Jerry Van Dyke as Andy's deputy?

[bpatrick]

The other day TV Land had the last black-and-white
"Andy Griffith Show." Jerry Van Dyke played a one-man
band accompanying a belly dancer at a carnival playing
in Mayberry. When Andy gets the carnival shut down, the
guys running it fire Jerry; Andy feels sorry for him and offers
him a meal and a place to sleep. Turns out Aunt Bee knew
Jerry's family in Morgantown, WV (where Don Knotts was from;
Jerry, as most of us know, is from Danville, IL) and thinks Andy
ought to give him a job at the courthouse. Jerry is pretty incompetent,
and Andy's ready to let him go, until he finds Aunt Bee's (and several
other women's) stolen purse at the carnival and leads Andy to the
purse snatchers.

Jerry was offered the chance to take Don Knotts' place; he turned it
down in favor of "My Mother The Car" and admits he's regretted that
decision ever since. I keep thinking that Andy and Jerry's longtime real-
life friendship might have made a fictional Andy/Jerry working relationship
work. While no one could effectively replace Don Knotts, do those of you
who have seen that episode think Jerry could have stepped in?

 

[jwk1979]

That is hard to say. I think he would have done better than Jack Burns did with Warren, but Jerry Van Dyke had a long history of any show he appeared as a regular on being a flop, until "Coach". I think it would have been interesting to see.