RIP Ken Berry

He was awful in Mayberry RFD, too.

 

Andy had been mailing it in the last several seasons, too.

I think he saw Dick Van Dyke get the smash film role in "Mary Poppins," and figured, "why not me?", and as a result got bored and lazy with the teevee show. Remember, Andy had been a fairly substantial up-and-coming movie actor prior to the teevee show.

Ken Berry, I suppose, didn't do a bad job in his role, but his role was just boring as all hell.

 

This doesn't relate to Ken Berry, RIP, but Warren replacing Don Knott's character may have been the worst replacement character in sitcom history.

 

The "Howard Sprague Tries a Beer" episode was noteworthy, though.

 

Jim Nabors as Gomer could have stepped in, but they spun him off into his own show almost the same time Don Knotts left.

Since "GPUSMC" became quite a substantial hit in its own right, I
imagine the producers were ok with the tradeoff in the long run.

Andy himself had hit comic gold with "No Time For Sergeants" before the start of the teevee show, and TAGS was originally planned to showcase Andy as the comic star, before they discovered Knotts, made him the comic lead, and turned Andy into the avuncular straight man.

By 1965 Andy probably figured it was too late to go back and make Andy Taylor the wild and crazy guy he was originally supposed to be. Or he didn't feel like trying.

Maybe ... they should have married him off to a sexy witch or a genie!

Having Barbara Eden (or the equivalent) bouncing around Mayberry in a harem outfit would certainly have livened up the storylines.

 

Jesus... Howard Sprague, Ken Berry, the Warren character.

Someone on the 'talent recruiting side' should have been fired.

Gomer and Goober were terrible as well.

That shows just how strong the main set of Andy Griffith characters were.

 

Ehhh, Nabors was pretty good as Original Gomer, playing a version of the hillbilly-yokel character Andy had hit big with in "No Time For Sergeants."
Goober was ok but a less focused knockoff.

 

Even taking away the obvious horrible Barney/Warren trade . . .

Floyd and Otis and Gomer > Howard and Emmett and Goober

 

I take back my post about early Gomer. He was pretty good as a bit player hick mechanic.

The show's depth was impressive. Every girlfriend of Andy and Barney were fantastic. And it went far beyond that. Ernest T, the occasional Feds, Aunt Bee's friends...

 

Part of the dynamic with Andy was that he was supposed to be an authority figure of sorts -- as much as an omnipotent authority figure as you could have in Mayberry, and playing all the zany rural characters off him made for good comedy.
Sam Jones -- Ken Berry -- what was he supposed to be? A strait-laced farmer; that was it.

A strait-laced farmer playing off against zany rural types? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Plus, the rural types weren't so zany anymore.

 

Ken Berry did commercials for Kinney Shoes for many years

 

If Kinney Shoe stores had shows like that, it would revitalize malls all across America.