Shazam! Life After Gomer Is a Song for Jim Nabors

He walked into the empty theater, 35 years since he’d first walked around Mayberry, first pumped gas at Wally’s, first chirped “Hey, Andy! Mornin’ Aunt Bee.” Would he, could he, still be Gomer?

Go-llll-ly, shazam, surprise. It was Gomer.

“How you been?” drawled Jim Nabors, greeting the musical crew he’d come to rehearse with Friday before staging his one-man show at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

At 65, Nabors has dark circles and deep creases under his eyes, a slight hunch and a paunch. Four years ago, he nearly died from hepatitis before receiving a liver transplant. He performs his show, singing such tunes as “Sometimes When We Touch” and “The Impossible Dream” from “The Man of La Mancha,” only a dozen times a year now.

But he’s still Gomer Pyle, with the same crooked smile, the same chin for miles, the same Alabama accent, and the same earnest kindliness, if not bumbling innocence, of a small-town boy grown into a man. He shakes with two hands and grabs your shoulder when introduced.

And no ma’am, he sure don’t mind that people still think of him as the hayseed from “The Andy Griffith Show,” where he debuted in 1963 as friend Gomer to Andy Griffith’s Sheriff Taylor before starring in his own sitcom, “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.,” from 1964 to 1970.

“Oh gosh no, I loved him,” Nabors said. “I’m very proud to have been Gomer. He was one of the nicest guys.”

The laid-back entertainer, who says his health has been “excellent” since his transplant, answered other questions about life after Gomer while relaxing in the Cerritos auditorium before a pre-performance nap:

* Does he keep in touch with other “Andy Griffith” regulars? He occasionally phones Griffith and Don Knotts, who played Deputy Barney Fife, but spends more time with Carol Burnett.

“Carol’s like my sister. I’m the godfather of one of her kids,” daughter Jody.

* Do folks constantly approach him in public? Yes, whether they’re tourists in Hawaii, where he has lived for 30 years and owns a macadamia farm (the locals pay no heed), or fans elsewhere. He’s still touched and amazed by the response to his widely publicized transplant.

“I was in New York, and I’d be walking down the street and so many people would come right over and hug me! They’d say, ‘We’re so glad you’re OK.’ ”

* How did his signature “Golly” come about?

“It was an ad lib. I’d never acted before, and I was trying to think what Gomer would think about Barney. I figured he’d think he was the most sophisticated guy in the world. I said it and they kept it in.”

* Is Jim Nabors really Gomer?

“The character was a little bit of a lot of people, but I like to consider myself a nice guy.”

* Locally, reruns of “The Andy Griffith Show” air four times each weekday. “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.” reruns twice each weeknight. Is it just nostalgia-lust?

“No. The quality of the shows was good. Even if they’re not timely or trendy, it’s still good entertainment.”

* Does he watch the reruns?

“No.”

* What does he watch?

“Seinfeld” occasionally, but he spends more time enjoying Hawaii’s natural beauty or reading. A recent book: “Another City, Not My Own,” Dominick Dunne’s scathing account of the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

* Does he miss TV work or wish for the high profile he once had? Not at all.

“It’s kind of like [Jerry] Seinfeld or any of [the comedians who star in their own shows]. Once you’ve been accepted for who you are, and been such a huge success, it’s hard to ever surpass that.”