| The Reluctant Astronaut | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Edward Montagne |
| Written by | Jim Fritzell Everett Greenbaum |
| Produced by | Edward Montagne |
| Starring | Don Knotts Leslie Nielsen Joan Freeman |
| Cinematography | Rex Wimpy |
| Edited by | Sam E. Waxman |
| Music by | Vic Mizzy |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 103 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1,500,000 (US/ Canada)[1] |
The Reluctant Astronaut is a 1967 American comedy 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.
- ^ "Big Rental Films of 1967", Variety, 3 January 1968 p 25. Please note these figures refer to rentals accruing to the distributors.