How old were Andy and Barn supposed to be on the show?
In “The Darling Baby” Barney says that he’s 35. That episode aired midway through the fifth season, which means that Barney was 31 when the series premiered in October of 1960 (in real life, Don Knotts was 36 at that time.) Andy Taylor’s age is never given (at least not that I can remember) but we learn in “Andy and Opie’s Pal” that Andy and Barney were in the fourth grade together. Also, the episodes “Class Reunion” and “The Return of Barney Fife” imply that the two graduated from Mayberry Union High at the same time. Therefore, they must be the same age, or perhaps one year apart (In real life, Andy Griffith is two years younger than Don Knotts.
