Andy Griffith said ''The Andy Griffith Show'' was ''second in line'' in casting a 5-year-old Ron Howard in his first major TV role

Another show nearly stood in the way of TV history.

December 16, 2024, 2:13PM By MeTV Staff

CBS Television Distribution

By now, Ron Howard's career is well-documented. Nearly every step of his showbiz journey has been written about extensively because his life's path is interesting to any showbiz fan. Even his personal life is pretty heavily covered in books and documentaries. His family is also famous, with Clint and Bryce Dallas forging full careers of their own. Together, they have a claim to true Hollywood royalty. There are other entertainment empires, but few are as successful as the Howards.

However, some parts of Ron Howard's career aren't nearly as reported. For instance, while most of us are familiar (and even fans of) movies he's directed, like Splash, and A Beautiful Mind, you'd be in rare company if you've seen all of his movies. Grand Theft Auto and Night Shift, for example, remain criminally underseen. And while Happy Days is a perennial favorite, enjoyed by generations, you wouldn't be alone in forgetting that Ron Howard starred alongside Henry Fonda in 39 episodes of The Smith Family, a little-remembered sitcom from 1971.

Here's another fact you might not know about Howard's career: Initially, The Andy Griffith Show had a few obstacles in casting him as Opie. Specifically, the show was almost too late in bringing the young star onboard. Another show had already cast Howard, and it was only that series' failure that allowed young Ronnie to come to Mayberry.

Andy Griffith himself explained in a 2003 interview with Larry King: "[Producer] Sheldon Leonard found him. Ronnie was at age 5 was pretty well-known in the business. We were in second -- second in line for him. I forget now the famous comic who was first in line, but his show didn't sell, so we got him."

While Griffith blanked on the name at the time, a little research shows that the comic in question was most likely none other than Bert Lahr, most famous as The Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz.

The idea originated on General Electric Theater, in the episode titled "Mr. O'Malley." It featured Ron Howard as a boy named Barnaby who desperately wants a dog, but his workaholic dad won't allow it. Luckily, Barnaby has a "fairy godfather" (Lahr), an imaginary friend who shows up to save the day.

That episode was used as a pilot for a new show called Barnaby, and Howard already agreed to do the series if it sold. In an interview with the Archive of American Television, Howard further explained the situation:

"So that led Sheldon Leonard to call my agent and say, ‘I’m doing a series with Andy Griffith and we need a son. And I don’t think that [Mr. O'Malley] series is gonna sell. So I’m willing to take Ronny Howard in second position and put a hold on him.'"