Ron Howard exposes Andy Griffith Show costars | TV Shows

Director Ron Howard has revealed who one of his Andy Griffith Show costars actually was as he shared a throwback on social media.

Howard, who had a Happy Days reunion with Henry Winkler at the Primetime Emmy Awards in September, shared a sweet throwback snap on Instagram from when he was visited on set by his The Andy Griffith Show costars Andy Griffith and Don Knotts.

On Feb. 15, the Hollywood A-lister wrote in the caption: “A fun photo of the day in ‘97 when #AndyGriffith and #DonKnotts surprised me with a visit to the set of #Ransom in #Queens.”

He added: “It was recently confirmed that Don and I were actually distant cousins!”

Howard likely misremembered the date, since Ransom, which starred Mel Gibson and Rene Russo, was released in 1996. Still, the photo and trivia was sweet to see.

Howard went on to star in another beloved TV series, Happy Days, but eventually moved on to directing, helming movies like Splash, Apollo 13, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and A Beautiful Mind.

The Oscar winner told People in 1986 that on The Andy Griffith Show, he told his costar and the producers that he wanted to be a “writer-producer-director” one day, and they bought him his first camera. 

“Andy was like a wonderful uncle to me,” Howard explained. “He created an atmosphere of hard work and fun that I try to bring to my movies.”

In 1986, Howard, Griffith, and Knotts reunited with many of their The Andy Griffith Show castmates for the TV film Return to Mayberry.

In the movie, Opie becomes a father for the first time and Barney runs for sheriff, but decides it should be Andy’s job once more.

Knotts died in 2006 at 81 years old and Griffith died in 2012 at age 86. 

However, The Andy Griffith Show has remained in Howard’s heart decades later.

Speaking to Conan O’Brien in June 2024 about why the show was so good, he attributed it to Griffith.

“It was so much a function of kind of a singular creative voice,” he said. Though Griffith wasn’t a producer, “It was his show, it was tailored to his sensibility.”

He explained: “Andy used to kill jokes if they were too broad. He just kept saying, ‘The South is plenty funny on its own.'” Other shows about the South were too slapstick and silly for Griffith, Howard explained.

Howard added: “How lucky was I to grow up in that situation where the actors were set up … to participate, make suggestions?”

He added that even as a kid, he felt comfortable making suggestions, though at first they “never went anywhere.”

Still, Howard said, he’ll “never forget” that when filming Season 2, Episode 2, when he was 7, he pitched a different line that he thought sounded more like a real kid and the director let him change it.

“I just felt this surge of being involved in something,” Howard remembered, though he also remembered Griffith teasing him about the moment, too.