page_title: Ken Berry
section_title: F Troop and Mayberry R.F.D.
hierarchical_section_title: Ken Berry / Television career / F Troop and Mayberry R.F.D.
caption_attribution_description: Publicity photo from the television program Mayberry R.F.D. Pictured are Ken Berry (Sam Jones), Buddy Foster (Mike Jones), and Andy Griffith (Sheriff Andy Taylor).
context_page_description: Kenneth Ronald Berry was an American actor, dancer and singer. Berry starred on the television series F Troop, The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry R.F.D. and Mama's Family. He also appeared on Broadway in The Billy Barnes Revue, headlined as George M. Cohan in the musical George M! and provided comic relief for the medical drama Dr. Kildare, with Richard Chamberlain in the 1960s.
context_section_description: Berry continued doing guest roles, but while performing a small part on the short-lived George Burns-Connie Stevens sitcom Wendy and Me, both Burns and Stevens recommended him for the pilot of F Troop for ABC, a western spoof where he played the accident-prone Captain Parmenter—his first starring role in a weekly sitcom.
  Berry's co-stars were Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch. Berry called his time on F-Troop "two years of recess" as the entire cast spent time between takes trying to make each other laugh. His dancing ability allowed him to perform choreographed pratfalls over hitching posts, sabers, and trash cans.
  In 1967, during the second year of F-Troop, Dick Linke — who was Berry's manager, and also managed Andy Griffith and Jim Nabors — pitched an F Troop stage show to Bill Harrah, founder of Harrah's Entertainment, which included a casino and hotel in Reno, Nevada. Harrah went for it, and Berry, Larry Storch, Forrest Tucker, and James Hampton put together a show, hiring writers and a choreographer to assist. While performing the Reno show they received word that F Troop had been canceled due to a financial dispute between the production company and the studio.
  The next year Berry was cast in the featured role of Sam Jones, a widowed farmer, on the last few episodes of The Andy Griffith Show. He took a leading role on the spin-off Mayberry R.F.D.. In September 1968, Berry led the cast of Mayberry R.F.D., as Griffith's character receded. Most of the regular characters stayed with the show. Andy and wife Helen left after a few episodes in season two. Series writers used Berry's "trouper" talents in stories about church revues and talent contests. On the 1970 Mayberry R.F.D. episode "The Charity", he and co-star Paul Hartman performed a soft shoe routine. Berry sometimes ended a show on the porch at dusk, serenading others with such songs as "Carolina Moon". In spite of finishing 15th place for season three, Mayberry R.F.D. was canceled in 1971 in what was called "the rural purge", where shows set in a bucolic locale (The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Petticoat Junction) were replaced with the more "hip" fare of Norman Lear (All in the Family) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
  After Mayberry R.F.D., Berry starred in several made-for-TV movies, and his own summer replacement variety show on ABC called The Ken Berry 'Wow' Show in 1972, which ran for five episodes. This show was a launching pad for future stars Steve Martin, Cheryl Ladd, and Teri Garr.
caption: Ken Berry, Andy Griffith and Buddy Foster in Mayberry R.F.D., 1968
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