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It's a big week for actor and Academy Award-winning director and producer Ron Howard. Today is his 56th birthday, and his new TV series "Parenthood" premieres at 10 p.m. Tuesday on NBC.
He has a lifetime of show business success under his belt starting as a child actor playing Opie on "The Andy Griffith Show." He went on to star in the iconic 1973 film "American Graffiti," which spun into his portrayal of Richie Cunningham on TV's "Happy Days" that ran from 1974-84.
Mr. Howard eventually gave up acting for directing and producing. Among his many hits are "A Beautiful Mind," "Frost/Nixon," "The Da Vinci Code" and "Apollo 13." Tonight's debut of "Parenthood" stems from his 1989 movie by the same name, and it has an impressive ensemble cast.
Now grandparents, he and his wife, Cheryl, one-time high school sweethearts, honed their parenting skills raising four children.
What kind of parent were you?
More of 
See the [Laughing] I'm still working on it. They're grown, but you find that parenthood never ends, which is one of the things the movie was about and the series is as well. I was the disciplinarian, but it wasn't completely lopsided. I was very involved, but my wife was more on point. She was probably tougher or stricter.
Now you're a grandfather.
Yeah, that's really interesting stuff. Back when I was making the movie, I recognized the role grandparents could play, but I didn't think from the grandparent's perspective. I really understand how profound it can be to see another generation coming behind your own kids that you are a part of.
The grandfather in the series is an interesting character.
We got such an interesting actor to play him in Craig T. Nelson, and this cast is fantastic. They are applying their own sensibility and approach to the work. It's fascinating for me to see how relevant it is today and how different it is even though it still sort of echoes the movie in ways that are also gratifying. And that's cool, and that's what Jason [Katims] was all about trying to do. He does "Friday Night Lights" for us (from our un-imagined movie). He does such a remarkable job defining it as a series. Brian [Grazer] and I asked Jason, who came to us with the idea of turning the movie "Parenthood" into a series, "Why don't you just cook up your own show?" He said, "There was just something in the DNA of that set of characters, in that dynamic that works. ... It works in a way that I'd rather not tamper with."
Are any of your own parenting experiences going to pop up in scripts?
Conversations happen, but I'm not going to be a day-to-day contributor. I'm sort of going to be reading scripts, looking at episodes and throwing in my 2 cents, but it will be Jason's take on it. It will also be the other writers on staff and, very significantly, the actors. Having been an actor on a television series, I know that's when the actors take ownership. The other thing is these family dynamics are very relatable. Getting back to your first question about what kind of parent I was, well, like all parents, we were trying our hardest, and we'd win some and lose some, you know? [Laughs.] It's all kind of a big experiment. Every kid is different. It's sort of the chaos theory on display in certain ways. That can be entertaining stuff in the hands of a writer like Jason.
Your parents must have been pretty good. You escaped the messed-up fate of so many child actors.
I was really lucky. My parents were great. Their marriage held together. I think my father, in particular, has a sort of unique gift as a father. He's great with kids in general. Also his ability to teach. You know, he left the farm to become an actor and a writer and continues to work and flourish -- never on a superstar level but always on that workaday level. He also really understood how to keep my brother, Clint, and my feet on the ground and see the truth in all of this. He actually lives with a lot of integrity, and so he never has to say, "Do as I say, not as I do." That creates a solid foundation in parenting. Cheryl and I raised twins, and that was an unbelievably enlightening experience.
Is it true you put your wife in every film you make?
I do, yeah. I started really seriously making super-eight shorts and entering them in festivals shortly after Cheryl and I started dating in high school. She always had to be in those shorts because I always needed people. She never had any interest in acting. Then I started doing low-budget movies, and again I needed her -- just for bodies in there. Then my career started picking up, and I became really superstitious about it. Sometimes it's just a frame or two, and sometimes she has a role and a little speaking part.
Acting really is the family business. Because you started so young, did it feel as if you ever really had a choice?
I felt like I had a choice about my future. But I also understood that I had immediate obligations. I always wanted to, and I always liked it. It was one of those things where I fell into something that I found fascinating. I never dreaded going to the set.
Your dad had dreams of being a star.
Definitely, he left the farm to try to be Roy Rogers or Gene Autry. Gary Cooper was a huge star, and he saw himself as a Gary Cooper type. He's very proud of the fact that he's 81 years old and outside of his four years in the Air Force, he's never had to hold a regular job since he was 19. He's always been able to make a living acting. He's thrilled by it, and the great news is his health is wonderful and he's working every week practically.
How about you? Did you want to be a star?
I never even thought about that. When people would say, "What's it feel like to be a movie star?" I wouldn't even know how to answer that question at an early age, and my dad would say, "Well, look, people say that and ask that because they read magazines and newspapers and they think of it in those terms, but you're not a star. You are an actor on a television show. That's the reality of it. You have a great role on a good show." He was able to define for me that the world outside the business looked at stardom in a way that was quite different from the reality of it.
How important is it for you that the projects you are involved in have a message or a lesson?
The reality is stories are not very entertaining if they don't have a point of view. So whether it's a Popeye cartoon or Sponge Bob or a sketch on "Saturday Night Live" or an episode of the "Parenthood" television series or "A Beautiful Mind," there has to be a point of view, so it's important to me that it is saying something that I'm willing to stand behind. I get excited by stories that offer a fresh perspective.
So how much fun did you have narrating "Arrested Development"?
I really did. I had so much fun doing that. Totally, of course really different shows ["Arrested Development" and "Parenthood"]. When I saw the pilot for "Arrested Development" and was laying down the narration for it, I thought, "This is remarkable. The writing's great, but this cast has instantly hit its stride." I don't think I had ever really seen that. There is always one character that needs to be recast or written in a different way. I was sad when "Arrested Development" went off the air because that kind of dynamic is so rare, but when I saw the cast Jason put together for "Parenthood" and I saw their work, I really felt the same way.
Mackenzie Carpenter's video program, "Omnivore," is available exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.
