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Ron Howard reflected on his time on The Andy Griffith Show in a new interview
Ron shared that he only learned as an adult that his dad, Rance Howard, gave a note to Griffith that changed the show’s core dynamic
Ron played Opie, the son of Griffith’s Andy Taylor
The Andy Griffith Show wouldn’t be what it was without Ron Howard’s dad.
Ron, who played Opie as a child star on the beloved series, opened up about his time on the show in an Aug. 13 interview with Vulture. The show starred Griffith, who died in 2012 at 86, as Sheriff Andy Taylor, a single dad raising Opie in the fictional Mayberry, N.C. Don Knotts played Andy’s deputy, Barney Fife. The series ran from 1960 to 1968 and continued to find scores of fans in reruns.
Vulture writer Bilge Ebiri asked Ron, 71, about his dad, actor Rance Howard, who had the idea to change the Opie and Andy relationship into what it became.
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Ron Howard (left) and Andy Griffith on ‘The Andy Griffith Show’
“Dad never said anything about that to me,” Ron said. He only learned about it years later, when the cast reunited for a special. “Andy told me that my dad had come to him very early on in the show and said, ‘You’re writing Opie the way most sitcom kids are written. They’re wisea—- and smarter than the dad.’ ”
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Ron remembered Griffith telling him that his dad said, “Ronnie can do that, but what if Opie actually respected his dad?”
As for why Rance, who died in 2017 at age 89, wanted that shift, Ron wasn’t sure. “Now, I don’t know if Dad was just worried about me getting into bad habits, or I think he was, in his own very simple way, actually teaching me Actors Studio stuff. It was the simplest version of method acting, finding the truth in moments,” he said. “I think maybe he felt like there was a lot of artifice in these punch-line-driven deliveries that would be required.”
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Andy Griffith (left) and Ron Howard in ‘Return to Mayberry,’ a reunion special
Ebiri noted that because of the show, Griffith became a surrogate father for fans, but it was Rance’s idea that made that possible. “Well, I think a lot doesn’t happen if he doesn’t make that suggestion,” Ron said.
The actor-turned-director said that “growing up” on the set of the show gave him “a lot of advantages” because the environment was “super-creative.”
“The show looks so simple, but it was all about this very precise problem-solving,” he said “I would see scenes suddenly become funny or work. Because it wasn’t done in front of an audience, and even though we were working quickly, what Andy wanted was a truthfulness. But it still required perfect timing and exactly the right tone.”
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From left: Andy Griffith, Don Knotts and Ron Howard in ‘The Andy Griffith Show’
Ron also said that Griffith was “always annoyed” that the media didn’t “embrace” the show and it got less-than-flattering reviews. “In season 5, I remember him saying, ‘How long do we have to be in the top 10 for them to understand why this show works?’ ” the American Graffiti star remembered.
Elsewhere in the interview, Ron also reflected on how his tenure on the show as a young actor ultimately led him to the director’s chair. “As a little kid, it didn’t take me long to realize that the director was the one who was hanging out with everybody. And a lot of our directors on The Andy Griffith Show had been actors, and I think Andy liked that,” he said. He remembered Howard Morris, who played Ernest T. Bass on the series, telling him at 10 years old, “I think you’re going to wind up being a director because I see the way you’re curious about it all.”
Ron’s career ultimately took him from The Andy Griffith Show to another hit series, Happy Days, which he starred in from 1974 to 1980. He began working as a film director in the late ‘70s and broke out with 1984’s Splash. His brother, Clint, is also an actor and appeared in multiple episodes of The Andy Griffith Show.
Read the original article on People
