> Some of my favorite episodes include:
>
> Barney trying to convince Andy that the local bank needs
> improved security, so he dresses up as the cleaning lady and
> ends up locked in the bank’s safe. He ends up crashing
> through the wall next door into a beauty shop. The bank
> guard was some old geezer armed with a civil war pistol that
> didn’t work.
>
> Thinking that Andy’s life is being threatened by a just
> released prison inmate, Barney recruits Otis, Gomer and a
> few of the other town idiots as deputies in order to protect
> Andy.
>
> Barney and the World War One motorcycle he bought to patrol
> Mayberry.
>
> Barney coming back to Mayberry for his high school reunion,
> only to find out that his long-time love Thelma Lou got
> married.
>
> Even Andy Griffith said it on the Larry King Show that Don
> Knotts was the “heart and soul” of that show, and that it
> was impossible to replace Knotts once he left. I believe
> they did have another actor play Andy’s deputy, but that guy
> (Warren?) just wasn’t funny at all.
>
"Warren" was played by Jack Burns. No, he didn't fare well in Mayberry...Too bad, because the guy has an A+ comedy resume otherwise (Onetime comic partner with George Carlin, Second City, where he hooked up with Avery Schreiber, and head writer (I think) for both "The Muppet Show" and "Fridays".)
IIRC, they made the mistake of having him slip into the patter he used with Schreiber in the cabdriver skits ("Y'know what I mean?" "Yeah." "Huh?" "Yeah." "Huh?" "Yeah.")
Maybe somebody knows this...Was the classic "Barney Robs The Bank" ep based in any way on the real life incident where Paul Harvey tried to break into an Air Force missile installation to prove how lax the security was? (Boy, does that sound like it was ripped from today's headlines!)