Airbus's German chief executive Tom Enders has noted the fixed-price contract for the A400 transport was a disaster rooted in naivety, excessive enthusiasm and arrogance, stating, "If you had offered it to an American defence contractor like Northrop, they would have run a mile from it".
It wasn't until creator Gy Waldron realized that he had found an audience with children that the character was toned down to the more comedic and bumbling persona for which he is best known; something that James Best himself had large input on, insisting that, while Rosco technically was corrupt, he was driven mostly by playful childlike naivety, he never wanted children viewing to feel afraid to go up to a lawman in the street or when in need.
His naivety on the subject (bringing in plain black posterboards for his Black History Month presentation) sparked a Black History Month episode, featuring him learning information about slavery and The Civil Rights Movement.