How a Shakespearean Actor From the Bronx Became ‘The Andy Griffith Show’s Ernest T. Bass

Fans of The Andy Griffith Show first met wild-eyed mountain man Ernest T. Bass in the Season 3 episode “Mountain Wedding.” A neighbor of the musical hillbilly clan the Darlings, Bass, played by Howard Morris, figured that proximity would put him first in line to marry sole Darling daughter Charlene. When Charlene married soldier Dud Wash instead, Bass took noisy exception — and The Andy Griffith Show earned one its most memorable recurring characters.