Fri., 4/24 Harald Hornung

[magus]

THEME:   phrases starting with FOR but which could be read without FOR [most clever]
   
GOOD ONES:     
King's downfall   MATE [in chess; also at times in royalty]   
Balancing aid   EAR [I was sure it was BAR]   
Coat material   PAINT   
Boat propeller   OAR [oldie but goodie]   
   
BTW:   
Excuse that last jeer?   FORGIVE A HOOT [lack of parallelism: the word "that" is definite, but "a" is indefinite]   
   
Discovered accidentally    LIT ON [Maybe found in some on-line glossary, but it's not in English… "hit upon" is the term.]   
   
   
RATING:   
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun   

[Thomps2525]

One clue was "Old sitcom redhead." That could be interpreted as either "Old redhead in a sitcom" or as "Redhead in an old sitcom." My first thought was REBA, which has appeared in many puzzles. Then I thought of LUCY. The answer was OPIE. The first five seasons (159 episodes) of The Andy Griffith Show were filmed in black and white. Seasons 6 through 8 (90 episodes) were in color. Ron Howard appeared as Opie in only 209 of the series' 249 episodes. Most of those 209 were black and white and that is why I didn't immediately think of Opie as the "sitcom redhead."

Today's Daily News crossword was challenging. It included four 8-letter answers and six 11-letter answers, including COMEUPPANCE, GRANDNEPHEW and MICKEYMOUSE. It also included OPIE, this time clued as "Mayberry moppet."