>>>Speaking of smoking, even though Barney very seldom smoked on the show, Don >>>Knotts must have been quite the smoker in real life. I have the Don Knotts >>>autobiography, and nowhere in it does Don mention that he has the smoking >>>habit, but if you watch the TAGS episode where Gomer takes Barney's place in >>>the choir, you will see it. Near the end of the episode, Gomer and John >>>Masters are at the front of the hall rehearsing, and unknown to them Barney >>>is in the rear listening. After they leave, Barney gets up and walks to >>>the front of the hall. You can clearly see the outline of a pack of >>>cigarettes in his shirt pocket. I remember there was at least one other >>>episode where Barney was carrying a pack of cigarettes around, but I forget >>>which one. So, as I say, Don Knotts must have had the smoking habit to >>>carry cigarettes around when the script did not call for him to smoke. I >>>remember reading somewhere that Andy was also a smoker for several years >>>until health reasons force d him to quit.<<<
I remember when I first noticed that tell-tale bulge in Barney's shirt pocket and thought at first that it was an anomaly. Then as I checked other episodes, I realized that Barney carried a cigarette pack in his pocket more often than not throughout the seasons he appeared on the series. I was amazed on two points--first, that I had not even noticed it for so many years, and secondly that the director would allow him to carry it when it was so visible. The irony is that Barney wasn't supposed to be a smoker but carried a pack of cigarettes in his pocket, whereas Andy (in the early seasons) *was* a smoker, yet we never see a cigarette pack in his clothes. Thelma Lou (Janet) _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
