‘The Andy Griffith Show’: Don Knotts ‘Always Made Time’ for His Family at Height of Fame, His Daughter Says
In a recent interview, The Andy Griffith Show star Don Knotts’ daughter talked about how her father always made sure to make time for his family, even at the height of his decades-long Hollywood career.
Most fans remember Knotts as the goofy, accident-prone Deputy Barney Fife of Mayberry. However, the native West Virginian had a 50-year career, which included seven television shows and more than two dozen movies. Yet The Andy Griffith Show put Knotts and the map, and earned him five Emmy Awards.
Sadly, the talented comedian and actor passed away in 2006 at 81 years old. After years of people encouraging his daughter, Karen Knotts, to write a book about her dad, that’s exactly what she did. Tied Up in Knotts: My Dad and Me released a couple months ago on Sept. 21. In the book about her famous father, Knotts’ daughter opens up about life with the Hollywood actor.
She recently gave an interview to FOX News about the new book where she answered numerous questions about The Andy Griffith Show star. Similar to the book itself, many of the questions revolved around what it was like growing up with Don Knotts as her dad. The outlet specifically asked Karen about her dad’s busy schedule filming. And they wanted to know if it was hard for her with her dad often being away from home.
“He was gone a lot, but he was always checking in on us. And no matter how long it took, he would always come home… And he always made time for us when he wasn’t working. I never felt neglected at all. Neither did my brother. And we did get to go on the set too, which was great,” Karen said to FOX News.
‘The Andy Griffith Show’ Star’s Children Would Help Him With His Lines
In a separate interview with the same outlet from 2018, Karen Knotts once again spoke about her famous father. She admitted he worked often, but she also understood why. After a troubling upbringing, Don Knotts found solace on the set of The Andy Griffith Show and other shows and movies.
“We didn’t see him a lot, because he worked 10, 12 hours a day,” Karen explained. “And when he was home, he was always holed up in his room working on his lines and stuff like that. At that time, we kids were pretty young, and he confided whatever he was feeling about working on the show to my mom.”
Even though Knotts was frequently tied up with work, he always made time for his kids. In fact, as Karen mentioned in her recent interview, he’d even bring his children to the set while he worked. Other times he’d have his kids help him with his lines.
“I remember watching and listening to him rehearse. He asked me to run lines,” she recalled. “At the time, I already knew I wanted to act, so I would try to act it out and he’d say, ‘No, no, no. Just give me the lines straight, no inflection, nothing, otherwise you throw me off.’ I was just part of that process.”
