Don Knotts shows such as "The Bill Cosby Show" and "Here's Lucy". In 1970, appeared as a Barney Fife-like police officer in the pilot of "The New Andy Griffith Show". In 1972, Knotts voiced an animated version of himself in two episodes of "The New Scooby Doo Movies": "The Spooky Fog of Juneberry", in which he played a lawman resembling Barney Fife, and "Guess Who's Knott Coming to Dinner". He also appeared as Felix Unger in a stage version of Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple", with Art Carney as Oscar Madison. Beginning in 1975, Knotts was teamed with Tim Conway in a
The Odd Couple (1970 TV series) Rooney and Martin Balsam were also considered for the part of Oscar and Dean Martin and Art Carney for Felix (Carney had originated the role on Broadway). Eventually Tony Randall (as Felix) and Jack Klugman (as Oscar) were hired. Both had starred in different productions of the play. Randall, who was hired first, had still wanted Mickey Rooney to play Oscar. The show's co-executive producer, Garry Marshall, had to lobby hard to get Klugman successfully hired. Once the casting was in place, the show's writers (Marshall, Jerry Belson, Jerry Paris, Bob Brunner, Mark Rothman and Lowell Ganz, among others) came