"Are You Nervous?"... "No!"

My first remembrance of comedian Don Knotts was on the old Steve Allen Variety Show. Don played one of Allen’s “man in the street” sidekicks. The basic premise of Knott’s character was an extremely anxious interviewee who always responded to the inevitable question “Are you nervous?” with a resounding “No!”
Don’s big break in TV came when his friend Andy Griffith from a play and movie they both appeared in named “No Time for Sergeants” called up and offered him a job on Andy’s new Mayberry series. This was where Knotts established himself as one of America’s premier comic actors with the genius in which he played Deputy Barney Fife.
My mom watches two comedy shows on a daily basis. The old Andy Griffith Show and Seinfeld. Recently I’d taken to pointing out to mom that when Jerry Seinfeld himself is at his funniest on his show he is often using “recycled Don Knotts bits”. While I can’t put my finger on one at the moment if you watch when the script calls for Jerry to be funny as an actor he often uses Knott’s schtict that set a comedy standard 40 years before.
Don died last night in Los Angeles of pulmonary and respiratory complications. Reportedly his old friend Andy was at his bedside at the end.
Not being a “Three’s Company” fan I missed Don’s partial reinvention of himself in the early 80’s as the landlord character Ralph Furley. He also appeared on Andy Griffith’s “Matlock” show from time to time. His movie career spanned a half of a century starring in “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken”, “The Incredible Mr. Limpet”, “The Reluctant Astronaut”, “The Love God” , “The Shakiest Gun in the West”, and “The Apple Dumpling Gang” with Tim Conway. He also appeared in my favorite comedy movie “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World”, and “Pleasantville”.
Don was raised in nearby Morgantown, West Virginia where they named a street after him in 1998. He was 81.