“Barney” Needs More Than His Bullet- “Ghost and Mr. Chicken” Tonight!

Tonight on MeTV-the beloved  actor who played "Barney Fife" on the "Andy Griffith Show" (coincidentally also seen here on MeTV) struts his comedic stuff as a would-be reporter who gets spooked in a haunted house where a murder was committed- it's Don Knotts in "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken"!

Don, as mild-mannered Luther Heggs, a newspaper type-setter who wants to be a full-fledged reporter, supposedly witnesses a murder outside a haunted house, and runs to the police with the bulletin- only to be proven wrong, and made to feel like a fool. At his rooming house breakfast the next day, Ollie,a smart-aleck  reporter from the newspaper rubs it in big time- this is only made worse by the fact that the reporter is dating a lovely local girl, Alma, that Luther is enamored with!

Ollie is also instrumental in setting up Luther to spend the night in the old haunted Simmons "murder" house, where Mr. Simmons killed his wife. Luther is apprehensive, but, with the lure of this being a story with his by-line, braves his fears and heads into the house just before  the hour that mysterious events allegedly always take place. Sure enough- Luther witnesses a lot of unexplained phenomenon, including  the old organ in the house playing by itself- and, as the story of his horrific night spreads, he becomes a town hero- until the one surviving member of the Simmons clan  decides to sue him for making up a libelous story! Luther is brought to trial- and must prove that he did see everything he reported- which means one more dangerous trip to the  old mansion!

This 1966 horror-comedy is a favorite of  so many people- including our friend, wrestling icon Jim Cornette- and features lots of familiar faces that you'll recognize from  classic TV shows. Don Knotts is hilarious , playing is stock character, loaded with phony bravado while shaking like a leaf in reality- and his love interest, Joan Staley, is definitely worth facing any frights for! You'll recognize the music styling of Vic Mizzy, who provides the soundtrack- he did lots of theme and background music for  classic TV shows as well, including "The Addams Family".

This "Barney" entry in our "Boris and Barney?!" theme this month runs tonight at 10 pm eastern/pacific, 9 pm central, and please check your local listings for the time it runs where you are. In Chicago, viewers get a little more "Boris" in the original "Frankenstein"- on our sister station, WCIU, the U, at 11 am.

Don't forget- speaking of ghosts- I'll be at the Chicago Ghost Conference at Schurz High School this afternoon from 1 to 3 pm. More information is available at the "appearances" tab here on our site.

Before next week's Thanksgiving turkey- tune in for a heaping helping of "Chicken" with us tonight!