‘Andy Griffith’ Star Had Strong Words For Co-Star Don Knotts in Memoir originally appeared on Parade.
The Andy Griffith Show was an incredibly popular sitcom about the interworkings of the small town of Mayberry, North Carolina, that ran on CBS from 1960 to 1968. It starred Andy Griffith as widower Sheriff Andy Taylor, Ron Howard as his son, Opie, Frances Bavier as his maiden aunt and housekeeper Aunt Bee, and Don Knotts as the goofy deputy, Barney Fife.
Knotts was a gifted comedian, winning the Best Supporting Actor Primetime Emmy Award five times for his work on the show. He would go on to star on Three’s Company and Matlock (reuniting with Griffith in the title role), plus Knotts did voice acting for numerous TV shows and movies because he had a hilariously distinctive voice.
George Lindsey was one of Knotts’ co-stars on The Andy Griffith Show. Lindsey played Goober Pyle, cousin to Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors), for the back half of The Andy Griffith Show’s run. In Lindsey’s 1995 memoir Goober in a Nutshell about his time on the show, the actor could not speak highly enough about Knotts, calling him a “sheer genius” of comedy.
“No one was ever more golden than Don Knotts. He is a sheer genius. The one scene with him trying to recite the preamble of the Constitution to Andy in ‘Opie’s Ill-Gotten Gain’ episode is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on television. No director did that. That was the pure brilliance of Don Knotts. He takes acting one step further than anybody else. He’s simply as good as they get,” wrote Lindsey, though he added that Knotts was perhaps a bit aloof with his co-stars.
“Once we were finished working for the day, though, he wouldn’t hang around. He always went home when we were done,” wrote Lindsey.
Lindsey also lamented that he only got to film one full season with Knotts before Knotts left The Andy Griffith Show at the end of season five — Knotts would return to guest-star on just five episodes in the final three seasons.
“You usually did just one take with Don. That’s all it took because he nailed every scene. And working with him, you always had the luxury of his talent. I regret that we were only in essentially one season together, but I’m forever thankful for that year,” wrote Lindsey, adding, “After Don left, I felt it became my responsibility to fill some of the void. No one person could do it, but we all filled in parts of Barney Fife.”
The cast would reunite over the years several times — Knotts appeared on one episode of the spinoff Mayberry RFD, and the whole cast returned for the 1986 made-for-TV movie Return to Mayberry and the 1993 Andy Griffith Show Reunion special, plus they attended various fan events that were not broadcast on TV.
Lindsey wrote of one such fan event, “I have never seen such a concentration of sincere, genuinely rabid Mayberry fans. It was a wonderful experience. You can’t help but feed off that kind of enthusiasm and energy.”
Sadly, the only major Andy Griffith Show star who is still alive is director Ron Howard. Knotts died in 2006 at the age of 81, Griffith died in 2012 at the age of 86, Bavier died in 1989 at the age of 86, Nabors died in 2017 at the age of 87 and Lindsey died in 2012 at the age of 83.
