Ron Howard

Early in the second season of "The Andy Griffith Show," I ventured a suggestion for a line change to make it sound more "like the way a kid would say it. " I was just 7 years old. But my idea was accepted and I remember standing frozen, thrilled at what this moment represented to me. Andy asked me, "What you grinnin' at, youngin'?" I said it was the first idea of mine they'd ever said yes to. Without a pause, Andy responded for all to hear: "It was the first idea that was any damn good.

Deanne Barkley, who broke through the glass ceiling in network television to become an influential executive in the early 1970s, when few women had the power to develop prime-time programs, died April 2 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. She was 82. The cause was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, said her son, Wilson Shirley. Described by The Times in 1974 as having "more economic clout than probably any other woman in television," Barkley became vice president in charge of movies for ABC in 1972, responsible for lining up the concepts and talent to fill hundreds of prime-time hours with made-for-TV films.

The sentence about Ron Howard's high school days--"At Burroughs, he didn't drink or do drugs, but he wasn't a total nerd either"--bothers us. Doesn't it imply that if someone doesn't do drugs or drink, he is a nerd? We are 7th-grade students who do not feel that you have to do drugs or drink in order to be popular, even though sometimes it feels like it. We believe doing drugs or drinking is not cool and can hurt you. CORE CLASS TEACHER, DONNA JUDD LADERA VISTA JUNIOR HIGH Fullerton

Director-producer (and "Happy Days" and "Andy Griffith Show" star) Ron Howard, sportscaster Al Michaels, CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves, CBS newsman Bob Schieffer and "Law & Order" mogul Dick Wolf will be inducted this year into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. They will be joined in the Hall of Fame's 22nd class of inductees by someone who's indirectly responsible for all of their careers: Philo T. Farnsworth, an inventor responsible for the first all-electronic TV transmission in 1927.

Seven months after winning the Oscar for directing "A Beautiful Mind," Ron Howard finally has another movie to make. He had planned to remake "The Alamo," then dropped out of the project. Now he's set to direct what his company, Imagine Entertainment, describes as a suspense story set in the Old West, based on the novel "The Last Ride" by Thomas Edison. Filming is scheduled to begin in March. -- Lee Margulies

Director-producer (and "Happy Days" and "Andy Griffith Show" star) Ron Howard, sportscaster Al Michaels, CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves, CBS newsman Bob Schieffer and "Law & Order" mogul Dick Wolf will be inducted this year into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. They will be joined in the Hall of Fame's 22nd class of inductees by someone who's indirectly responsible for all of their careers: Philo T. Farnsworth, an inventor responsible for the first all-electronic TV transmission in 1927.

Director-producer Ron Howard has been named the recipient of the American Cinematheque Award for making an ongoing contribution to the film industry. Howard, the director of "Splash," "Cocoon" and "Parenthood," will be honored March 23 at the organization's Moving Picture Ball in the Century Plaza Hotel. Since 1986, the evening has been attended by hundreds of Hollywood's insiders to raise funds for American Cinematheque and honor an active entertainment figure.

Actor-director Ron Howard joined his neighbors fighting the installation of a microwave radio tower on the grounds of a closed school. Howard, 36, known for his roles on television's "Happy Days" and "The Andy Griffith Show," said microwave transmissions from the 180-foot tower at the Parkway School could harm children if the school ever reopened. "A couple of physicians I talked to said, 'You better be careful,' " Howard said at a town meeting Monday night.

Ron Howard was named best feature director by the Directors Guild of America for the film "Apollo 13" at simultaneous award dinners held Saturday night in Los Angeles and New York. In recent years the DGA awards have been accurate predictors of the best directing Academy Award. But Howard was not nominated for an Oscar for "Apollo 13," which retells the harrowing story of the astronauts who were trapped in a dying spacecraft. "I didn't expect this at all.

It was, appropriately enough, a family affair for "Parenthood" director Ron Howard, honored Friday night at the annual Moving Picture Ball. Not only were his parents on hand to pay tribute to the still-boyish Howard (a father of four), but his television mother and father--"Happy Days" stars Tom Bosley and Marion Ross--were there to praise Howard as well. "You did such a good job with him," Ross called across the room to Howard's real-life mom, Jean.

