Larry Hovis - The Move To Television

The Move To Television

Hovis moved to California in 1963 where he performed stand-up comedy and tried to break into television. In 1964, he was discovered by Andy Griffith's manager and was hired to appear on the hit TV series Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. where he played "Pvt. Larry Gotschalk". He also appeared on The Andy Griffith Show as Gilley Walker, the owner of a car that had several chronic noises that Goober attempted to repair eventually disassembling and reassembling in the Mayberry Courthouse.

In 1965, Hovis was cast as "Sgt. Andrew Carter" in the television show Hogan's Heroes. Hovis' character was part of a group of five Western Allied POWs; each character had a specialized task or talent (Sgt. Carter was the ordnance expert; in a typical episode of the series, it was Sgt. Carter who would be called upon to make an explosive device). In the series Carter was of Sioux ancestry; Larry Hovis was partly of Yakama Indian ancestry. In one episode of the comedy Alice, Hovis played an American Indian police detective who arrests a fake American Indian conman.

While Hovis was a regular on Hogan's Heroes, he also did other work in the entertainment industry, including writing the screenplay for the 1966 spy-spoof Out of Sight. He also appeared in and wrote comedy bits for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.