It didn't hit me until I was in the local gas station yesterday and overheard one of the young cashierettes boasting about how she "knew who Barney was". I asked her if she meant the big gay purple dinosaur and she smugly replied that "Barney" was "that actor who just died."
"I know who he was now," she said. "My dad didn't think I'd know. He was funny, wasn't he?"
I replied that yes, he was funny. Probably one of the genuinely funniest people in TV history. Right up there with Jack Benny and Jackie Gleason."
"Who?"
She looked at her equally young co-worker, who just shrugged back at her.
"Real funny people," I told them. "Like Abbot and Costello. Sonny and Cher. Laugh-in."
They both just looked at me with the blank stare of a pair of cows contemplating their cuds. "Who?"
I shook my head and walked out, feeling very, very old.
Good-Bye, Don.
For those of you under 30, here: Don Knotts
And for those of you too young to remember when TV was actually fun:
Laugh In
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