Ron Howard On Working With Andy Griffith | Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend

it's re really worth noting that your. career improbable in so many ways. because just on Andy Griffith the loone. you could have spent the rest of your. life going to setting up a card table. and going to conventions and and having. that amazing experience and it's so. funny because I'm around I get to. interview so many terrific actors. talking to Walton gogins the other day. talking to Billy Bob Thornton both of. them cite that show The Andy Griffith. Show as being sem for them and I think I.

understand it because it's character. comedy not afraid of a long pause not. afraid of and I was saying there are. scenes outside the courthouse or in the. barber shop that feel like waiting for. gdau and beautiful like it really does. uh hold up well it's you know it was so. much a function of a of a kind of. singular creative voice not that Andy. wrote he wasn't the you know he wasn't. even didn't have a producer credit but. it was his show it was tailored to his s.

ability and Sheldon. Leonard um who was the the executive. producer and very active on the on the. show was this old character actor who. had become this incredible television. producer who had great success with. Danny Thomas and Van djk and Andy. Griffith Show um and for a moment he was. like the comedy producer but he was. there all the time and they were always. stressing character and Andy used to. kill jokes if they were if they were too. broad and and he just kept saying the.

south is plenty funny on its own uh. without having to reach for it and and. and and and and do slapstick and stuff. you know and and and and uh uh like he. didn't like pett Co Junction and. hillbilly not hillbilly elgy that's a. movie I. directed uh he didn't like Beverly. Hillbillies Beverly Hillbillies right uh. and you know because they because you. know they were doing sketch basically. and and uh High concept he didn't he. didn't like little admer you know.

and so as a result I mean I don't know. that there's that there have been other. single camera shows that kind of held. that tone maybe Real McCoy a little bit. but they didn't have Don knots you know. and and and I was remarking uh recently. that it's the ability to to have you. know two. characters just talking about oh it's a. nice day well those bits were usually. when the show was short.

yes and they would come so we would. shoot Monday Tuesday and Wednesday. single camera rehearse On th read on. Thursdays rehearse Fridays shoot Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday and several times. these scenes that that you're the kinds. that you're citing yeah uh usually. between Don and Andy yep uh uh the I. remember vividly Aaron Aaron Ruben our. our showrunner coming down and saying. talking to Andy and then and then Andy. would he always called Don Jesse yeah. and he would say Jesse were're.

short come on and they and at the very. last thing of the of the end of the wday. night shoot would be the two of them and. they would have just talked about it a. little bit and they'd wind up doing. doing one of these one of these scenes. they're amazing and it's it's just uh it. they're they're I love watching them. because they're just playing the silence. is and it's so well and of course you've. got these two. consumate beautiful actors they're just. such great comedic actors but just ah oh.

boy it's a nice day sure is isn't it yep. yep yep yep yep yep yep you're watching. it and you're. thinking uh I have this theory that. comedy has been increasingly compressed. to the point now that when any Series. starts they have to start at the most. dramatic moment and then that's a flash. that turns out it's a flashback right. because they can't start slowly you. might people can flip to another. streaming platform too quickly right so. every show starts with main character.

has five bullet holes in them and is. screaming and then you cut to two weeks. earlier and I think they don't trust us. right that some that this is going. somewhere and there's a lot of parallel. editing and everything and just the idea. that that one of the most popular shows. in television history could often. consist of people playing things and and. that pace and the fact that the show. really does endure I mean it's actually. on like all all the time and especially.

over covid I kept hearing from people. that oh yeah it was it was like a. Lifeline uh you know for them but here's. the thing H how lucky was I to to grow. up in that situation where in fact the. environment was set up for actors to not. improvise but participate make. suggestions things like that and even as. a six-year-old I mean my dad was having. to read the lines of the read through. and I would just kind of sit there at. first my father rants but later I you. know when started to learn to read and.

so forth I was in it and I I actually. started occasionally making a suggestion. and they never you know it never went. anywhere kind of pissed me off a little. bit uh that first year and I will never. forget the it was the second episode of. the of the second season and I had. turned seven and uh we were rehearsing. this scene where I was supposed to come. into the into the courthouse and Otis. Hal Smith Otis was over here and Andy. was there and was somewhere else and uh.

and I came in and I was supposed to say. hey PA something something whatever the. line was and then I sort of stopped and. uh and and the the director Bob Sweeney. said what is it Ronnie and I said well I. don't think a kid would say it that way. oh and he said well how do you think a. kid would say it I don't remember what. the line was but I whatever I pitched my. little my little fix on it and he said. okay good yeah do it do it that way and. I it was just like I was a part of it I. just felt this surge of of of you know.

of of of being involved in something and. um Andy from across said uh what are you. grinning at. youngan and I said what's the first idea. of mine you've taken and he gave it the. proper beat and he said well it was the. first one that was any damn good now. let's rehearse the. scene to a. seven-year-old but you know what's also. nice if you look at if you look at the. history of situation comedy especially.

uh usually and and increasingly so. through the 70s and 80s and '90s the. kids role was to say something overly. sophisticated and wise ass wise assy. that a kid would never say right so. that's where you get um you know uh all. these you know the Gary Coleman. character that's just like well if you. ask me sounds like this guy's paying too. many taxes you know and love that. episode I know that well I agree with. him I think we are.

but um and what I think really holds up. well is your character is a real boy. he's a you're playing you're playing the. reality of the situations you're not. saying let me get this straight Otis is. drunk again sounds like someone needs. rehab and like winking at the camera. which by the way would have been a great. line but yeah that's but well okay this. is something that uh that means a lot to. me and it was and and I didn't know. anything about it at the time but later.

Andy told me this so when we were doing. like a Revival return to Mayberry or one. of those interview sort of you know. specials or something Andy told me this. that in that very. first season the first episode that um. my my dad was an actor yep um not a. famous actor but it was he was. professional working um took it upon. himself to just go up quietly to Andy at.

one point and say now I see they're. writing Opie kind of the way they write. the rusty HR character on Danny Thomas. and like so many shows where he's a wise. ass yeah and he said that you know. Ronnie can do that and everything but. what what if he actually respected his. father and um and Andy thought about it. and told me years later that he went. back to the writers and said let's write. let's write Andy OPI like like Ronnie.

rant oh wow and and and um and let's try. that and they went for it yeah well it. stands out it's it's interesting because. again we've been St of we've been fed a. steady diet of everyone hates dad dad's. an idiot and the kids and the kid knows. it and the kid knows it and is always. letting him know it and it and it got. amped up sometimes stretched out in kind. of a meta way like un Married with. Children where you know there or or.

sometimes The Simpsons where they're. actively plotting their father's death. but does make me laugh it's effective no. no it's it's really funny uh and I think. the right way to go my point is your dad. was wrong and I don't think you should. be here.