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Ron Howard was already an experienced performer long before audiences knew him as Richie Cunningham. As a child, he had appeared prominently on The Andy Griffith Show, where he played Opie Taylor, and he had also worked in films. One especially interesting connection came with the 1962 movie version of The Music Man, in which the young Howard played Winthrop Paroo. Years later, Happy Days could playfully reference the fact that its leading actor had already accumulated an impressive résumé while he was still a child. Howard would ultimately spend seven seasons as a regular on Happy Days before concentrating increasingly on the directing career that became the major focus of his adult professional life. His transformation from famous child actor to successful filmmaker remains one of the most remarkable career stories connected with the series.
Howard’s presence also connects Happy Days with another enormously influential piece of 1950s nostalgia. Before Happy Days began its regular television run, Howard appeared in George Lucas’s 1973 film American Graffiti. The movie followed young people during a night of cruising, music, romance and uncertainty in 1962 and became an important commercial success. Its popularity helped demonstrate that there was a substantial audience for stories that looked back at the rock-and-roll era with affection.