Monday, November 13, 2006

Hijacking Andy Griffith's good name

If this doesn’t beat all
You may have seen the story in Saturday’s Observer: A Wisconsin fellow named William Harold Fenrick legally changed his name to Andrew Jackson Griffith so he could run for sheriff as Andy Griffith.
Doesn’t that beat everything you ever saw?
It must have worked on the real Andy Griffith. He’s suing the former Mr. Fenrick for trademark violation, according to this story from the Associated Press.
Who’d ever have thought Sheriff Andy Griffith, uh, we mean Sheriff Andy Taylor (Andrew Jackson Taylor, to be sure) would have to go to court to protect his good name? In the town of Mayberry, he was usually the wise, level-headed fellow everyone respected – not that he didn’t get in a little trouble every now and then over some misunderstanding or other with Ellie Walker or Helen Crump.
Of course, you can’t be too careful around politicians. Not long ago Rachel Lea Hunter, a candidate for N.C. Supreme Court, asked the State Board of Elections to put her name on the ballot as Madame Justice. Fortunately, there is some justice, and she wasn’t.
There was justice in Wisconsin, too.
Fenrick lost.
Here’s the story:

2 comments:

Unknown said...

It shows you how beloved that show was to all Americans, not just here in NC. I still enjoy the show. Barney Fife was the character who made the show a success.

It is silly for someone to change their name like that as a gimmick to get elected. But I think its also silly for Andy Griffith to sue. It's a frivolous lawsuit that should be dismissed. I bet that there are many people with the name Andy Griffith. Should they be sued as well?

Oh well, another example of lawyers gone wild.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the great post
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