In addition to Gomer Pyle's childlike naivety in The Andy Griffith Show, officer Barney Fife served as an equally inept officer in the fictional town of Mayberry whose gullible personality and difficulties using a firearm categorized him as a foolish character - not to be taken too seriously.
Fife served as a comic foil to Sherrif Andy Griffith, whose character developed from a surface-level hillbilly fool in the pilot episode. Williamson writes, "One reason for his toning down was that the show's writers gave the former hillbilly fool his own fool in Don Knott's Barney Fife, so Sheriff Andy became progressively normative, while Barney took over the dumb-hick duties" (61).
Indeed, it seems that since Sheriff Griffith was given more complexity and intelligence, he had to be replaced with somebody new who could take on the role of the hillbilly fool.
Fife served as a comic foil to Sherrif Andy Griffith, whose character developed from a surface-level hillbilly fool in the pilot episode. Williamson writes, "One reason for his toning down was that the show's writers gave the former hillbilly fool his own fool in Don Knott's Barney Fife, so Sheriff Andy became progressively normative, while Barney took over the dumb-hick duties" (61).
Indeed, it seems that since Sheriff Griffith was given more complexity and intelligence, he had to be replaced with somebody new who could take on the role of the hillbilly fool.