‘The Andy Griffith Show’: Don Knotts’ Daughter Says Meeting One Actor Was ‘Favorite Memory From the Set’
As Don Knotts’ daughter, Karen Knotts naturally met a number of actors growing up. However, meeting one from The Andy Griffith Show stands out as her “favorite memory from the set.”
Fox News sat down with Karen Knotts to discuss her memoir about her father, Tied Up in Knotts: My Dad and Me. Naturally, her father’s work on The Andy Griffith Show was discussed. She was a child at the time and frequently visited the set. According to her, meeting actor Ron Howard was her “favorite memory” there.
“That was probably my favorite memory from the set,” Karen reflected. “He was just so different from any other kid I knew. We’re the same age and I thought he was just so mature.” She also disclosed Howard loved tinkering with a transistor radio, which she thought served as a precursor to him wanting to eventually direct.
“He always had this little tiny transistor radio,” she continued. “He would show it to me and he was so involved in the technical aspects of it. I guess it was kind of a foreshadowing of his interest to direct. But he was very friendly and it meant a lot to me.”
It’s both an interesting and wholesome moment between the two of them.
Karen Knotts States Her Father Was ‘Not Barney Fife’ When it Came to Raising Her
Along the subject of The Andy Griffith Show set, Karen Knotts also disclosed important details about her father raising her. According to her, he “was not Barney Fife” as a dad.
Still speaking to Fox News, Karen also covered what it was like having Don Knotts as a father. When asked about what he was like, she quickly shut down the notion he was anything like his The Andy Griffith Show character. “He was not Barney Fife. That was a great, funny character. But my father was witty and funny all on his own. He was a good father. He wasn’t a tough father at all, but he had high standards for us.”
In fact, Karen almost makes it sound like he was the opposite. Don’s background was filled with trauma and he reportedly suffered from depression and mood swings. Living during the Depression in poverty didn’t do him any favors either.
“Like anyone else, he had his moods,” Karen stated. “He had depression that I had to talk him through sometimes because he had a really difficult childhood. He came from an alcoholic older brother and a paranoid schizophrenic father and was living in extreme poverty during the Depression. So I became like a mini shrink… I would try to motivate him not to feel so depressed, to feel more positive about things.”
Nonetheless, Don managed to push past the trauma and be an amazing father to her.
