5 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘The Ghost and Mr. Chicken’

Svengoolie double-dog-dares you to spend a night in a haunted house this Saturday, Oct. 12, at 8pm ET/PT, when he shows Don Knotts’ classic 1966 haunted house comedy, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, on his MeTV series, Svengoolie Classic Horror & Sci-Fi Movie.

Knotts plays Luther Heggs, a nervous newspaper typesetter with big dreams of becoming a reporter. But what if the only way to realize those dreams is to … spend the night in a house that was the site of an infamous murder? And once he spend the night, will anyone believe what he saw?

Knott’s first major outing as a movie star was a major hit; the film earned eight times its budget, and led to Knotts starring in a string of comedy films for Universal over the next decade. But out of all of them, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken might just be the best.

So step into our secret passageway, and learn five things you never knew about the The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. Unless you’re too…chicken?

1.It Was Knotts’ First Project After The Andy Griffith Show

In 1965, Knotts announced he was leaving The Andy Griffith Show to pursue a film career. That decision alone was the product of a little bit of miscommunication — Andy Griffith had once told Knotts that he felt the show, which debuted in 1960, should end after five seasons, so as the five year mark approached, Knotts began looking for other work, and worked out a five-film deal with Universal Studios. When Griffith announced his decision to sign on for more seasons, however, Knotts stuck with his decision.

2.The Film Was Also Based on an Episode of The Andy Griffith Show

This wasn’t just Knotts’ first project after The Andy Griffith Show; the concept actually comes from an Andy Griffith episode. In the season four episode “The Haunted House,” Opie hits a baseball into the spooky old Rimshaw House, and Andy, Barney, and Gomer go in to retrieve it. The house is full of secret passages and spooky goings-on, which startle and confuse the Mayberry gang (think: floating axes and paintings with eyeballs that move).

Mr. Chicken follows the same general plot points (stop reading now if you don’t want the ending to the movie spoiled): much like in the Andy Griffith episode, the creepy happenings are not supernatural in nature, but the actions of some no-goodniks looking to scare whoever enters the old abandoned house. In the episode, Andy gets his revenge; in the film, things play out a bit differently, but the good guys do once again triumph over the house-haunting scoundrels.

3.It Was Also Filled With Andy Griffith Alums

In addition to being based on an episode, the film’s screenplay was written by two Andy Griffith writers, Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum (Knotts claimed in his autobiography that Griffith also worked on the script, but skipped getting any on-screen credit). Director Alan Rankin had directed several episodes of Andy Griffith, and several Andy Griffith actors make cameo appearances: Hal Smith plays a town drunk very similar to his Andy Griffith character, Otis; Hope Summers, who played Clara Edwards, also makes an uncredited appearance in the film. In spirit, Mr. Chicken is almost part of the Andy Griffith Extended Universe — though the action takes place in Rachel, Kansas, not Mayberry.

4.The Film Wasn’t Knotts’ First Starring Role

Though the film was pitched at Knotts’ big jump from TV to film, it wasn’t his first film role (that would be 1958’s No Time for Sergeants, where he appeared alongside a pre-Andy Griffith Andy Griffith). It wasn’t even his first lead role.

In 1964, the year before he left Mayberry, Knotts had his first lead role on the big screen, as the title character in The Incredible Mr. Limpet. If it’s been a while since you’ve seen it, here’s a refresher on the plot: it is a part-animated, part-live action film about a man who is able to turn into a fish, and helps the government find Nazi submarines (as one does).

5.Its Title is a Play on Another Ghost Film

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken was originally titled Running Scared. But it turned out there was another film in production with that title, so within a month of development, they had changed the name — presumably to parody the 1947 film The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. In that film, Gene Tierney plays a young widow who falls in love with a ghost (Rex Harrison). Mr. Chicken bears very little resemblance to that film, plot-wise (though it does contain a love story…and one that pans out a little more happily than it did for Tierney and Harrison). But the title is likely just poking some good-natured fun at the stuffier film. And having some good-natured fun comparing Don Knotts to Rex Harrison…or possibly Gene Tierney.