In Memoriam…

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Don Knotts 1924-2006

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In Memoriam…

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33 Responses

  1. 3)
    Floridiot said on 2/25/2006 @ 2:51pm PT: [Permalink]

    My favorite , among many, was when Barney was giving Otis a sobriety test before he let him go
    Having Otis hop on one foot, to check his stamina, Barney ran out of gas, and hung over Otis was still hopping away, hilarious
    So sad to see him go

  2. 4)
    Welfl said on 2/25/2006 @ 3:24pm PT: [Permalink]

    Thank you, Brad, for posting this. Having been busy all day, it’s the first I’ve learned of it. I certainly wasn’t expecting this sort of news when I logged in.

    I was born shortly after "The Andy Griffith Show" first went on the air. Mayberry has been my second home since I was a kid, and it wouldn’t have been the magical place it was without Barney. Mr. Knotts was a class act and a true master of his trade.

    Farewell, sir.

  3. 5)
    gtash said on 2/25/2006 @ 4:13pm PT: [Permalink]

    My condolences as well.

    I grew up in NC and I Mt. Airy, NC (the prototype of Mayberry) is well known to me .

    Mt. Airy and Pilot Mountain are not magic.

    Mayberry, Barney and Andy were.

  4. 7)
    big dan said on 2/25/2006 @ 5:16pm PT: [Permalink]

    "Fucking Don Knotts!!!"

    (remember that, from "Serial Mom", when a guy at the flea market found a portrait of Don Knotts?)

  5. 9)
    Robert Lockwood Mills said on 2/25/2006 @ 6:50pm PT: [Permalink]

    I remember Don Knotts from the old Steve Allen Tonight Show, with Louis Nye and Tom Poston.

    Knotts is stammering. Allen asks, "Are you nervous?" Reply: "NO!"

    "What is your name, sir?"
    (stammering) "My name is S.L. Morrison, and I’m a brain surgeon." (hands are shaking)

    "What does the S.L. stand for?"
    "SORRY LADY!"

    He was a funny man.

  6. 10)
    Jo said on 2/25/2006 @ 7:18pm PT: [Permalink]

    Remember Mr knotts in *No time for sergeants * giving the IQ test to Andy? Hilarious! Good bye funny guy.

  7. 12)
    tc said on 2/25/2006 @ 9:48pm PT: [Permalink]

    I know his fame originated with The Andy Griffith Show but I’m too young to really remember that. However, watching Three’s Company as a little kid, I lived for his wild-eyed entrances. He pre-dated Kramer’s mad entrances. Thanks for many laughs Don. R.I.P.

  8. 13)
    Bob Bilse said on 2/26/2006 @ 11:47pm PT: [Permalink]

    I, too, watched Don as one of "the men on the street" characters on The Steve Allen Show, and that’s how I’ll always remember him (Pat Harrington and Bill Dana, as Jose Jimenez, became part of the "Man On The Street" skits, as well). I never missed that show.

  9. 15)
    Dredd said on 2/26/2006 @ 3:22am PT: [Permalink]

    Some don’t know perhaps, but he did some live stage too. My x did some work with him in Bucks County, Penn. It was live theatre.

    Happy Trails Mr. Knotts.

  10. 16)
    A Concerned Citizen said on 2/26/2006 @ 4:16am PT: [Permalink]

    Sorry to hear the bad news. He was a genuinely good person and funny as hell. I grew up in the 60s and 70s and remember him since I remember watching TV.

    Good-bye and Rest in Peace, Mr. Knotts.

  11. 17)
    blackdog said on 2/26/2006 @ 10:30am PT: [Permalink]

    Barney, you were a hoot in a time when we could allow incompetence and stupidity to be funny, even Otis the town drunk was funny. How we have changed, and not for the better. I thank your shade for the hours of hilarity and just pure fun you gave us, and I bow my head for your passing. Don Knotts was an origional. I’ll miss him.

  12. 18)
    blackdog said on 2/26/2006 @ 12:00pm PT: [Permalink]

    My littlest and oldest blackdog, Rowdy has passed from this earth a few hours ago. He was a great friend and companion. I go now to place him where he can again become a part of the carbon cycle without harm. I loved ‘ol Rowd, he was a great dog.

  13. 19)
    Charlene said on 2/26/2006 @ 12:06pm PT: [Permalink]

    I love Don Knotts. I also remember him 1st from Steve Allen’s ‘man on the street’ interviews.

    Remember Steve Allen’s "SMOCK! SMOCK!" ?

    I’ve been waiting for years to discuss this subject since nobody cares but me:
    (Go ahead & laugh if you must)

    When I was little, I saw almost every episode, but I missed the one in which Barney 1st gets hired by Andy. When I finally saw it–my entire good opinion of Andy changed.
    I thought Barney was just a friend of Andy’s, & got hired because Andy thought he could do the job. I thought all the times Andy helped him were out of friendship.
    When I saw the first Barney episode & found out Barney was actually Andy’s ner-do-well COUSIN, I was shocked!
    I realized Barney got hired only because Andy selfishly wanted to make points with his relatives by giving the family "goof-up" a job–it showed Andy put his own selfish desires ahead of his duty to do what was best for the citizens of Mayberry.

    That wasn’t right.

    I always thought less of Andy after that.

