but at least we can strive towards having the small town culture, which is care for one another, be considerate to each other.

Those kinds of things. David, you want to add something? I really do actually like Andy Griffith. I remember growing up and I would go into my, so Andy Griffith was obviously before me. But I would go in... You weren't around in 1960? No.

Sure. I was, I was, you know, kind of... How about you watched the premiere? I, I, yeah, no. He actually worked on the film crew. I went to my granddad.

He was OP. I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was gonna say was, I remember walking in to both my granddad's like living room and my dad's living room, you know, growing up and it would always be TV land and it would be Andy Griffith and those, those older shows like that. And so, yeah, I grew up watching those and I feel like my favorite character is probably Barney because just as a kid it was, he was the silly, goofy, anytime he's like trying to like arrest somebody, like get his bullets out of his pocket and put them in his gun. I always thought that was funny. You remember the episode where, uh, where Andy joins that little band and they play at parties and he's like doing this. I'm imagining David drumming on Sunday morning now. He's like, the show began with Barney being the sane one and Andy being the goofy country bumpkin.

I can't imagine that. If you ever watched the first few episodes, that's where Barney is like trying to bring some sense into this hometown sheriff who really should not be a sheriff who doesn't know what's happening, who's just very haphazard. But somewhere along they realize, okay, what is really selling is how Andy is the wise, mature one, the patient one. And Barney is this goofball, paranoid, just unaware of his limitations.

This is the way to go. So you watch very soon. There's a shift that happened. That's incredible. I think one of the things that also gets me was, is just, and you were talking about small towns, that sense of community. And that is one of the things that I love about small town and living in a small town that when I have visited cities I've missed is that you go places like you go into a country store and people know who you are. They know who your mother is. You know, like, you know, Hey, how's your sister doing?

She's, she's going through this or this and tell her I'm praying for that. You just don't get in big cities, that sense of community. Yeah. Big cities has, have their benefits.

Okay. In small towns, a lot of things you may not be able to get. Big cities, just a hop, skip and jump.

You can find it or anything modern technology wise will be the first thing. So I, I'm not like totally against big cities. I think there's a lot of benefits there, but I find myself never imagined that in a million years that I would be comfortable living the rest of my life in a small town until I came, I watched that show and then I realized, man, that's where it is. And then I love Henderson. You talk about knowing everybody, knowing each other, like the drunk, the town drunk, mine just went blank on me. Otis. Otis. Yes.

Yes. Coming in there. Now, you know, he needs to get arrested. He needs to be, he needs to get some therapy, but he is there and he's got a nice little room and his breakfast in the morning. I mean, he's got it made.

So why? Because everybody knows him and they know that I had, look, this man just needs a break. He needs something in life that his wife can't handle him. So we got to let him sleep it off.

And then he can go home and be a better man. I forgot they brought him breakfast in the cell. He's got his dumb little set up in there. He gets angry with Barney because Barney tries to discipline him.

Yeah. The idea of Barney trying to discipline him. Now Otis, I'm going to tell you something Otis. There's that one episode where, where he tries to get him to work out and stuff like that and Otis is doing great and Barney is like out of breath.

He can't handle it. It's funny because that show came on during a time, and I think this is kind of relevant for what we do here on the Clearview Today show. It came out during a time where TV was still relatively new. Yeah. And so producers and writers, I feel like they were way more cautious. They couldn't put like anything near what's on television today. Yeah.

And so they would strive for that family friendly programming because that was what was going to draw in the most people. And I think Dr. Shaw, you and I were talking about this. A lot of the times Christian media misses the, the not restrictions, but the boundaries that we work in forces you to be creative rather than using those restrictions to say, well, we can't do this. So we'll only go up to this far. Right. And that's why when you watch a lot of Christian movies, they feel like Christian movies. You know what I mean?

Yeah. And here, I think they did a great job. I would say a lot of our shows today are simply a knockoff of those old shows. And I'm just talking about just the Andy Griffith show, but other shows like that are simply being redone.

And unfortunately the ones today are not as funny and not as engaging and many times crass and they go contrary to our value. So I don't watch them. Maybe somebody somewhere is watching them, but not me. Well, they're trying to push the envelope, but in the process of doing so they're costing viewership. Right.

Most people, most of those shows don't last more than a season or two. And I think it's, they don't realize something that you actually taught me is that the restrictions that you put on yourself, like we can't just pop off and talk however we want. This is a Christian show, but those restrictions force us to be creative rather than here's the bar, don't cross it. It's like, all right, how do we, how do we be creative within the boundaries? I prefer boundaries over restrictions, but Andy Griffith was a masterclass in that because it's still to this day, one of the most beloved shows of all time. Oh yeah.

And the characters, every one of them is very memorable. Talk about Aunt B. Yeah. He went to a graveside. I visited Aunt B's grave. My brother-in-law is from Siler City and that's where she was buried. Years before that we went to Aunt B's grave.

Yeah. And then of course, Opie, who's still living, he's the famous director. And then you have of course, Barney. Then you have Goober and Gomer. Oh, I forgot about Goober and Gomer. Otis.

And who else do we have? Floyd. Darlene. Was she one of them or is it Darla or the girl that came down from the mountains? Oh, the, the, yeah, the Darling family.

The Darling. That's what it was. That was, was. Yeah. And the father and the three sons, they used to play the, the, the bluegrass. Yeah. And then the girl.

And of course. What was the name? Dar-no. I can't remember. I forgot the name now. How about a radio listeners are like screaming at the, it was Charlene, Charlene Darling. That's what it was.