Stephen King has been waiting a long time for "The Dark Tower" series to find a place on screens. "The Gunslinger," the first book in the series, was published in 1982, and he's returned to that science fiction/fantasy/horror/western world for almost 4,000 pages. More than once, it has looked like Hollywood would tackle the enormous cross-genre project. More than once, the project has been killed. That's what happened Tuesday at Warner Bros., which passed on "The Dark Tower. " Deadline reports , "After getting an overhauled script from Oscar winning scribe Akiva Goldsman, the studio just balked on the project that Ron Howard wants to direct with Brian Grazer, Goldsman and King producing, and with their A Beautiful Mind star Russell Crowe being eyed to play the gunman Roland Deschain.

Jay-Z is coming back to the big screen. As the rap titan preps his upcoming Made In America festival, he's given Hollywood director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer access to the creation of the two-day show he's launching Labor Day weekend in Philadelphia, the New York Post reports. The Oscar-winning duo behind “Apollo 13,” “A Beautiful Mind” and “The Da Vinci Code” told the Post that the documentary is “going to be born through Jay-Z's perspective. " “The festival showcases 20 preeminent artists that speak to the new generation,” Grazer told the Post.

Director Ron Howard will drive the pace car at the Brickyard 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race July 29 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, track officials said Friday. Howard is making a movie about motor racing, "Rush," a drama that centers around the rivalry between Formula One drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda for the 1976 world championship. The film, starring Chris Hemsworth as Hunt and Daniel Bruhl as Lauda, is expected to be released next year. It will be Howard's first visit to the famed 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he'll be a guest of four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon.

Andy Griffith was starring on Broadway in the 1959 musical comedy "Destry Rides Again" when he told his agent that he was ready for a new challenge: He wanted his own television series. His chance came in 1960, when Sheldon Leonard, the producer of "The Danny Thomas Show," developed an idea that would exploit the actor's homespun image: Griffith would play Andy Taylor, the sheriff in a series set in a mythical North Carolina town called Mayberry. "The Andy Griffith Show"made its debut that fall with Ronny Howard as the widowed sheriff's young son, Opie, and Frances Bavier as matronly Aunt Bee. The series quickly became one of the decade's most popular shows and made Griffith one of television's most beloved stars.

Early in the second season of "The Andy Griffith Show," I ventured a suggestion for a line change to make it sound more "like the way a kid would say it. " I was just 7 years old. But my idea was accepted and I remember standing frozen, thrilled at what this moment represented to me. Andy asked me, "What you grinnin' at, youngin'?" I said it was the first idea of mine they'd ever said yes to. Without a pause, Andy responded for all to hear: "It was the first idea that was any damn good.

The dilemma for "The Dilemma," the new Vince Vaughn comedy, is how to tackle some serious business seriously ? telling your best friend that his wife is cheating ? without losing the funny business of the glib good-time guy that has kept fans flocking to Vaughn's films for years. Although the seriocomic mash-up in the hands of director Ron Howard is not without its issues, this is a time when bait and switch is not a bad idea. It's not really about the laughs, or even the drama. What "The Dilemma" ultimately does best is create a platform for Vaughn to drag that iconic character of his into full-blown adulthood.

Aside from its sleuthing scholar and a continuing penchant for bizarre religious conspiracy theories, there wasn't much carry-over for director Ron Howard between "The Da Vinci Code" and adapting Dan Brown's "Angels & Demons."

Jean Speegle Howard, the mother of director Ron Howard and an actress in her own right who had roles in his "Apollo 13" and many television programs, has died. She was 73. Howard died Saturday in Burbank of complications of heart and respiratory illnesses, her family said. Although she put her own acting career on hold to rear her two acting sons, Ron and Clint, the entertainer known as Jean Speegle made a spectacular comeback as an aging character actress during the last 15 years of her life.

As Hollywood's movie studios cut back on the amount of money they spend to buy scripts and ideas, director Ron Howard is taking a new approach to the development process. Imagine Entertainment, the production company Howard runs with producing partner Brian Grazer, has partnered with Indian media conglomerate Reliance Big Entertainment for a new "writers lab" that makes 10 screenwriters employees for a year. The writers will be paid a salary to work exclusively for Imagine writing scripts and serving as "creative executives" for each other, evaluating and giving notes on their ideas outside of the traditional studio process.

It's worth remembering that when Ron Howard's film "Parenthood" debuted in 1989, it was somewhat revolutionary. The yuppies had just recently begun giving birth but parenting had not yet become the billion-dollar industry it is today. "Roseanne" had been on a year, but cinematic families still tended to fall into two categories: the golden sages of Ozzie and Harriet (or their slightly more modern incarnation the Huxtables) versus the shattered destroyers of Eugene O'Neill or Tennessee Williams.