In the 1960s, Don Knotts was sitcom royalty. (Still is, for what it’s worth.) He took home five Emmy Awards for his work as Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, setting a gold standard for comedy acting that was poignant as well as hilarious. But for all the acclaim Knotts received in that decade, it didn’t guarantee him work in the years to come. By the 1970s, Knotts was still working steadily on television, but guest-starring on Fantasy Island and The New Scooby-Doo Movies was a clear step down.
Sitcoms had changed, and nothing could have been further from the gentle humor of The Andy Griffith Show than the bawdy double entendres of Three’s Company. That comedy, built around the lie that Jack Tripper was gay and therefore a “safe” roommate for Chrissy and Janet, relied on sex jokes, misunderstandings and the tight T-shirts sported by Suzanne Somers. The show proved so popular that producers doubled down by spinning off its eccentric landlords into their own sitcom, The Ropers.
But that left a void on Three’s Company: Who were the roommates supposed to fool? To replace the Ropers, the show’s writers invented Ralph Furley — a vain, neurotic, self-delusional nervous Nellie. In other words, a Don Knotts type.
Casting was a disaster. “Every day, there would be this line of characters coming in,” explains Three’s Company writer Kim Weiskopf in the book Andy and Don. “The line would get small and eventually there would be no line, and no Mr. Furley.”
Finally, someone on staff had a bright idea. Rather than looking for a Don Knotts type, they wondered, “Has anyone called Don Knotts?” A call was placed, and Knotts was offered the part, no audition necessary.
It should have been an easy yes, but Knotts was, well, a nervous Nellie. He couldn’t believe he might land a role on one of television’s hottest shows, even as his potential co-stars were even more starstruck. “He was a legend in his own time,” said Joyce DeWitt, who played Janet.
Richard Kline, who played sleazy neighbor Larry, idolized Knotts: “I was totally aware of the fact that the man had won five Emmys.”
Neurotic Knotts still had reservations. Unlike The Andy Griffith Show, shot with a single camera and no studio audience, Three’s Company was a live, three-camera sitcom filmed in front of a live crowd. Plus, he wasn’t a hip, fresh-faced actor like his new castmates. “Everybody was good, and I knew it,” Knotts said. “And everybody was a lot younger than me.”
That would be part of the joke. Producers would dress Knotts in all shades of Technicolor polyester, an aging hipster trying to belong. A funny bit, but it also must have hit close to home. Was Knotts trying to fit into a scene where he was no longer cool?
He needn’t have worried. The first time he walked on the soundstage in front of a live audience, recalled one producer, he received a standing ovation for “what seemed to be about 10 minutes.”
The addition of Knotts also boosted the show in the ratings. In his first season, Three’s Company finished second in overall viewership, a high mark for the series.
The nerves finally went away as Knotts learned he indeed could keep up with master physical comedian John Ritter. Or as Knotts put it, “I was doing falls I’d never done before.”
