Ron Howard said that the teens of the fifties weren't so different from the young people of today
While nothing will ever be exactly the same as it was when we were kids, there are bound to be some consistencies between generations. Teenagers are strange, but they're not especially complicated. They love to hang out where they aren't supposed to, listen to music their parents hate, and so on. It was a truth that even Ron Howard was willing to acknowledge.
Having played little tyke Opie Taylor of The Andy Griffith Show before graduating to fun-loving teen Richie Cunningham of Happy Days, Howard had lived through adolescence two-fold, and he had quite a few opinions on what it was like to grow up throughout the years.
During an interview with The Columbia Record, Howard revealed that although he played a teenager from the fifties in Happy Days, he didn't especially notice much of a difference between youths from that time period versus the teens of today.
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"Things haven't changed that much," said Howard. "The guys I ran with acted just like the guys in the show. The only difference is that kids in the fifties lived in their own world and never thought about politics or things of that nature. We were concerned and more aware."
Considering he was a child star, Howard didn't necessarily have the most traditional upbringing that one might expect of the everyday teenager. But although he had lived many lives on screen, Howard was careful not to get ahead of himself.
"I'm at an age where I could get carried away," said the actor. "But I know it's a fluke in that so many parts came along. I have to look at it rationally. I can play parts from age sixteen to twenty, but there's no way I can be a versatile actor now because such roles aren't around."
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