Don Knotts revealed the most humiliating moment in his acting career

Knotts was kind enough to reveal one of his more embarrassing days on set to us.

October 11, 2024, 2:30PM By MeTV Staff

CBS Television Distribution

Barney Fife was famous for his various blunders, but Don Knotts couldn't be further from the fumbling fool that he played on television.

Knotts was a seasoned actor on both the stage and screen. However, he also believed in the power of keeping oneself humble, and in his memoir, Barney Fife and Other Characters I Have Known, Knotts shared his fair share of mistakes that he'd made over the years.

"In all my years of acting, I've only missed one entrance, and it pains me to talk about it, but here's how it happened," wrote Knotts. "I'm crazy about the game of baseball, and living in Los Angeles, quite naturally, I'm a big Dodgers fan. In 1981, the game that would determine whether or not the Dodgers would make it to the World Series was being played while we were taping a Three's Company show."

You might remember Knotts as building manager Ralph Furley. When Knotts joined the cast of Three's Company, it was a shift from television he had previously acted on. A show like Three's Company was taped in front of an audience, a difference from The Andy Griffith Show. In addition to serving as a shift for Knotts, it also meant that, if an actor were to make a mistake, there would be a great deal of witnesses in the audience.

"I had the game on television in my dressing room and during our breaks, I would run in and take a quick look at the game," Knotts said. "On about my fourth visit to the dressing room, the game grew so exciting that I became totally glued to the set, completely forgetting about Three's Company. Suddenly the door flew open and our stage manager appeared in the doorway. 'Mr. Knotts,' he announced, 'I'm afraid you've missed your entrance!' I have never been more shocked in my life. They actually had to stop tape in front of an audience because I hadn't shown up. Humiliated, I made my way sheepishly down to the stage."

The experience certainly lingered in Knotts' mind. "I have never felt smaller in my life," he wrote.

Still, it's good to know that even famously talented actors still make little mistakes, reminding us that we're all only human. Moreover, Knotts was able to learn from the experience.

"It was my first and last missed entrance," he wrote. "I might add that the Dodgers did win the game, however, and you can bet I was in the stands at Dodger Stadium to watch them beat the Yankees in the World Series!"