JAS1125 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 12:25 pm
conjurer wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 11:36 am
He was also a Communist sleeper agent. True fact.
You gotta expand on that!
These are well-known facts: Don Knotts (widely thought of to be the basis of John le Carre's Karla, the Soviet spymaster) had spent time in Moscow during the 1930s. He had been recruited by the KGB, and tasked with returning to America in order to spread disdain for local law enforcement; this he did, to great effect, on
The Andy Griffith Show, where he played Barney Fife, a bumbling, idiotic dolt. At the beginning of the series, Barney had been written in as a fast, efficient killer cop, a Mayberry Dirty Harry, if you will. Andy Griffith was to play a fey, almost homosexual chief of police, trying to rein Fife in from his constant murder spree of visitors to the Old Fishing Hole.
Needless to say, Knotts, who was far brighter than most Hollywood producers, suggested turning the characters around and went on to spend nearly forty seasons of bringing shame on cops all across the nation. He also recruited Griffith to the cause of world-wide Communist subversion; Griffith was trained to whack somebody when he heard the whine, "Awwww, Andy!!"
Don Knotts, wearing a hat given to him by Nikita Khrushchev.
