Nobody has more faith in us than our friends, and nobody had more faith in Andy Griffith’s meteoric rise to superstardom than Don Knotts. Knotts and Griffith were often viewed as partners in comedy, though their journey together didn’t begin on The Andy Griffith Show.
The two officially met during the production of the play No Time For Sergeants, a film in which both men had roles. Even though they hadn’t been officially acquainted, Knotts wrote in his book, Barney Fife, and Other Characters I Have Known that from the first day he met Andy Griffith, he knew Griffith was destined for great things.
While Griffith’s reputation sometimes preceded him, even then, Knotts’ perception of him was incredibly limited. “I had never heard of Andy Griffith,” Knotts wrote. “He had a hit comedy record out called What It Was Was Football, but I had not yet heard it. There had also been a TV version of No Time For Sergeants starring Andy Griffith, but I had missed that too. In any case, Andy was still virtually unknown to the public.”
But once the first official script reading got underway, Knotts’ absurdly big eyes were opened to Griffith’s talent, even as he was combating his anxieties. “As we read the play, I was as nervous as a cat, but I couldn’t get over how good Andy Griffith was,” he wrote. ‘When we finished, I was certain of two things: this play was going to be a hit, and a lot of people were going to know who Andy Griffith was.”
Though they were practically strangers, they became pals during the production of No Time For Sergeants which would eventually produce a lot of laughs and entertainment.
“Just as I had a hunch we could, Andy and I became good friends during the run,” wrote Knotts. “We had fun breaking each other up. We had common threads in our backgrounds, and we understood each other.”
Luckily, it was a friendship that would last a lifetime.
