It's a sad day in the Harold Patz household. The actor most famous for his role as Barney Fife in the Andy Griffith Show has died. Don Knotts was 81 and died on on Friday from lung problems. For those of you who grew up with me, you know my dad raised us kids on three things: The Bible, working in the garden, and The Andy Griffith Show. On a family vacation, he took us to Mount Airy, NC - Andy Griffths' hometown - and books and pictures of Barney Fife and the rest of that well-loved cast are interspersed throughout my parents' home. We love Andy Taylor, but Barney was always our ulitmate favorite. I have probably seen every episode of AG (our family code for The Andy Griffith Show), but episodes without Barney hold little appeal.
My dad never allowed us to watch any current sit-coms of the day, a practice that seems more wise and adviseable to me now that I'm a parent. All we watched were AG and other great comedies from the 50s and 60s. Long before a company produced The Andy Griffith Show Bible Study, my dad used them to teach us (and his Sunday School class) values and morals. Of course, my husband and brother might argue against the value of some of Andy's scheming to make Barney feel good about himself, but neither can argue that Barney is hilarious and it's a show well worth collecting and watching.
I've read a few books about TAGS and Don Knotts, and sadly he was happiest only while playing Barney Fife and battled anxiety while not filming. I pray that before he died he found the one true Source of hope, fulfillment and happiness.
So, goodbye Don Knotts. Thanks for all the great laughs. And, inifinty-thanks for Barney Fife.
6 comments:
I was going to call you yesterday when I saw that Barney died on the news and ask if your dad was in mourning. I was just at their house last Sunday for lunch when I was up there for a visit. My grandpa pointed out the picture of Barney in the garage, which I had forgotten about. Whenever we run in to some person upholding rules to a 't' in airports, restaurants, etc. I call them 'Barney Fife'. :)
Just so you know, Nathan and I had a moment of silence for Harold Patz when we heard the news. We figured life would never be the same for you all again. May he continue to live on in your VHS tapes! :)
Shannon and Shyla: Thanks for thinking of my dear old dad. I called and told him when I found out; I think it's gonna take a bit to sink in.
Shyla, fortunately, us children of my dad are pulling him into the 21st century and he has seasons 1,2 and 3 on DVD. He finds this incredibly handy though, because he can immediately find a specific episode without searsching through tons of VHS tapes. He actually paid me when I was younger to sit and go through all his tapes and write down in a notebook what the episodes were and a description so he could find the right episode when he wanted to. Thank goodness for DVDs!
Katie, I'm with you on this one. Andy Griffith, Lost in Space, I Love Lucy, Green Acres, and Gomer Pyle are hard to beat! My parents were not strict on the "modern" shows like Happy Days, Lavern and Shirley, Maude, and even the scantilous shows like Soap and Three's Company - we watched 'em all. But the ones I remember most fondly were all in black and whit.
I thought of you guys too yesterday whwn I found out the sad news of barney's passing. He was terrific as Barney but I also enjoy him in some of his corny films (the ghost and mr. chicken, mr. limpett, and shakiest gun in the west are my favorites). How did your dad take the news?
We had nick at nite growing up and another of our favorites was the dick van dyke show. Did you ever see those?
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