Last night at a going away dinner for a dear friend I was given a copy a of
the July, 1991 issue of "Personalities" magazine. This particular issue
featured the "50 Most Influential TV Characters of All Time." Not
surprisingly two of those honored were our beloved Aunt Bee and of course
"Deputy Barney Fife". I would like to share with you the exact words that
were written about Barney. While the writer gave a wonderful description of
Aunt Bee, I feel his narration about Barney left much to be desired. I will
post it here now verbatim without any personal comment. Feel free to share
your reaction to this description of Barney.
"Barney Fife, the overdevoted deputy of a 20-miles-per-hour town, Mayberry,
North Carolina, took the standard big-mouthed bumbling sidekick archetype
established in television's earliest sitcoms and pushed it right over the
edge. "Barney's megalomania, paranoia, persecution complex, and
psychological inadequacies combine to produce one certifiable basket case
who should never be given a gun or a badge," say Harry Castleman and Walter
J. Podrazik in "Harry and Wally's Favorite TV Shows (Prentice Hall, 1989).
But bug-eyed Barney is armed ( if only with a single bullet) and would be
sort of dangerous (by virtue of his utter incompetence) if Sheriff Andy
Taylor weren't around to defuse his high-strung buffoonery - to talk him
down, to reason with him, to serve as therapist to this most dysfunctional
of public servants. But thank goodness for Barney! His various
maladjustments and his cliché-spitting habit ("Nip in it the bud!") keep us
from drowning in all the molasses warmth and old-fashioned good cheer of
"The Andy Griffith Show." "If Andy is soothing to watch," Castleman and
Podrazik add, "Barney is an electric shock, always shooting off on some
tangent."
Kenneth G. Anderson
2906 May Street
Eau Claire, Wisconsin 54701
715-839-8470
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.mayberryreflections.com
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