Was Don Knotts ever offered a spinoff series?
Would Don Knotts have done that?
How popular would that have been?
Could there have been enough unique storylines to fill a schedule?
Could he have been a success without Andy Griffith?
Was the Barney character one - dimensional?
Did Barney Fife need to play off of Andy Taylor to be interesting enough?

Was Don Knotts ever offered a spinoff series?
Would Don Knotts have done that?
How popular would that have been?
Could there have been enough unique storylines to fill a schedule?
Could he have been a success without Andy Griffith?
Was the Barney character one - dimensional?
Did Barney Fife need to play off of Andy Taylor to be interesting enough?

Was Don Knotts ever offered a spinoff series?

I never read or heard of any proposed spinoff of the Barney character.

Would Don Knotts have done that?

Possibly. Here's the problem the best the production company could offer was a development deal, it would be up to CBS whether the network would be interested in a series centering around the Barney Fife character. One problem with this, Don probably would have wanted some ownership consideration which would have potentially complicated the relationship with Jim Nabors who had no such consideration on his series.

How popular would that have been?

Who knows, Don's one solo TV effort failed, his first movie The Incredible Mr. Limpet underperformed at the box office, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken was a hit, his next two movies made a profit but were not hits, and his last two bombed. It really depends on what a Barney series was about.


Could there have been enough unique storylines to fill a schedule?

I think so, the Barney character would have to be developed a bit more and the other characters carefully crafted but look at Gomer Pyle.

Was the Barney character one - dimensional?

No, he would need to be reimagined a bit as a lead character but I think that could be done while maintaining the essence of the Barney persona.

Did Barney Fife need to play off of Andy Taylor to be interesting enough?

No, he'd would need the right actors around him for his character to work. I imagine he would need a female coworker (potential love interest) nudging him into the right direction from time to time (a 99 type of character).

Seems like they floated an idea for a Barney spin off with the job in the big city.