Here’s Why Ron Howard Wasn’t Allowed to Watch ‘The Andy Griffith Show’

No wonder Ron Howard didn’t have a big head while he was starring on one of the biggest sitcoms on television. When People’s Life in Pictures, per Remind Magazine,  showed Howard a photograph of his five-year-old self as Opie alongside Andy Griffith, the director admitted, “At the point that I did this show, I don’t think I’d ever seen myself on TV, because usually my bedtime was before the shows went on.”

It’s hard to know what a big deal you are when you can’t even watch yourself on television. That wouldn’t happen for a few more years, when “I began to be allowed to stay up and watch The Andy Griffith Show, which I think came on at 8:30 or something like that,” said Howard. “It wasn’t until much later that I began to understand the impact the show had on audiences.” 

Ron’s father, Rance, wasn’t a typical showbiz dad. Rather than building up his kid as a big star, he often guided him in the opposite direction. 

For example, early Andy Griffith Show scripts depicted Opie as a typical sitcom kid, smart-alecky and smarter than the sheriff. That was the dynamic between Griffith’s producer, Danny Thomas, and wisecracking kid Rusty on The Danny Thomas Show. And it worked. 

But Rance Howard, who was “just a working day actor, had the confidence, the nerve, the belief that it was the right thing to actually, in a very gentle way, go up to Andy, and say, ‘I see they’re writing Opie in the traditional, contemporary sitcom way,” Ron remembered. “And I know that works and that Ronnie can do those jokes, but what if they had a different relationship?”

Griffith loved the idea, telling his writers, “Let’s make Andy and Opie be more like Ronnie and Rance.”

Rance didn’t hesitate to display his parenting on the Andy Griffith Show set. Once, when Ronnie admitted he “was probably acting up,” Rance surprised the cast and crew by putting his son over his knee and administering a spanking, according to the book Andy & Don.

Then he gave a speech that the show’s writers could have transcribed for an Andy Taylor lecture. “Anywhere you are — I don’t care who’s watching, I don’t care what’s going on — I have only one job, and that’s to be your father, and that’s to teach you right from wrong. And nothing about that job embarrasses me.”

Griffith was so impressed with the relationship that he continued to consult with Rance about his father/son scenes with Opie. 

The Howards’ commitment to a normal childhood included renting a bungalow near the set of The Andy Griffith Show, where young Ron could run home for lunch every day after filming his morning scenes. He’d just have to wait until he was a little older before he could actually watch them.