https://www.metv.com/stories/andy-griffith-rejected-don-knotts-proposal-to-be-a-permanent-team

We could've had "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken AND Mr. Griffith"!

Ron Howard on The Andy Griffith Show: ''You'd never be able to put on that show today'' (https://www.metv.com/stories/ron-howard-on-the-andy-griffith-show-youd-never-be-able-to-put-on-that-show-today)

Howard argued that such a show wouldn't be made today.

Here's why Don Knotts returned to television after leaving The Andy Griffith Show (https://www.metv.com/stories/heres-why-don-knotts-returned-to-television-after-leaving-the-andy-griffith-show)

Knotts revealed why he decided to return to television.

Andy was perhaps the strangest sitcom star of all time. He didn't want to do comedy, the show after Don left evolves pretty quickly into lighthearted slice of life stories, with laughs being few and far between. So it makes perfect sense that he would not want to team with Don, what I have trouble with was his reluctance in considering any project with Don. That idea for a film about two hobos in the 1930's that would have starred Andy and Don sounded like it had a lot of potential. A good script, some careful casting might have delivered a hit film that was a lot more than just another comedy. Andy supposedly turned the idea down flat, and I think that was a mistake. At that point in time it would have helped both his career and Don's and might have rivaled A Face in the Crowd as Andy's best film work.