Includes bibliographical references, filmography and index.

Prologue: the call
Don's demons
Laugh, lest you cry
The bumpkins take Broadway
Nervous men
Andy takes a deputy
A Hollywood friendship
A slight thread of insanity
Men in a hurry
A date for Gomer
Andy and Barney, phfftt
The color years
The death of Andy Taylor
Second chances, second wives
The gentleman lawyer
Death in Mayberry

When Andy Griffith went to Hollywood in 1960 to film a TV pilot about a small-town sheriff, his friend Don Knotts called to ask if his sheriff could use a deputy. Together, Sheriff Andy Taylor and Deputy Barney Fife elevated The Andy Griffith Show from a folksy sitcom into a timeless study of human friendship. The program was fiction, but the friendship was powerful and real. Andy and Don were fellow Southerners, born into poverty and raised among ne'er-do-wells, bullies, and drunks. They grew up during the Depression, Andy on the wrong side of the tracks in North Carolina, Don in a threadbare West Virginia boardinghouse. Though their Mayberry partnership lasted only until 1965, the two remained best friends for life. Andy was with Don in 2006 on his deathbed. This book captures the talent of these men at the height of their fame, as well as the struggles each faced in his personal life. Written by Don Knotts's brother-in-law and featuring extensive unpublished interviews, this book is the definitive account of The Andy Griffith Show and the two men who captured America's heart as they rocked lazily on the front porch/ --Adapted from book jacket