  14. 20)
    Robert Lockwood Mills said on 2/26/2006 @ 1:12pm PT: [Permalink]

    Steve Allen was a true comedy pioneer. Many people don’t realize that Johnny Carson’s signature character, Carnac, was stolen from Steve Allen’s character "The Question Man."

    Answer: "U.C.L.A."

    Question: "What’s the first city you see on a flight from San Diego to San Francisco?"

    Don Knotts conformed to Steve Allen’s sense of the absurd. Ernie Kovacs had it. Bob and Ray had it. Bob Newhart had it. The Smothers Brothers had it. No comedian today has it that I know of.

  15. 23)
    Lou Marino said on 2/26/2006 @ 6:59pm PT: [Permalink]

    I’ll miss Don Knotts because he was truly a funny man. He was good on the Steve Allen’s "Man on the Street" interviews, but he really found his nitch as the bumbling Barney Fife on the Andy Griffin Show.

    One of the funniest episodes on the Griffin show was Barney trying to anchor the town’s choir with the most god-awful voice you can imagine. Griffin’s show was never the same after Knotts left.

    I love you, Don. RIP!

  16. 24)
    Doug Eldritch said on 2/26/2006 @ 8:46pm PT: [Permalink]

    Poor Don, hope he is happier now.

    "The two-party system is a flopping failure."

    Exactly, savanster.

    I don’t know about you but I’d rather be doing something much more useful like boycotting, prosecuting and shutting down offices alltogether than voting for a "represenative" from either party which doesn’t represent me or their people.

    The fact is, the system is a sham. Enough people are realizing it that we can prosecute just about all of them and on top of that, we are taking instant-runoff voting nationwide.

    Unlike you all I’ve seen Able Danger is a scam that stretches both sides. I do know who really did 9-11, and both of these weasels covered it up.

    And unlike you I see all of the picture, I work with people prosecuting them, and basically dragging them out all over the place. I work with the people who make a difference and who matter….

    I’m even working with people who are shutting down so called "election" offices. We will GET real representation once we demand it and force it to be had. That’s all, so throwing out what is left of Diebold etc is all part of getting IRV voting.

    Exactly, savanster.

    You need to get your head out of your ass about the democrats being perfect or seeing things in party loyalist eyes.

    Same for the republicans and "their" party.

    I know a few republicans who are not corrupt and do good work and strive to do their best, they are conservative like Curt Weldon or what not. But most of them are in on the scam.

    And on the other angle, the democrats have a situation that mirrors it. Most of them, the leadership are in on the scam. And there’s a lot of good independents in the democrats too who ultimately don’t belong there. But they stay anyway.

    And they, the good people in both parties are scarce. But they are important and they do the job and its going to be their help which puts the THIRD PARTY nationwide period….

    I’ve seen enough on this scam to know the 2 party system is finished, and its being hoodwinked by neocon fanatics on both sides.

    Its rotten like savanster says….that’s why we "left" that system and instead we’re prosecuting everybody and going after the REAL traitors.

    It all comes down to who you work for, not what party you’re in. You either work for america or against it, and all the ones that have chosen to work against it are going down to hell.

    I’ve seen conclusive proof of how they did the Election Fraud. I’ve heard and seen that Dr. Piotr Blass is a real person, he works for a very evil place…he does not work for the USA. And Dr. Blass and his friends, which I have seen proof of did the fraud. And it goes in both directions.

    Doug Eldritch

  17. 27)
    Doug Eldritch said on 2/27/2006 @ 3:36am PT: [Permalink]

    Oh and just to let you know ricky, you’re a god damn idiot and I’m a conservative libertarian for that matter.

    I don’t want to hear anything more about people dragging down don knots. I give a proud shout out to the man in heaven, and so he knows this world is going to get better soon and will reverse its course.

    Doug

  18. 29)
    Jo said on 2/27/2006 @ 8:39am PT: [Permalink]

    Another great hollywood guy lost today. God speed Dennis Weaver.
    From the AP:
    Weaver also was an activist for protecting the environment and combating world hunger.

    He served as president of Love Is Feeding Everyone (LIFE), which fed 150,000 needy people a week in Los Angeles County. He founded the Institute of Ecolonomics, which sought solutions to economic and environmental problems. He spoke at the United Nations and Congress, as well as to college students and school children about fighting pollution and starvation.

    "Earthship" was the most visible of Weaver’s crusades. He and his wife Gerry built a solar-powered Colorado home out of recycled tires and cans. The thick walls helped keep the inside temperature even year around.

  19. 30)
    Mark said on 2/27/2006 @ 9:12am PT: [Permalink]

    Hi Doug,

    I hate the Bush administration and all it has done and I despise and laugh at the trolls like Ricky that visit this site. However, Ricky is right about his comment in #26(I guess even slimes are right some of the time…?). Unfortunately, Your post #24 was not right for this thread. This thread is to honor a man who made us all laugh during the good times and the bad times, not to discuss politics. Your comments are true but belong in another thread. This thread should be only to honor Mr. Knots and the joy and hope he gave us all through his humor. All you did was to give fuel for the trolls………

    Please take this criticism as an opinion and not as an attack.

    Mark

  20. 31)
    Steve said on 2/27/2006 @ 9:52am PT: [Permalink]

    HOW did WE get HERE- Comment #6-

    Great Video! Did you create that? It is perfect, both to show the hilarious and unique talents of Don Knotts and to portray Dubya in a dead-on lampoon. I don’t know what Mr. Knott’s politics were, but I think he would have laughed at that video.

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