Ken Berry has died at age 85. I saw it as I glanced at the
newspaper the other day. His familiar face brings back my ’70s childhood. He
was handsome, but not quite leading-man handsome. His clean-cut look was
comforting, like a dad’s. I was a little too young to know what was going on in
F-Troop, in which he starred. I remember Mayberry R.F.D, though I was only
seven, and it’s slightly foggy. By the time he starred in Disney’s Herbie Rides
Again in 1974, I was newly a teenager and into more unorthodox movies.
Though, as I was growing up, he was ubiquitous on TV, part of the
fabric of the entertainment world. He was a song and dance man, and guest
starred on The Carole Burnett Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, the Bob Newhart
Show, Laugh-In, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, The Donny and Marie Show, Love
American Style, The Lucy Show, Dr. Kildare, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, etc.
And in a recurring Kinney Shoe commercial.
My juvenile brain would register ‘there he is again.’ I remember
his voice. He was unthreatening. He was our companion when we came home from
school and turned on the black-and-white TV in the credenza unit in our living
room. Just by his mere presence, he softened the blow of our parents’ recent
divorce, the dark feelings of uncertainty, the brutal self-consciousness of
grade school.
I will never know if life was simpler then, or if it’s just
because childhood is a more innocent time. My sister and I, playing with our
stuffed animals and board games. Making yarn crafts. Writing book reports for
homework. Wearing striped bellbottoms. Wishing we could stay up as late as
grown-ups.
I never saw him age. I didn’t really watch Mama’s Family because by
1983, I was too busy going to community college, waitressing, and playing in a
band. So, in my mind, he’s stuck at about 40 years old.
Those days with Ken Berry, doing a little soft-shoe, or caught in
some wacky sit-com situation with a laugh track, were a treasure. They are
infused with a gentleness, day-glo daisy decals, popsicles, sleep-overs on shag
carpet. Rest in peace, Ken Berry. You were like the warm orange, yellow, and
pink wallpaper of my childhood, and will never be forgotten.
