Earle Hagen's involvement in The Andy Griffith Show, which occurred during the most productive years of his career,[1] resulted from his professional relationship with Sheldon Leonard, whom he met in 1953 while working on Make Room for Daddy.
Leonard, the show's director and executive producer, eschewed the era's typical use of stock music for incidental use in television programs, a practice he compared to being like "wearing someone else's underwear".
[5] Professional whistler Fred Lowery is sometimes incorrectly credited as having performed the version of the theme used in The Andy Griffith Show,[6] a boast he also made during his tours.
In 1961, Capitol Records issued an LP album of music from The Andy Griffith Show, which included an expanded version of the theme played by an orchestra conducted by Hagen.
[8] According to an interview Andy Griffith gave that October to the Baltimore Sun, Hagen expanded various cues, including the theme music, for the album.
[12] Ron Howard, who co-starred in The Andy Griffith Show, later recalled that classmates would tease him by whistling its theme when he was trying to make free throws during his high school basketball games.