Category: Friendships

A Small-Town Friendship That Fooled America

To classic TV fans, The Andy Griffith Show was a good old fashioned comedy that evoked nostalgia. In small towns like the fictional Mayberry, North Carolina, people generally know everything about each other. However, the friendship between the show’s two main stars, Andy Griffith and Don Knotts was not as it appeared on the show. According to the book, Andy and Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show, these shy country bumpkins used their squeaky-clean act to fool America and mask their twisted real lives and shameful secrets. If true, it’s another example for my series, New Year; New Types of Friends about why all men need GodBuddies; those deeper, more authentic male friendships who hold each other accountable to living according to higher standards. About the TV Show  The Andy Griffith Show was an American sitcom in the 1960s that evoked nostalgia. Set in the

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An Odd Couple of Friends

My series New Year; New Types of Friends now moves to examples of friendships in television starting with the quintessential pairing of two opposite personalities in The Odd Couple: Oscar Madison and Felix Unger. These roommates show how opposites can form a friendship that is greater than the sum of its parts. In this case, each gives the other something he lacks. They watch out for one another. Their friendship shows that having a male friend who is different than you, may actually make you a better man.  About The Odd Couple The Odd Couple started as a Broadway play by Neil Simon about two mismatched roommates: the near-OCD, uptight Felix Unger, and the slovenly, easygoing Oscar Madison. The 1965 play originally starred Walter Matthau as Oscar Madison and Art Carney as Felix Ungar. The characters were revived in a successful 1968 movie starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon as two divorced men

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Every Guy Needs These Top Gun Friendships  

This summer’s blockbuster movie, Top Gun: Maverick shows why every man needs a wingman and a mentor, even if you don’t fly a Navy fighter plane!  As I wrote in the Introduction for this series New Year; New Types of Friends, every man needs several different types of friends in his “inner circle.” These include a Mentor, a Wingman/Bachelor, a Handyman, a Fitness Buff, a Work Pal, and my personal addition: the GodBuddy.  The long-awaited sequel to the 1986 original Top Gun, finds Tom Cruise reprising his role as ace fighter pilot, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Still haunted by the death of his best friend, co-pilot Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw, Maverick carries around the events of his past and survivor’s guilt. But a request by his former nemesis-turned-friend, Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (played by Val Kilmer) reinvigorates Maverick. Read on to find out how a wingman and mentor apply to a GodBuddy friendship.

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An Odd Couple of Friends

My series New Year; New Types of Friends now moves to examples of friendships in television starting with the quintessential pairing of two opposite personalities

Read More »