Barney Fife - Overview

Overview

Don Knotts had previously co-starred on "The Steve Allen Show", along with Tom Poston, Pat Harrington, Jr., and Louis Nye—which is where a frantic, twitching "man on the street" character was introduced. He created Deputy Barney Fife in the same fashion, as a hyperkinetic but comically inept counterpart to Mayberry's practical and composed Sheriff Andy Taylor. Sometimes considered a blowhard with delusions of grandeur, Barney fancies himself an expert on firearms, women, singing and just about any other topic of conversation brought up while he is around. Conversely, Andy knows that Barney's false bravado is a smokescreen for his insecurities, and low self-confidence. In one episode, Barney brags that he knows about the Emancipation Proclamation. When Andy calls Barney's bluff and asks him to explain it to Opie for his history class, Barney becomes defensive and blurts out that it was a proclamation for emancipation, and leaves irritated.

Barney is often overly analytical and alarmist about benign situations, such as the modest Mayberry crime scene. He takes a minor infraction, blows it out of proportion, and then concocts an elaborate solution (sometimes involving inept civilians, like Otis Campbell or Gomer Pyle) to resolve it. This only inflicts tremedous angst on Andy. In one early episode, where Andy was briefly summoned away, acting sheriff Barney proceeds to book and lock up nearly everyone in town. Despite his shortcomings, Barney is zealous about law enforcement, regularly spouting off penal codes and ordinances to thugs and jaywalkers alike.

An emotional powderkeg, Barney often overreacts with panic, despair or bug-eyed fear. He has what he describes as a "low sugar blood content." Barney is smug and self-confident, until true leadership is sought, whereupon he dances about in a fluster. Outwardly "a man of the world," Barney is truly naïve and easily duped. Though constantly warned by Andy, Barney falls for countless scams. This gullibility is evident in many episodes, including "Barney's First Car", where he is conned into buying a lemon from a crafty old widow.

A gossip and gadfly, Barney is known for blabbing both personal and police secrets (such as Andy's scrutiny of women's rings at the jewelry store, or the locale and time of a stakeout or arrival of an armored car). In at least two episodes, Barney misconstrues information leading him to believe Andy is engaged, and involving the townfolk in elaborate schemes to celebrate an engagement that never occurred. While this may expose him as a halfwit, Barney is at heart a caring, amiable soul. Despite a knack for exasperating the townsfolk, he is fondly embraced by most of them.

Nonetheless, Barney still has his rare moments of courage and loyalty. Three episodes demonstrate Barney's ability to rise up to challenges. In the second season episode, "Andy on Trial," a millionaire wants revenge on Andy for giving him a traffic ticket. The traffic violator then dispatches a seductive female reporter to town and she prompts Barney for details of Andy's life, twisting them into transgressions. It all comes back to haunt both deputy and sheriff when said information puts Andy on trial for misconduct. After the prosecuting attorney forces Barney to admit everything he said was true in front of Andy. He sheepishly admits to playing up to the sexy reporter (one of the rare times he admits to getting full up of himself), but vowing that Andy is an outstanding lawman, whose caring methodology is far more effective than "going by the book." In the third season episode "Lawman Barney," two farmers illegally selling produce on the road do not take a warning from Barney seriously and run him off the road, taunting him. When Andy makes a more serious warning to the farmers later, they reveal that they had run off a deputy earlier. Knowing that they're talking about Barney, Andy makes up a story about "Crazy Gun Barney" and "that dirty game he plays" and how his running off was just a ploy. When Andy orders Barney to return to the scene, he sees the same farmers panic and rushing to get off the road upon seeing him, Barney believes they are at last taking him seriously and, as usual, begins to puff and swagger. Later, the farmers discover from the town locals that what Andy said about Barney was not true. Floyd (who was among those locals) goes to Andy and tells him the story, and that the farmers left a message that they were back in business and want Barney "as a customer." Barney overhears this and decides to go back to the scene with Andy. As he confronts the farmers on his own. He finds his inner strength, and as they get closer towards him, he tells them that despite them both being bigger than he is, his badge "represents a lot of people that are a lot bigger than either one of you." Defeated, the farmers pack up and leave.

But, perhaps the greatest example of Barney's courage is in the episode "Jailbreak." In this episode, Barney singlehandedly saves a member of the state police that has been captured and tied up. Barney also apprehends the criminal and his partner and drives them to jail. He does it all while Andy is calling for backup. Barney uses exceptionally quick thinking and shows remarkable courage.

One major comedic source is Barney's lack of ability with a firearm. After numerous misfires (usually a Colt .38 caliber revolver), Andy restricts Barney to carrying only a single bullet in his shirt pocket, "in case of an emergency." The bullet always seems to find its way back into the pistol, where, predictably, it is accidentally discharged. The accidental discharge of Barney's pistol becomes a running gag: Barney gives a lecture on gun safety and either shoots the floor through his holster, or assuming the safety latch is on, causes the gun to fire. Another gag has Barney locking himself or together with Andy in one of the jail cells, with the keys just out of reach. Realizing they can't free themselves, they shamelessly yell for help.

