Ron Howard was five years old when he made his film acting debut in Anatole Litvak’s 1959 Hungarian Revolution drama “The Journey.” A year later, the red-headed scamp got cast as Opie Taylor, the son of Mayberry, North Carolina sheriff Andy Taylor in “The Andy Griffith Show,” which had the effect of turning him into America’s kid brother. Television viewers watched Howard grow up throughout the 1960s, so they felt as though they had a touch of skin in the game when he played recent high-school graduate Steve Bolander in George Lucas’ “American Graffiti.” Then he landed the role of Richie Cunningham in the ABC sitcom “Happy Days,” at which point he seemed like family. Everyone wanted Howard to excel.

If, however, everyone was being honest with themselves, it was hard to see Howard’s acting career lasting much longer than “Happy Days.” He possessed limited range and couldn’t seem to shake his pipsqueak persona. Fortunately, Howard had grown disinterested in acting and had his eyes set on directing. Before getting cast in “Happy Days,” he’d enrolled in film school at the University of Southern California. In fact, Howard nearly returned to USC early in the run of “Happy Days” when the series was getting retooled due to ratings struggles.

While Howard stuck it out on the sitcom until his contract was up, he managed to direct a movie while still shooting the show (1977’s “Grand Theft Auto”) and wasted no time embarking on a full-time filmmaking career once he was free of all “Happy Days” obligations. This worked out exceptionally well for him (he won the Best Director Oscar in 2002 for “A Beautiful World), but you might be surprised to learn that he refused the opportunity to hone his craft by directing a single episode of “Happy Days.”

When Howard appeared on The Smartless podcast with Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes in 2020, he revealed that his interest in directing was sparked by his early days on the set of “The Andy Griffith Show.” As he told the trio:

“I was able to be a part of this show and be a part of this process which included the camera operators. At a certain point I realized that the director was the one who kind of got to hang with everybody, got to play with everybody. I just became intrigued.”

By the 1970s, Howard was savvy enough to understand the difference between directing an episode of television and helming, say, “The Graduate.” He desperately wanted to try his hand at the latter, but he did not see the path to Mike Nichols’ masterpiece emanating from directing traffic on a television sitcom. Howard also was respectful of his co-stars’ needs on “Happy Days,” and didn’t want to hurl gunk into a well-oiled machine. Jerry Paris was the go-to helmer on the series, and, according to Howard, he knew better than anyone how to deliver what viewers demanded from the show every week.

Howard’s patience paid off, and while he’s never directed a classic on the level of “The Graduate,” at least we’ve got “EDtv,” and that ain’t poverty!