Ron Howard’s Biggest Revelations About The Andy Griffith Show

The Crew Was Somewhat Rowdy

The Andy Griffith Present was filmed on the set of Desilu Studios. Ron as soon as referred to as the crew “salty previous characters who swore like sailors and drank like fishes.” The crew usually smoked cigarettes on set. “My eyes had been all the time burning,” he revealed.

On Don Knotts’ Departure

Griffith and Don Knotts had been associates earlier than costarring collectively on The Andy Griffith Present. Knotts ended up leaving the present in 1965, a transfer that Ron believes devastated Griffith.

“I believe, for Andy, the present was by no means the identical after Don left,” Ron mentioned, per Andy and Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Basic American TV Present.

“He didn’t have that companion. Absolutely the basis of the present, and why it endures, is Andy-Barney,” he added. “And sure, the sensation of what Mayberry was. However with out the comedy that they generated, I don’t suppose the present ever would have endured.”

Ron Forbade His Personal Daughter From Appearing as a Baby

Ron turned one of many largest youngster actors of his time. Nonetheless, when his eldest daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard, was rising up, he didn’t need her to leap into performing immediately.

“My mother and father had been very agency on that boundary, that they weren’t going to help anybody who needed to be a baby actor,” she instructed Individuals in February 2024.

Ron needed to defend Bryce from the pressures of getting into Hollywood as a baby.

“On prime of every part else, as a result of the characters that I performed as a baby had been so well-known as to nearly be iconic … I additionally thought, ‘Hey, if one in all our youngsters tries to behave as a baby, boy or lady, they’re going to be unfairly in contrast,’” he mentioned.

Discouraging Baby Appearing

Bryce now has a profitable performing and directorial profession of her personal, however Ron nonetheless holds agency on discouraging youngsters from performing.

“I all the time attempt to discourage mother and father from placing their kids on this enterprise, particularly little youngsters,” he instructed the Fort Value Star-Telegram. “I’m one of many few youngster actors who received via it with out quite a lot of anger and resentment. Most youngster actors aren’t taught find out how to act. They’re kind of taught find out how to carry out. They’re like educated animals. I believe I made it via as a result of I used to be working towards one thing. I had a distinct dream.”

He Nonetheless Had a Good Time

Although his opinions are slightly sturdy on youngster performing, he doesn’t have regrets about his expertise on The Andy Griffith Present.

“Different youngsters could resent [acting], however largely I actually loved it,” he mentioned. “I felt very comfy. I understood it. It was an setting the place I knew I used to be excelling.”

He Realized He Needed to Direct

Earlier than he was a teen, Ron realized that he needed to strive his hand at directing.

“Once I was 10, one of many administrators on The Andy Griffith Present mentioned, ‘I see the way in which you’re trying on the digital camera and following rehearsals even once you’re not within the scenes, and I’ve a sense you’re gonna be a director,’” Ron instructed Harvard Enterprise Overview. “Then, after I was round 12, I started to fall in love with the flicks. The Graduate, Romeo and Juliet, Bonnie and Clyde — these movies had been a bit neorealist, borrowing from Europe, and had an anarchy and rebel that was starting to emerge in American cinema. It was a type of cinematic revolution. I associated to it, and I cherished it, and I started to grasp that there was this different factor past half-hour sitcoms. And the particular person behind that filmmaking was firstly the director. I needed to play in that sandbox.”