“The West needs dentists. Teeth are falling out left and
right out there”—Don Knotts as “Doc the Heywood”
Due to the unmistakable popularity with his Barney Fife character,
multiple Emmy Award winner Don Knotts hit the trail out of Mayberry
in 1965 for a lucrative deal with Universal Pictures. Knotts would sign
for a series of five motion pictures at Universal–all the while assuming
his partner, Andy Griffith would be bailing television as well.
As it happened, Griffith stayed with his TV show and Knotts, now
too far into contractual agreements, decided to head for the lone prairie.
The third in the Don Knotts series was a Western landmine called
The Shakiest Gun in the West.
Knotts does not recall regretting his parting with the amiable Sheriff Andy.
Knotts recalls, “I had done five years (with Griffith) and we’d been very
successful. If the pictures hadn’t been successful, I might havebeen sorry.”
His favorite was his first, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. Naturally, this came
out of a brainstorm with veteran TV……………………………………………………..