Favorite Character:

Andy Taylor
Barney Fife
Opie Taylor
Aunt Bea
Howard Sprague
Gomer Pyle
Goober Pyle
Emmett
The Darling's
Ernest T. Bass
Other

When Barney went off to the big city Mayberry wasn't the same. Andy lost his accent and gained a permanent girlfriend, Aunt Bea got strange and even Gomer left.

I like more than one character my favorite's are Opie, Andy, Aunt Bea, Gomer and Goober.

Barney, in my opinion, made the series what it was, funny. When he left, it was never the same. Nothing was really that funny in the later years, only when Barney came back for a few visits. Barney gets my vote. :)

Originally posted by lukes42
Barney, in my opinion, made the series what it was, funny. When he left, it was never the same. Nothing was really that funny in the later years, only when Barney came back for a few visits. Barney gets my vote. :)

Yeah, I see what you mean. After Barney left, Andy got really grumpy. Did you notice how Andy's relationship with Opie changed during the color seasons? If I was Opie, I would've ran away from home and never came back. Barney Fife is what made that show imo.

Originally posted by Jenny


Yeah, I see what you mean. After Barney left, Andy got really grumpy. Did you notice how Andy's relationship with Opie changed during the color seasons? If I was Opie, I would've ran away from home and never came back. Barney Fife is what made that show imo.
Yeah, poor Opie!

And I can't choose just 1 favorite. I like Barney, goober, and Gomer.

What about Otis......I can't think of an episode where he didn't make me laugh.

I thought Don Knotts made the series a success. His zany over zealous nature was a perfect contrast to Andy's laid back nature. The chemistry the two shared were comparable to Martin and Lewis, Hope and Crosby, Lemmon and Matthau, Klugman and Randall, and Foxx and Wilson.

I only wish that Don Knotts had stayed with the series for its entirety, but I understand that his star was burning bright, and he needed to explore other acting oppurtunities.

I agree, Don Knotts was the one that made the show such a success. In a way, his character is a male equivalet to Lucy Ricardo on I Love Lucy. His character got into some of the wildest situations ever! He was just as hysterical as Lucy Ricardo.
After he left, the show was never the same again.

Yes you are correct Lucy Fan, and I must say that comparing Don Knotts to Lucy is a very interesting comparison. They both are very nosy, they both tend to get into trouble, they both pretended to know more than everyone else, which often leads to their misfortunes. But above all, we tended to love them both despite their short comings.

Don Knotts... he was the funniest!

My favorite is Barney Five(Don Knotts):lol:

I loved the Darlins they were cool mountain people that never understood the ways of the "modern" world. Kind of reminds me of some people around here in Alabama.

Sami dg, how about Ernest T. Bass, now that was a character, or as Barney calls him "a nut".

He tended to make the quiet town of Maybery very interesting, whenever he would visit.

Without a characterization like Barney File so brilliantly played by Don Knotts, the AGS probably would only have made it for one or two seasons. That's interesting because the deputy character was not even in the original concept for the show; rather it was based on the idea of a town so small that one man was the sheriff, the justice of the peace, and the editor of the newspaper. Even in the first few eps it was not the common-sense, straight-man sheriff and his foil, the eager-beaver, bungling deputy; but Andy was almost as silly as Barney...as when he was on the radio with a state police captain on a manhunt and he says, "Now you cain't say no more captain-- I've done ten-foured ya!"

Fortunately it didn't take long to see this was a perfect straight-man/comic setup, and this did make the show for 5 years. If sources are correct, the reason Don Knotts left was because Andy was continuing to say he was going to leave it after 5 years, the length of his and Knott's original contracts. It was only after Knotts had considered other offers and signed a contract with a movie studio that Andy changed his mind and decided to continue the series. From that point onward, things seem to have been bungled. The replacement deputy, "Warren," was simply another try at being Barney, and after the first Barney a new one just wouldn't work, and this made Andy grumpier on the set than usual, said others involved in production. Then the whiny Mama's boy 'Howard' was added instead of a new deputy, then later Howard McNear ['Floyd'] had another stroke and died, and Opie was becoming a teenager, no longer the little boy to be told Andy's version of history or right and wrong. So the circumstances of AG staying with the show when he apparently didn't really want to, do seem to show up in his character in the color (final 3) seasons.

One of the funniest lines Barney had was in a episode where he kept saying"we have to nip this in the bud". For years now whenever my sister and I run into a situation that calls for it we will use that immortal phrase.

Yes "Nip it in the bud" was one of many Barney Fifeisms that were very funny.

I voted Barney. But I've got more then one.

Barney
Andy
Opie
Floyd
Gomer
Goober