That's what it was. And of course, the Earnest T. Bass and the premium Mr. McBeavie. I remember watching Mr. That was the only time I think I was genuinely angry with Andy when he was like, wouldn't believe Opie, but we knew that he was telling the jingling, the jingling. And he walks on the trees.

Yeah. He was the telephone repair. He was a telephone parent. And Opie kept saying that there's this man, he's got a silver head and he walks on the tree tops. And he got to the point where Andy was like, no, Opie, if you don't admit your line, I'm going to give you a spanking. I was like, if you spank that boy, I will never do it.

I will never respect you, Andy. Oh my goodness. Mr. McBeavie that was a great show. Simpler time in television. In your opinion, Dr. Shah, what do shows like that do for people who watch them?

That sense of nostalgia, that sense of like going back to yesteryear. What can we benefit from watching those shows? To me, the values that those shows portrayed are still very needed in our nation's foundation. The values of caring for one another, the values of understanding, patience, love, and kindness, all those humility. I mean, all these are values that have made America what it is.

We need them. Absolutely. And if you're in media, like we do this radio show, but there's tons of you guys out there listening to the show who do this in a certain extent.

You may not be a television producer, but you are putting things out there for the people you're creating stuff. And like Dr. Shah said, those values are really what people will remember at the end of the day. Yeah. Do you want to talk about how you got to visit the location? Yeah, we went to, what's the town? My mind just went to Mount Airy. It's not Mayberry, but it's Mount Airy.

We went to Mount Airy, North Carolina, and this was back in January. Nicole and I, you know, we love going out to one of our favorite places in Clarksville, Virginia, right on the border of North Carolina, Virginia. And there's a place called Cooper's Landing. And we love to go there, stay overnight, eat some really good food.

I mean, it's a fantastic food there. And then we will go off and see places in Virginia or North Carolina. This time we sort of went south and we went to Mount Airy on the way we stopped at Jeb Stewart's birthplace. I didn't realize it was right outside of Mount Airy. Now he was buried in Richmond.

He is buried in Richmond, I should say, but his birthplace is outside of Mount Airy. So we stopped there and then we went into Mount Airy and had an amazing time. Just, we walked around and drove in the squad car.

You have to pay a little price, but they take you around, show you different things and you tip the guy. So that was fun. And then we went to the, what is the jail? Or Andy Griffith's Sheriff's office and I filmed there. So that was fun.

That was fun. I remember you showed me the pictures and you were like sitting at the desk. I was like, is that Andy Griffith's desk?

Yes. It looks familiar. I was sitting on the desk. I was like, is he at the, and I looked up where you were. I was like, oh my goodness. That's actually Andy Griffith's set. That's like, it looks like the set from the show.

Yeah. So that we had a great time. And then we went to the museum. And so I encourage you guys, if you can, if you're nearby, make sure you go by Mount Airy.

And I know it's not the place, but why not? Go have fun. Yeah, absolutely.

Go have fun and go eat a good sandwich out there. There you go. Yeah.

Go enjoy. Absolutely. I love, I love the things that we've done here at Clearview as well, Dr. Shah, where you've called our attention back to those things of yesteryear, like the different shows that we've done, different plays that we've done here. Things like Charlotte's Web or Anne of Green Gables that are set in a, in an older time set in the past. But it calls us back to those values. Like you were talking about that, that simpler time where life moves a little bit slower, but those values were still very much a part of American life.

Well, we are constantly being projected forward, like by the world around us. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. We can't go back in time, but those values of yesteryear are valuable.

That's, you know, Yeah. I would say don't live in the past. Some people live in the past. I don't call them conservative.

I call them preservatives. So living in the past, I'd rather take those good things from the past applied to the present so we can change the future for the better, for Christ is what I would say. Because what you typically see is people taking today's values and trying to stick them onto the past and be like, see, this was, this was never good. This was never what America was intended to be or what our community was intended to be.

Really it's the opposite. We should be taking those good things that worked and using them to make the world a better place today. Right. For me, one of the cherished moments of my life was not just going to Mount Airy, but years ago I was able to preach.

I was invited to preach at Andy Griffith's church. Yes. I remember.

Yes. In manual, North Carolina. And the pastor there, it's a good friend of mine, still is a good friend. And he was there. He said, you want to come preach here?

So I said, yeah. And so I had a whole week of revival there, apologetics, all these things. But I remember that morning walking into the church and they had this, this massive glass case. So I'm just waiting for the church to start.

So I'm walking around and it's like Andy Griffith's pictures everywhere. So I asked somebody, I was like, why is Andy Griffith's picture here and all this memorabilia? Oh, this is his church. So you didn't know it was his church when you went to go preach here? No, he didn't tell me.

I think he told me, I just forgot. And then I'm like, oh my goodness. My most cherished moment.

Yeah. That's awesome. You got to preach in the, at the pulpit where Andy Griffith was a member. He used to be, he used to sit there. He used to be in the choir singing.

That's incredible. And he usually used to slip away before the service ended. The pastor and him, they had this deal that, hey, I'm going to be in your church. This is my church, this is my home church, but please don't let me get mobbed by the tourist. So what the pastor would do, he would have this long prayer in the end while Andy Griffith slipped away.

That's awesome. And then when people open their eyes, he's gone. He's gone. You can imagine how many people would have come. Oh yeah.

And then just mobbed him. Absolutely. All right. Well, there's your homework listeners and viewers go and watch the Andy Griffith show and let us know what your favorite moment or favorite episode is right in. Let us know. We want to hear from you. Two five two five eight two five zero two eight. I got to go home and figure out what my favorite moment is. If you guys enjoyed today's episode, write and let us know.

Two five two five eight two five zero two eight. You can visit us online at clearyoudodayshow.com. Don't forget you can partner with us financially on that same website. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Cleary Today.