It is easy to forget in noting the quiet passing of an old man whose last major appearance was in an ill-fitting toupee replacing Norman Fell on Three's Company in the late 1970s that Don Knotts was one for the first comedians to make the move from small screen to big screen. A huge star in his time from his perfect pitch in the role of Mayberry lawman Barney Fife, Knotts left the small, black and white town for flicks like The Incredible Mr. Limpet, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, The Reluctant Astronaut, The Shakiest Gun in the West and the Apple Dumpling Gang. In all them, he played the little man shaking with fear who finds himself in the big situations. They were funny and they made plenty of money: I saw at least two of them at drive-ins, sitting up on the tailgate of the red Chevrolet wagon in the muggy New Jersey night. But none of them topped Barney, one of the great television roles in the history of the medium - cast well and played to precision by Knotts, whose brand of comedy was the moral center for The Andy Griffth Show. Sure, the fake perfection of small-time Southern life in the 60s, devoid of civil rights battles and racial tension, was appealing in its strange way. But it would have all been short-lived pablum without Don Knotts, as the remnants of the show clearly revealed after he left the cast, and in the dreadful (but weirdly compelling in 2006) Mayberry RFD sequel. Andy, Aunt Bee, and Opie were fine and dandy - but Barney made the show a classic. Even today, the bumbling village lawman, rail thin, bug-eyed, with a single bullet in his shirt pocket for emergencies, a loser with visions of grandeur, still appeals. Just pure comedy. Especially today. Oh and this: in a clear sign of the times, his death was announced today by a spokesman for TVLand.
UPDATE: Of course, Joe Gandelman has the quintessential round-up as well as a nice personal story.
