Opie Taylor is the quintessential good kid: as the son of Sheriff Andy Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show, Opie listens to his dad, does his best to follow the rules, and embodies the youthful innocence of a kid growing up in rural America. But he wasn’t always like that, Ron Howard, who portrayed the loveable scamp, told Vulture. And even after the show locked in its iconic characters, critics weren’t always ready with praise.
“Many years” after the show ended, Howard said in the new interview, “when we were doing a Return to Mayberry TV movie or reunion special or something, 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 wise****s and smarter than the dad.’”
Ron’s father was Rance Howard, the actor who had roles in films like Cool Hand Look, Chinatown, and numerous guest roles on shows like Bonanza, Kung Fu, and Gunsmoke.
Rance told Andy Griffith that his son could play the character like that. “And he said, ‘…but what if Opie actually respected his dad?’” said Ron.
“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,” added Ron. “It was the simplest version of Method acting, finding the truth in moments. I think maybe he felt like there was a lot of artifice in these punch-line-driven deliveries that would be required.”
When asked if Andy Griffith’s legacy as being a “surrogate father” wouldn’t have happened if Opie were just another rascally kid, Ron said, “Well, I think a lot doesn’t happen if [Rance] doesn’t make that suggestion.”
“What Andy wanted was a truthfulness,” added Ron. “But it still required perfect timing and exactly the right tone.” But that drive towards perfectionism wasn’t always appreciated by critics at the time. “Andy was always annoyed that the media didn’t really embrace the show,” the director recalls. “In season five, I remember him saying, ‘How long do we have to be in the top ten for them to understand why this show works?’”
