Comedian Don Knotts is beloved by his many fans. He is one of those rare comic geniuses who created two characters still heavily seen in reruns – Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show and Ralph Furley on Three’s Company.
And lest we forget – Knotts’ movie roles in funny films like The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1963), The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966), The Shakiest Gun In The West (1968), The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975), Hot Lead and Cold Feet (1978), and Pleasantville (1998).
Knotts did his fair share of variety shows during the ‘60s and early ‘70s, and a DVD compilation of a few of those rare skits (comedy and musical) and stand-up routines has finally hit the market. Entitled Don Knotts: Tied Up With Laughter, the one-hour DVD comes mostly from Knotts’ appearances on The Hollywood Palace.
Many folks may not remember The Hollywood Palace, but it was a Saturday-night one-hour variety show that ran on ABC from 1964 until 1970. No season by season DVDs have been released, which is a shame, as virtually all of the big Hollywood and music names of the ‘60s turned up there at some point, including The Rolling Stones, Dean Martin, Bette Davis, John Wayne, and The Three Stooges.
MPI Video, a successful independent home video producer/distributor headquartered in Chicago, is spear-heading the project. MPI released the revered “lost episodes” of The Honeymooners, various Beatles projects (A Hard Day’s Night, Help!), and John Wayne’s 1970 star-studded Tribute To America.
Tied Up With Laughter is part of MPI’s Comic Legends Series, which includes Phyllis Diller, Tim Conway, and Dick Van Dyke. In correspondence with the project’s producer, Jim Pierson, he called the DVD a “fun time capsule of comedy.”
In this special comedy collection, the bug-eyed funnyman is joined by actress Jane Powell (the famous 1954 musical Seven Brides For Seven Brothers), comic Jack Burns (he played “Deputy Warren Ferguson,” Knotts’ short-lived replacement on the 1965-1966 season of The Andy Griffith Show), Maureen Arthur (co-starred in The Love God? in 1969 with Knotts), singer-actress Joey Heatherton (ubiquitous in the 1960s), and former Dallas Cowboys player Lance Rentzel (Heatherton’s husband at the time).
Some of the best moments arrive when Knotts sings with Jimmy Durante in a memorable scene and later when he performs his legendary “nervous man” skit. Bonus material includes the comedian’s only appearance with Lucille Ball in a January 8, 1973, appearance on her sitcom Here’s Lucy.
Unfortunately, Pierson stated that this is a one-time DVD, and no further Knotts projects are in the works. Incidentally, Knotts did at least two specials with Andy Griffith in 1965 (The Andy Griffith – Don Knotts – Jim Nabors Show) and 1967 (The Don Knotts Special), respectively.
Sadly, Pierson revealed that both “specials with Andy were lost; otherwise, they would be released. Andy was upset to discover this, too. Old variety shows shot on videotape that never were rerun or syndicated later were often lost or tossed.”
“Filmed shows were generally safe as negatives almost always kept as well as distribution prints. Andy had a couple of early ‘70s sitcoms, and those were filmed and are fine, but never seen.”
Knotts did indeed guest as Barney Fife in one episode of The New Andy Griffith Show in January 1971, and it’s such a shame that this performance hasn’t been released on video.
Knotts also had a variety series from 1970-1971 on NBC called The Don Knotts Show. Pierson admitted it “would be nice to do the Knotts’ variety series, too, but music licensing is expensive.”
So check out Don Knotts: Tied Up With Laughter. As of August 2011,it’s going for $13 on Amazon.com, and perhaps if enough Don Knotts’ fans buy it, it will clear the way for more of this talented comedian’s variety show work to see the light of day.
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© Jeremy L. Roberts, 2011 (Please Do Not Reprint Any Portion of This Article Without Contacting The Author)
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