Goodbye Barney, you will be missed.

I learned bullet-maintenance from Barney Fife while watching The Andy Griffith Show.  The bullet-maintenance skit was one of my favorite episodes. To this day if I happen to catch it in reruns I laugh till my sides hurt. In the bullet-maintenance show Barney was inspecting an old-timer bank guard and discovered the bullets on his gun-belt were green and moldy. Suffice to say Barney gave him a dressing down that would have made R. Lee Ermey, The Gunny, from The History channels Mail Call proud and standing tall. Barney then displayed his one, single bullet that Sheriff Andy allowed him to carry, proudly stating, “That’s bullet maintenance!” The bank guard gazed at the bullet in awe and said that Barney’s bullet was legendary in Mayberry.

Don Knotts, who won five Emmys for playing the bumbling deputy sheriff in The Andy Griffith Show has died in a Los Angeles hospital, aged 81. I had seen Knotts on a talk show a few years ago. He was very proudly talking about the millions of fans he still had. He stated that to that very day, no matter which city he went to, they would present him with a silver bullet, or a highly polished one. He said he had a pristine bullet collection that would have made Barney proud.

He also played landlord Ralph Furley in 1980s sitcom Three's Company, along with the original cast.

Goodbye Barney, we will miss you. Teach them bullet maintenance up there.