thomas show." danny was an executive producer on the series along with sheldon leonard. he definitely did professionally, and personally in a lot of ways because he created an environment on that set that was very creative, very playful, but extremely disciplined and it was sort of, you know, that simple lesson that i witnessed week in and week out from the very first episode to the very last when i was 14 years old, which was, y know, if you're doing it you might as well do it well and this is an opportunity to, you know, to be involved in something that could be memorable and just to respect that. it was never spoken that clearly but like all great lessons, it was observed. >> how different was he from the character that he played? tell us about andy griffith, the man. >> well, i think the character evolved, you know, into something much closer to the real andy. in the beginning, you know, it was everyone's design to just do something broader and a little more, you know, kind of country bu bumpkin-ish or something, closer to some of his monologues which were broad and