Early in the series, Andy and Barney comment that they are cousins. However, several episodes muddy the lineage and suggest that Barney may not be directly related to the Taylors. On "Aunt Bee's Invisible Boyfriend", Barney tells Andy, "If she {Aunt Bee} were my aunt, I'd wanna investigate this fella" (no familial Taylor ties). In one porch dialogue, Barney speaks to Andy about buying his folks a septic tank for their anniversary. Andy does not refer to them as aunt and uncle (no familial Fife ties). On several occasions, Aunt Bee reminds Andy that, "he's YOUR friend" (suggesting no blood kin to either Taylor). Yet in another installment, "Cousin Virgil", Andy is introduced to Barney's backward cousin Michael J. Pollard, who is obviously not related to the sheriff. While one can rule out a shared Taylor bond, the two could be related via Andy's maternal side, or most probably via Andy's late wife. Genetics aside, Barney and "Ange" (as he frequently addresses Andy, a derivation from Knotts' real-life nickname for Griffith) are best friends, having grown up together in Mayberry, and Barney maintains warm relations with Andy's son Opie and his Aunt Bee.

When he's not patrolling the streets of Mayberry, Barney spends his free time dating a local girl named Thelma Lou (Betty Lynn) (whom he eventually marries in Return to Mayberry, a 1986 NBC movie). Thelma Lou is Barney's main girlfriend until his 1965 departure. Barney also dates other women, in particular, an oft-mentioned but never seen Junction Cafe and Bluebird Diner waitress named Juanita. She is first mentioned in the episode called Andy Forecloses and in this episode she is Juanita Beasley and her phone number is 142R. Barney takes up residence in a few places including the Raleigh YMCA and Mrs. Mendelbright's boarding house (where she forbids him from owning either a "hot plate" cooker or too bright a light bulb). In "Sheriff Barney" we learn that Barney lives at 411 Elm Street (interestingly, this is the same address as the Texas School Book Depository from which Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed President Kennedy two years later.) However it is unclear if this address refers to Barney's own home or Mrs. Mendelbright's boarding house address. When not on duty, he is usually seen in a fedora and a tweed suit (the "old salt and pepper.") Although the deputy fancies himself a singer, he has a "tin ear". Nearly being barred from singing engagements was a dilemma for Barney, and is highlighted by several episodes, most notably, "Barney and the Choir" and "The Song Festers".

Some continuity slip-ups can be expected, as the series had several writers. An illustration of this is with the various middle names given for both Barney and Andy. In the episode "Class Reunion", Barney's middle name is Milton, though at other times he is called "Bernard P. Fife". In another episode, where he believes he is the descendant of Nathan Tibbs, a Mayberry Revolutionary hero, he says his name is "Barney 'Tibbs' Fife". Andy jokingly says, "I thought your middle name was Oliver." A similar problem exist with Andy's middle name, which was given as Jackson on his own show (when his high school photo was shown), but his newborn son's name was given as Andrew Samuel Taylor Jr. on Mayberry RFD (during a christening).

Like Andy, who was stationed in France, Barney served in World War II, although he was a file clerk who never left the United States (he stated that "me and this other fella ran the PX library" on Staten Island). (It should be noted that both Andy and Barney graduated from Mayberry Union High in June, 1945 and that the war in Europe was over in May 1945. With at least six weeks of basic training, Andy couldn't have been in Europe before August, 1945. Andy couldn't possibly have seen action on a European battlefield.) Barney was nevertheless proud of his war record: "I did my part to lick the dreaded Hun," he boasted on one occasion. Ironically, Barney later acquired knowledge of military discipline from Hugo Hopfleisch, a retired German soldier who served in World War I and eventually took up residence in Mayberry. " may have been on the wrong team back in '18," Barney admitted, "but he's a heck of a soldier!"

Barney Fife appeared on The Andy Griffith Show from the show's beginning in 1960 until 1965, when Knotts left the show to pursue a career in feature films. It is explained that Barney Fife had left Mayberry to take a job as a detective in Raleigh. Knotts reprised the character in guest appearances each season until The Andy Griffith Show left the air in 1968. Barney also appeared in the inaugural Mayberry R.F.D. episode, in which Andy and Helen Crump marry. Andy Griffith struggles to keep a straight face as driveling "best man" Barney seemingly objects to the union and then fumbles to find Helen's ring. Nearly two decades would pass before the character was reprised in the reunion film Return to Mayberry in 1986, by which time Fife had moved back, become the town's acting sheriff, and was running for sheriff himself.

Calling a police officer or authority figure "Barney Fife" has become an American slang term for gross ineptitude or overzealousness. (This was done recently in the Scott Peterson case, where the defendant's mother referred to the local police captain as "Barney Fife". Also Rebecca Walters (Alison Brie) in Scream 4 referred to Dewey (David Arquette) as "Barney Fife").