Good night, funny man.

Don Knotts: 1924-2006

    This skinny, frantic man with the face and head of a Chihuahua was a staple of my youth, whether I was watching him on TV on The Andy Griffith Show, or at the Saturday matinees where four of his pictures were very, very popular: The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964), in which he becomes a cartoon fish who starts dating another cartoon fish that resembles — I kid you knott — Denise Richards; The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966), his jittery persona spending the night in a haunted house; The Reluctant Astronaut (1967), Don as a forty-something virgin trapped under his parents’ roof in a manic portrait of dysfunction (note how all the characters yell at one another); and The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968), a remake of an old Bob Hope movie wherein Don woos one of my early heartthrobs, Barbara Rhodes.

    Although he wasn’t particularly witty, Don Knotts could be hilarious in physical comedy as an illustration of caffeine taking its toll on the neurotic, and was always on his game when paired with Andy Griffith, George ‘Goober’ Lindsey, Tim Conway (his partner in a run of pictures in the ‘70s), and John Ritter. He was able to tone down the jerk persona to transform into a believably lovable nerd for Rhodes, Anne Francis, Elaine Joyce, Joan Freeman and Joan Staley. He worked well with his partners, and milked his shtick and rubbery expressions to excellent effect. Something of an icon of my childhood, his face and name could be trusted no matter if the pictures sometimes failed to deliver. I’m grateful to have been the right age at the right time to enjoy his particular talents.

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