The surprisingly dark reason Ron Howard agreed to star in ‘Happy Days’: “I was really unsure”
Despite being one of Hollywood’s most famous child stars and prolific young performers, Ron Howard never wanted to be an actor. His goal was always to become a filmmaker; he just had to bide his time and wait for the right opportunity.
Once Roger Corman finally took the plunge and gave him his chance, there was no looking back. Howard may not have been especially proud of 1977’s Grand Theft Auto, but proving that he was capable of helming a feature convinced him that it was now or never to phase himself out of acting.
It wasn’t instantaneous, though. In the years preceding his directorial debut, Howard played a prominent role in George Lucas’ 1973 classic American Graffiti, a ‘Best Picture’ nominee and the most profitable movie ever made at the time. The following year, he landed the second long-running small screen gig of his career when Happy Days kicked off what would be an 11-season run.
The series’ first episode aired in January 1974, but it was in the works for years beforehand. The idea was initially conceived in late 1971, but the pitch didn’t sell. A proof-of-concept pilot was filmed under the working title of New Family in Town, with Howard on board as Richie Cunningham.
Ironically, Lucas used the pilot to gauge whether or not Howard was capable of playing Steve Bolander in American Graffiti, and the film’s success reignited interest in 1950s nostalgia, bringing Happy Days full-circle after ABC decided to capitalise on the era-appropriate buzz, recasting several roles but keeping Howard.
The actor and aspiring filmmaker always had one eye on the long game, and he was sceptical about committing to what could potentially be a multi-year contract, depending on how audiences responded to Happy Days. However, his mind was made up for surprisingly dark reasons that Howard viewed as a calculated risk to preserve his own safety.
“I did not want to particularly go to Vietnam, nor did I want to flee the country. I was really unsure what to do,” he admitted to Virgin Radio. “Happy Days came along, and even though I’d been accepted to the University of Southern California Film School, which is my dream – my dream already existed; to be a filmmaker, to be a director – and I’d been accepted.”
Weighing the pros against the cons, Howard figured that if he were under contract to a major industry player like ABC for a show that millions of people watched every week, then the powers-that-be would find a way to ensure he was drafted and dispatched to fight in the Vietnam War.
“It was not a very sophisticated way of thinking,” he confessed. “And ultimately, it didn’t matter because the show didn’t sell, and we finally got out of Vietnam. But it’s odd to think that that fear, that terror, actually launched me in the direction of a show that would ultimately change my life.”
The original pilot didn’t sell, but the United States’ final troops didn’t withdraw from Vietnam until March 1973. By then, Howard had already shot American Graffiti and remained involved with the new and improved version of Happy Days, which filmed its pilot in November. It’s one of the most wholesome shows of its era, but Howard only signed on to avoid going to war.
