“A number of things were swimming around in me, of course, that led up to the dream,” said Knotts.
It’s easy to overlook the fact that a lot of Barney Fife’s mannerisms predate The Andy Griffith Show. The character is so singular, so specific, that it seems like all those traits could only exist in Mayberry. The truth, though, is far more interesting than any spur-of-the-moment decisions made on the set.
There was No Time for Sergeants, a Griffith and Knotts pairing that happened two full years before The Andy Griffith Show. In it, Knotts played Cpl. John C. Brown, and administers an Army manual dexterity. Would it shock you to learn that Knotts played the army man as a nervous, bumbling individual? It shouldn’t, especially considering that the character traits predate the movie too.
Before The Andy Griffith Show, and even before No Time for Sergeants, Knotts refined his “nervous man” routine on the nightclub circuit. But, how’d he come up with the stuff, anyway? Knotts’ own Barney Fife and Other Characters I Have Known holds the answer in its pages.
“Most people don’t believe me when I tell them the nervous character I did on The Steve Allen Show came to me in a dream, but it happens to be the truth. A number of things were swimming around in me, of course, that led up to the dream.
“Several months earlier, I had attended a luncheon during which one of the speakers was so nervous his hands were shaking visibly. He rattled the paper his notes were written on, and when he attempted a drink of water, he proceeded to spill it all over himself. It was a painful thing to watch, but at the same time, amusing.”
While Knotts was enamored with the man’s actions from the get-go, it wasn’t until much later that he realized it was a kernel of what could eventually become a full-fledged character.
“I wish I could say I suddenly thought to myself, ‘What a great idea for a comedic character!’ But alas, consciously, it went right over my head. It was almost a year before it came to me, and even then it had to hit me over the head in a dream.”
Knotts refined those mannerisms slowly, first in private and then onstage. Eventually, he developed the rounded, believable character of Deputy Barney Fife.
