Over the years, Writer Daniel de Visé’s brother-in-law was at one time one of the most recognizable actors in America: Don Knotts. “He was a fixture at holiday gatherings and I couldn’t resist asking him questions,” says de Visé, whose 25 years of experience reporting for the Washington Post and the Miami Herald surely compelled him to interview the man who had been the shakiest gun in the West, the incredible Mr. Limpet, and Ralph Furley, the weird landlord on Three’s Company. 

De Visé and his wife also vacationed with Knotts and Knotts’ wife, observing fans who mobbed the star at Disneyworld and at Las Vegas. So several years ago, when de Visé embarked on a career as a freelance writer, he considered writing a book about Knotts. De Visé also had a notion to write about the actor Andy Griffith, who had been Knott’s lifelong friend. De Visé’s agent suggested de Visé write a dual biography of the actors.

And then, de Visé said during a recent phone interview from his home just outside Washington, D. C., “everything came out in the process, in the reporting. There was a lot of great stuff that bound the two subjects together.” 

From the “great stuff,” two themes emerge in de Visé’s Andy and Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show. One is that the enormously popular episodes of The Andy Griffith Show earned a place among the great works of American regional humor. The other is that in working on the show, Griffith and Knotts formed a strong, sustaining friendship. 

“There were prairie shows and there were western shows [on TV],” de Visé says, “but few rural shows before ‘Griffith.’” 

Due credit for the Griffith show’s regional appeal goes to Griffith’s longtime manager Dick Linke. According to de Visé, whenever Linke created a project for Griffith, Linke said, “Give me the mashed potato belt.” That meant that the The Andy Griffith Show’s most ardent fans came from outside of the Northeast urban corridor and of Los Angeles—from small cities and towns throughout the [rest of] country.” 

Although the creative minds that worked on the show did not come from the South, de Visé says that the writers drew story ideas from the fertile backgrounds of its largely Southern cast, in particular from its two stars—Griffith grew up in North Carolina, Knotts in West Virginia. The regional slant drew regional audiences. 

“People said, ‘I’m from North Carolina,’ or ‘I’m from West Virginia,’ ” de Visé says, “and I’ve never seen my own culture on TV before. I came from a small town and this show captures what life in a small town was like for me.’ Ron Howard [who played Griffith’s son Opie on the series] said that it was almost as if the characters on the show, who didn’t have families, became one big, extended family.” 

 During its eight-season run from 1960 until 1968, the show never finished below seventh place in the Nielsen ratings. Now it plays on in syndication and on DVDs. 

“Today the original core fans, who were about Opie’s age during the show’s original run, are in their ‘60s. They share the show with their kids. At Mayberry Days, the annual festival the celebrates the show in Mt. Airy, N.C., I see three generations of fans.”  

Fascinating details and primary interviews illustrate de Visé’s history of the show and of other projects Knotts and Griffith worked on—the author’s research is exemplary throughout. But what gives the book its strong center is its story of Griffith and Knott’s friendship.   

The men shared similar backgrounds. Besides being born and raised in the South, both Knotts and Griffith grew up in poverty, suffering physical and psychological abuse. To escape the traumas of their childhoods, both men turned to acting, playing rural comic characters. 

Thus, when they met in 1955 on the first day of rehearsals for No Time for Sergeants, a Broadway comedy about a hayseed (Griffith) drafted into the Army during World War II, the men sensed an affinity that made them lifelong friends. 

The relationship seemed to exist in a trauma-proof shield. The two men had their personal demons. Both married three times. Knotts had many affairs; Griffith had problems with alcohol and was physically abusive to his first wife. Through all, the Griffith-Knotts friendship remained stable.

“During the run of the Griffith show,” de Visé says, “Andy might have been envious of Don’s artistic success [Knotts won five Emmy’s for his work on the program]. Don was envious of Andy’s financial success with the show. But that sort of pressure never affected their friendship.” 

Instead, they got together and, Knott’s first wife says, gossiped like women. 

“They were never going to be derailed by envy,” de Visé says. “Each man made the other man better.”

Gerald Bartell’s book coverage also appears in the Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle.