Tim Conway intended to be a part of a movie duo— but not with Don Knotts

Hollywood, it seems, had other plans.

September 19, 2024, 2:21PM By MeTV Staff

Shout! Factory, LLC

If you're a fan of classic comedy feature films, chances are you've seen Tim Conway and Don Knotts paired up together. After historic success on television, each man set his sights on the big screen.

Knotts left Mayberry for the big screen, and in between seasons of The Carol Burnett Show, Conway was cinema-bound as well. Together, the twosome starred in movies like The Apple Dumpling Gang, and The Private Eyes. Their pairings are remembered as some of the high points of each actor's career.

However, despite his accomplishments with Knotts, Tim Conway originally intended to link up with a different comedy legend.

In an interview with the New Castle News in '77, Conway revealed plans for a new movie he'd written. Specifically, the film was going to be a prison spoof, and Conway had a former co-star in mind when he set about penning the project.

"I'd love to do something with [Harvey] Korman," Conway said of his fellow Carol Burnett Show alum.

"It depends where Harvey's at by that time. He's been out of television now, and that may be good for him. Harvey is one of the great comic actors, but he does everything so well that audiences accept him as an extension of the Burnett TV series and what he did on it. He's so good, people never identified him with what he is, but rather with what he played."

Fortunately for comedy fans, we all got the best of both worlds. Conway continued his lucrative partnership with Don Knotts for the sequel The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, leaving behind a few charming, well-remembered projects that saw the two stars onscreen together. But, he also reunited with Harvey Korman in the 1986 movie The Longshot, a movie about horse betting.

No matter who he teamed up with onscreen, Conway was a hit with audiences, because he was willing to risk his dignity for a laugh.

"There are not too many clowns willing to make idiots of themselves— which I am willing to do," he said.

"We don't have the likes of Harold Loyd, and Buster Keaton or W.C. Fields, whose personalities were strong enough to carry a movie. I believe I can do it."