ERNEST T. BASS JOINS THE ARMY, from the classic sixties TV comedy series The Andy Griffith Show, originally aired in October, 1963. Set in the idyllic, fictional small town of Mayberry, North Carolina, this series featured Andy Griffith as Sheriff Andy Taylor and his sidekick Deputy Barney Fife, played by Don Knotts. Since Mayberry was supposedly situated below the nearby Appalachians, several episodes featured mountain folk descending on the town with their peculiarities, like the Darling family...and Ernest T. Bass, a figure that Deputy Fife grew to simply refer to as "a nut". In this episode, Bass comes down to Mayberry to enlist in the Army. Being rejected, he blames Andy and goes about town throwing rocks through windows. Finally arrested and thrown in the county jail, Barney, on duty at the time, leaves to go to the diner to get breakfast...next to him another man sits, face buried in a newspaper. Barney turns to ask him something, the paper is lowered, and there is Ernest T., captured in the above picture...to me a classic comedy moment in the history of TV. The mystery of Ernest T. Bass escaping from his locked jail cell as he pleases flummoxes and frustrates Andy and Barney...until Andy learns why this rascal wants to enlist: the solution is also a classic TV moment. This episode is loaded with many funny scenes...Howard Morris plays Bass, who appeared in four other episodes. Morris did not play starring roles in his career, but did appear in the much older Sid Caesar series, has been the voice of numerous characters in animation flicks, and tried his hand at directing. But to me his crowning success will always be Ernest T. Bass, one of the funniest characters I ever saw: he's a nut!
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