Barney Fife: The Faint of Heart

On The Andy Griffith Show, Barney Fife was not always the bravest deputy, although he certainly always tried to face his fears.

We watched his eyes bulge, his hands shake, his gun misfire, his knees wobble, and his voice tremble, but we never once, in the history of The Andy Griffith Show, saw Barney Fife faint.

Aaron Ruben was The Andy Griffith Show's secret weapon

Here's something you may not know about The Andy Griffith Show. Series co-creator Aaron Ruben was the guy you could thank for making sure that the characters on the show were written to be consistently funny.

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As documented in the Journal of Pop Culture, Andy Griffith once said that Ruben "saw to it that perfectly suited material was provided" for Andy and Barney so that the humor of the show would perfectly balance the two actors and their unique capabilities.

Rubn knew what Andy and Barney needed

A good example of Ruben's careful consideration of what made the comedic duo work is the fact that he would not allow any writer to make Don Knotts faint as Barney Fife.

In the memorable fourth season episode "The Haunted House," Barney's gun misfires, and the episode's writer, Harvey Bullock, thought it would be really funny if Barney fainted at the sound of his own gunshot.

"I don't think he'd better faint,” Ruben explained to Bullock, "because if he faints this week, he'll have to faint funny next week, then next time he will have to faint funnier, and soon the credibility of the character is gone."

And with that, a line was drawn in Mayberry, and no writer ever tried to make Don Knotts faint in their scripts.

Knotts was no stranger to the pratfall, as seen in "The Shakiest Gun in the West"

That doesn't mean Knotts wouldn't have been up to it.

As any Don Knotts fan knows, the man can faint with the funniest physical comedians of all time.

One of the first things Knotts did after he left The Andy Griffith Show was  The Shakiest Gun in the West, a 1968 western comedy written by Andy Griffith Show writers in which his character faints.

They'd clearly waited a long time to watch Don Knotts pass out.

The fainting happens in the movie during a scene where Knotts' character is being seduced. After his romantic interest tells him she thinks he's very nice, Knotts stumbles, saying, "I think I might faint," before swooning onto her clumsily.

Don Knotts' real-life fainting spells

In the real world, Knotts actually had a real problem with feeling faint in certain moments.

In fact, the first time he had to introduce Andy Griffith on stage in 1955, he said he nearly fainted then. He didn't think he could budge, he felt so weak. But, like Barney Fife, he summoned his courage and walked onstage to do his duty.

"I've never seen a man so frightened," said actor Roddy McDowall, who was involved in the 1955 stage show, according to the book Andy and Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show.

Sometimes, Knotts even fainted from joy!

Knotts didn't just feel faint when he was nervous, though. He also felt the same woozy feeling when he got exceptionally good news.

Like when he found out he got the part of Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show.

When his agent called, Knotts said again he nearly fainted, this time from delight. If you're wondering what it would take to nearly faint from sheer joy, perhaps it's sensing the huge star you're about to become:

"I had a good feeling about this," Knotts said of joining The Andy Griffith Show. "I had a real good feeling, even before it started."