Don Knotts, TV's Barney Fife, Dies at 81

Andy Griffith, left, and Don Knotts pose in a 1986 file photo. Knotts, the skinny, lovable nerd who kept generations of television audiences laughing as bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on 'The Andy Griffith Show,' died Friday night, Feb. 24, 2006 of pulmonary and respiratory complications at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills. He was 81. (AP Photo)

This is sad. Another comedic legend has passed on. From Yahoo News:

LOS ANGELES - Don Knotts, who kept generations of TV audiences laughing as bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith Show" and would-be swinger landlord Ralph Furley on "Three's Company," has died. He was 81.

Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory complications at a Los Angeles hospital, said Paul Ward, a spokesman for the cable network TV Land, which airs his two signature shows.

Griffith, who remained close friends with Knotts, said he had a brilliant comedic mind and wrote some of the show's best scenes.

"Don was a small man ... but everything else about him was large: his mind, his expressions," Griffith told The Associated Press on Saturday. "Don was special. There's nobody like him.

"I loved him very much," Griffith added. "We had a long and wonderful life together."

Unspecified health problems had forced Knotts to cancel an appearance in his native Morgantown in August.

The West Virginia-born actor's half-century career included seven TV series and more than 25 films, but it was the Griffith show that brought him TV immortality and five Emmys.

The show ran from 1960-68, and was in the top 10 of the Nielsen ratings each season, including a No. 1 ranking its final year. It is one of only three series in TV history to bow out at the top: The others are "I Love Lucy" and "Seinfeld." The 249 episodes have appeared frequently in reruns and have spawned a large, active network of fan clubs.

As the bug-eyed deputy to Griffith, Knotts carried in his shirt pocket the one bullet he was allowed after shooting himself in the foot. The constant fumbling, a recurring sight gag, was typical of his self-deprecating humor.

Knotts, whose shy, soft-spoken manner was unlike his high-strung characters, once said he was most proud of the Fife character and doesn't mind being remembered that way.

Cast members from the television show 'Three's Company' are seen in this undated photo made available in 2000 by Nick at Nite. From left: Don Knotts, Joyce DeWitt, Richard Kline, John Ritter, Suzanne Somers and Ann Wedgeworth. Knotts, the skinny, lovable nerd who kept generations of television audiences laughing as bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on 'The Andy Griffith Show,' died Friday night, Feb. 24, 2006 of pulmonary and respiratory complications at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills. He was 81. (AP Photo/Nick at Nite)

I never really watched The Andy Griffith Show, but I do recognize the staying power of the comedic side-kick that Knotts was on that show. Knotts pretty much transferred his high-strung Barney Fife character to his Mr. Furley character on Three's Company--a comedy that I did watch and enjoy. Knotts' comedy wasn't the kind where you could laugh with him, but rather that you could laugh at him. He was the kind of comedian who could pull off some of the most humiliating and degrading sight gags--almost to the point where you could roll your eyes, saying "Oh my God!" And still you had to laugh. Knotts took self-depreciating humor, and elevated it to an art form. You really don't see that many comedians who can perform that type of self-depreciating humor, and be successful with it for decades.

He will be missed.