“Sometimes things happen between grownups that’s hard for kids to understand,” Gramps’s Jack MacGruder (Andy Griffith) gently counsels his grandson Matthew (Casey Wurzbach), whose parents are fighting again. (Wurzbach was last seen enduring yet another domestic ordeal in Because Mommy Works.) He might as well be addressing viewers who are similarly confused about the plot of this made-for-TV movie, which premiered on NBC in 1995 and also aired under the title Relative Fear.
Jack, a retired musician who claims to have worked with the likes of Hank Williams and Elvis, enjoys a rapprochement with his long-estranged son Clarke (John Ritter), a successful lawyer, following a death in the family. Eager to win Matthew’s affections, he plies the boy with ice cream and candy bars, tosses him a football and teaches him how to climb a tree. He kindly refrains from instructing him in arson, a skill we already know he’s mastered from Gramps’s opening scene.
One of the most popular cinematic trends of the early-to-mid ’90s was the violation of the sanctity of one’s home, a craze arguably birthed by Fatal Attraction in 1987. From renters and roommates (Pacific Heights, Single White Female) to crazy landlords and their kin (Sliver, The Crush), no one could be trusted — even nannies and policemen (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Unlawful Entry) weren’t spared. Gramps adds kindly old grandpas to that list.
Flashbacks establish Jack as an alcoholic prone to violent rages that eventually forced his wife to flee with their son in tow. Decades later, he tells Clarke he no longer drinks. “Brought nothing but misery,” he says with a forced smile. Casting a pall over their idyllic reunion and its male-bonding rituals (like watching old westerns and cheering Shaquille O’Neal together) is the temper Jack still displays in private, when he smashes a frame containing a photo of his ex-wife.
“I let that whore of a wife take my son from me. Ain’t no sonofab*tch gonna come between me and my grandson,” he’ll eventually growl, but not before pulling a Tonya Harding on Clarke’s housekeeper (Tonea Stewart) and enlisting a prostitute’s help in sandbagging his son’s complicated marriage to Betsy (Mary-Margaret Humes). So zealous is he to eliminate any perceived threats to his relationship with Matthew that we can only groan when Betsy’s father, Oliver (Mitch Ryan, Blanche’s abusive boyfriend on The Golden Girls) invites him turkey hunting.
Ritter and Humes are largely emotionally absent from roles that exist only as pawns in Jack’s game; Ritter finally snaps to life near the denouement, when Clarke must decide whether to go permanently no-contact with his father. But Griffith is wonderfully present and appears to have enjoyed himself immensely, which animates J.B. White’s lazy, wildly improbable screenplay and Bradford May’s bland direction. Bafflingly, the actor told the Deseret News in 1995 that Gramps was “the best material that I’ve had in years. Maybe ever.” While ‘ever’ is quite a stretch, Gramps sure beats the final seasons of Matlock. All that’s missing for our comic delectation is a little Don Knotts.
Streaming and DVD availability
Gramps hasn’t been released on DVD and isn’t currently on an authorized streaming platform, but you can find a grainy copy of it on YouTube.
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Cranky Lesbian is a disgruntled homosexual with too much time on her hands. Click for film reviews or to follow on Instagram.
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