The 50th anniversary of Andy Griffith’s ‘Angel in My Pocket’ and still no official remaster in sight

As the No. 3 Nielsen-rated, seventh season of “The Andy Griffith Show” prepares to get underway at Desilu Studios on 846 North Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood, the series’ namesake 39-year-old star poses contemplatively on the back of a wooden chair in an outtake from his June 4–10, 1966, cover shoot for TV Guide. Photography by Ken Whitmore

The 1969 comedy-drama Angel in My Pocket was the first project Andy Griffith tackled after willingly abdicating The Andy Griffith Show [TAGS], the number one rated television series for its final 1967–1968 season. Angel in My Pocket, Griffith’s first theatrical film since a supporting turn eight years earlier in Debbie Reynolds’ modest comedy western The Second Time Around, was born out of a tantalizing proposal by Universal Studios executives.

Sensing Griffith’s dissatisfaction after eight seasons of rendering even-handed Sheriff Andy Taylor and having already distributed three kid-friendly comedies by former TAGS second banana Don Knotts, Terry Collins reported in The Andy Griffith Story: An Illustrated Biography that Universal said, “Come with us and make feature films, and you’ll be another Jimmy Stewart or Henry Fonda.” With a minimum paycheck of $2 million, a third of the net profits guaranteed, and producer reins shared with Svengali-like manager Richard Linke [i.e. Andy Griffith Productions, Inc.], the “Romeo and Juliet” comedy monologist’s 5-year, 10-movie contract seemed like a sure bet.

Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum were chosen on the strength of their 29 hysterical black and white scripts of TAGS — they hatched Ernest T. Bass — and…