The Reluctant Astronaut
The Reluctant Astronaut is a 1967 Universal Pictures feature film produced and directed by Edward Montagne and starring Don Knotts in a story about a carnival ride operator who is hired as a janitor at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston and is eventually sent into space.

Comedian Knotts had won several Emmy Awards as small-town comic sheriff's deputy Barney Fife in the 1960-1968 television sitcom "The Andy Griffith Show" but left the show as a regular at the end of its fifth season (1964–1965) to pursue a career in feature films with Universal Pictures. "The Reluctant Astronaut" followed Knotts' first Universal film venture, "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" (1966). Actor Paul Hartman appears in the film and would later star in "The Andy Griffith Show". The film's screenplay writers Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum had served as teleplay writers for the television series.
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Universal Pictures
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Q24869
feature film
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Edward Montagne
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Don Knotts
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Manned Spacecraft Center
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Houston
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Emmy Awards
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Barney Fife
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sitcom
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The Andy Griffith Show
MEDIA
Q7736307
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
MEDIA
Q7151167
Paul Hartman
PER
Q526035
The Andy Griffith Show
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Q7760119
The Reluctant Astronaut
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Q7760119
The Reluctant Astronaut
MEDIA
1967-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1967
DATE
1960-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1960
DATE
-1968^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
-1968
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+1964^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
1964
NUMBER
+1965^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
1965
NUMBER
+1966^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
1966
NUMBER
director
cast member
narrative location
publication date
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