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October 3, 2025 5 mins

Ron Howard fondly remembers his father Rance, who doubled as his personal acting coach. Plus, Ron’s brother Clint Howard joins the conversation and paints a picture as to how their father politely challenged Andy Griffith and helped shape the depth of Opie Taylor as Ron’s character on “The Andy Griffith Show.” Later, Ron remembers when Andy Griffith took center stage at an end-of-season wrap party and announced his departure from the show, plus the warm embrace of a cast reunion nearly 20 years later that validated his childhood emotions. 


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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hey, guys, Graham here. It's Friday, which means we get
to share with you another one ofour most popular clips from a
past interview this week. Ron Howard, you wrote about your
dad here. He was in his first full year of
living and working in California, expecting to at last

(00:25):
fulfill a dream deferred by the Korean War.
And then some good fortune brokehis way.
But it wasn't in the form of a bonanza of work for him, but for
his little kid of all people. Maybe that turned into his
superpower in terms of being your acting coach.
I mean, it was basic actor studio stuff.

(00:46):
It was Stanislavsky, but distilled and presented in a way
that that I at 4:00 and 5:00 andsix years old and Clint even
earlier 234. We can understand it and
participate in a, in a, in a process.
And line by line, he would saying, see, here's the

(01:07):
situation now Opie doesn't want to do his homework and of course
his dad wants him to do his homework, but he Opie's trying
to explain why he doesn't have to do his homework or whatever
the scene might be. So when he says this line, oh,
paw, I don't think that's reallyvery important.

(01:29):
You know, that's, he's just trying to get his dad to, to
stop pressuring him, you know, So you just break it down in the
most granular way to the point where sometimes there'd be a
scene in the Andy Griffith Show where Opie was getting away with
something. I sort of remember asking him,
jeez, dude, would that work for me?

(01:50):
And my, my dad very quickly said, no, this is a scene in a
TV show. And in real life you would not
get away with that, so don't even try it.
Dad's special gift was he wasn'tintimidated by anybody or any
situation. He was with Andy Griffith and
Don Knotts and Aaron Rubin and Sheldon Leonard and these very
powerful people in show business.

(02:12):
And yet dad was the guy that would raise his hand and say,
you know, excuse me, I don't think this is going in the right
direction. I think that you're riding Opie
to be too bratty and, you know, listen, I, I think that might
get you guys laughs, but I believe if you have a really
good, honest relationship between Opie and and his father,

(02:34):
that it will play better. And you know, my God, for, for a
30 year old guy from Oklahoma tostand up just when he gets his
foot in the door in show business, he, he's putting
himself in a position to get kicked right, right in the, the,
the chestnuts, you know, and andyet he did it in a way to where
Andy listened and Sheldon listened and they came back and

(02:56):
they said, you know, you're right, Rance, you're right.
Let's, let's try to make it, youknow, a more of an honest
relationship. Boy, didn't that set up the show
Well? Didn't that decision to not make
Opie a little jerk work out really, really well for The Andy
Griffith Show? That's pop.
I want to take you to, if I could, a moment where after the

(03:18):
Andy Griffith shows wrapped, you're 14, it's a wrap party and
Andy gets on the mic and says hewants to say something.
Take it from there. We didn't really have big wrap
parties at the end of each season, but this was different.
We were the number one show in television.

(03:39):
And yet Andy and wanted to move on and that's what was going to
happen. And I was OK with it.
You know, I wasn't like all yeartormented by this.
I was really interested in sports, already beginning to
think about directing, loved going back to regular school

(04:01):
even though there were always some challenges there.
But when it hit on that last dayof shooting, and then we went to
the wrap party that this was, this was it for the Andy
Griffith Show, and Andy was up there on the microphone talking,
I just started sobbing. I realized I was leaving

(04:24):
something behind. That was, you know, more than a
job, it was a way of life. It was a big part of my life.
These people were like family and I was going to miss him
terribly and I didn't suddenly didn't know what it was going to
be like to not have that show inmy future and those people in my
future. Almost 20 years later.

(04:47):
We did a reunion movie of the week and I was asked to come
back and be grown up. Opie and I was directing by
then. I'd left Happy Days.
I was busy, but Andy asked if I would do it, and I sure I would
thought I would do it. And my sense of who they were as

(05:08):
kind of wonderful people and howlucky I was to to to know him
and to be working with him was completely unspoiled by my
experience with him 20 years later.
It was just great that I could realize that those childhood
memories were accurate. One quick thing before you
leave, please consider giving the podcast a rating and review.

(05:30):
Those go a really long way in helping us reach new listeners.
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