-Our first guests tonight are two Hollywood legends
that also happen to be brothers.
Their new book, "The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family"
is available tomorrow.
Please welcome to the show Ron and Clint Howard.
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-Thank you.
-Thank you for being here, fellas.
-Wow! -So, "The Boys,"
this is not a -- this is a nickname your mom had
not just for the two of you, correct?
-All three of her boys. -The two boys and her husband.
She called you guys "the boys." -So, it's a little tribute
to mom in addition to all the other stories
that focus a lot on dad. But she --
without her, her energy, her vision, her creativity,
none of it would have happened. -And one of the things
you guys talk about is that your dad --
there was maybe a bit of a mythology about
how your parents met,
that, over the years, he became a little honest,
a little more forthcoming about the truth.
-Well, he waited -- he waited till mom passed
before he really spilled the beans.
-Okay. -That is true.
Well, there was a whole --
Look, their whole love story is kind of a fairy tale.
It's one of the reasons that we wanted to tell it.
These two people, they had -- you know, they, later in life
called themselves the sophisticated hicks.
They had no business dreaming of Hollywood.
Dad wanted to be a singing cowboy.
Couldn't carry a tune. Thank God nobody told him.
[ Laughter ]
But they met at University of Oklahoma,
they fell in love, and, you know, the reality is,
they ran off to be in the business together.
They ran to New York, this magical place,
to try to do it, and they actually succeeded.
But the story was always, "Yeah, you know,
I left, and I got a summer-stock thing,
and she went to New York, and then, lo and behold, we --
we discovered each other there again,
and then we -- we somehow got cast
in this children's theater thing together.
We both got jobs! Wow! And then we just, you know,
we fell in love there, and eventually we got married
in Kentucky because they had no waiting period."
This whole long story.
They ran off. They shacked up.
[ Laughter ] I mean, come on.
And dad finally, when mom passed, he said,
"You know..." What am I?
Probably 48 years old.
"You know, that story we told you --"
"Dad, dad! Just -- You don't have to go there.
We got it. We got it."
-But this is -- so you guys, obviously,
got started very young. So young, Clint,
that you do not remember your first job on television.
-Oh, no. Not at all. In fact, it was probably --
Well, I've been in the business 60 years.
-Yeah. -I've been paying attention
for 55 years. -Okay.
[ Laughter ]
-I sort of had a blackout there for the first five years.
-I do want to show this amazing photo.
You were in an episode of -- I think you were 7 years old
when you were in an episode of "Star Trek."
-Yes. -The original "Star Trek."
And what's the name of your character?
Do you remember that? -Oh, yes.
[ Audience "Awws" ]
I was Commander Balok in "The Corbomite Maneuver."
[ Laughter ] Yeah, yeah.
And as you can tell -- as you can tell, I wasn't having
a very happy day there
when I was getting the skull cap put on.
But it was better than the first alternative that they gave me.
They really wanted to shave my head.
And as a kid going to second grade, I thought,
"There is no way I'm gonna go back to school
with a bald head." -Yeah.
I mean, even being on "Star Trek"
couldn't make up for that.
But your dad, he had a sense -- You know, obviously,
he had done -- you know, he was in show business,
and he had kids who were gonna be in it,
and he wanted you guys to have normal lives,
but he also wanted you to thrive.
And so tell the story about how he would fake
a boom mic just so that you would be used to it
if you were ever on set? -Yeah. Well, I mean, he --
My very first audition, I was still only 3 years old.
And, you know, we learned the scene.
Turned out, he was incredibly gifted
at basically teaching kids how to understand how to act,
not perform but really understand
what was going on in a scene.
So I had memorized the scene, I worked it out.
And it was for a movie called "The Journey."
And he realized that when you -- I got for my screen test,
there were gonna be a lot of distractions.
So he got an out-of-work acting buddy to come over,
and they hung a bucket from a string, and he would,
like, move it around. -[ Laughs ]
-And, "Oh, no, don't look up at that.
Just look at the other actor." My mom had a cereal box,
pretending to be a camera that was kind of moving around.
[ Laughter ]
And so, it was that kind of --
A little like Tiger Woods' dad yelling in the backswing.
-Yeah. -But much kinder.
-Well, I will tell you this. I have a 3-year-old,
and if there was a bucket in the room, forget it.
[ Laughter ] You know.
If there was a bucket within eyesight,
he'd be like "What?"
-Mom and dad understood the distractions of the business.
-Yeah. -Both the physical distractions
and then the psychological distractions.
And they were really good at heading those off.
You know? They always --
Boy, they gave us so much confidence.
Mom and dad gave us so much confidence.
It was just -- you know, it was a beautiful life growing up.
And also, it was a beautiful life
being this guy's little brother. [ Audience "Awws" ]
-But now -- That's very nice.
But you also had to negotiate a little, Clint, because you,
at a very young age, obviously,
you knew that you wanted to be behind the camera.
-Yeah. -You made some short films.
And you were very kind to cast Clint,
but you wanted to make sure that there was
a little something in it for you, right?
-Well, I was getting more and more serious about making films,
and I wanted to enter a contest --
The Kodak Teenage Filmmakers Contest.
And they had a category called "The One Reeler,"
where you had to plan out all of your shots
and you couldn't edit it.
You just had to shoot it and send it in.
And I built the whole thing around this young kid.
And it was kind of a "Twilight Zone"-ish
sort of thing.
There was a part for Clint, part for dad.
And we're getting ready to do it.
Something I carefully planned. I'm very nervous about it.
And I asked Clint to do it. He sort of said yeah.
We get there. We're getting ready to shoot,
and he says, "I -- I hear there's a cash prize involved
if you win something." [ Laughter ]
I said, "Yeah. You can -- You know, first is $200.
Second's, you know, $150."
And he said, "Well, I'm gonna need half of that."
[ Laughter ]
-And I told him, I said, "Hey, listen, bud.
If you want to scour the neighborhood in Toluca Lake
and see if you can find another 12-year-old that wants to be
in your short, go right ahead." [ Laughter ]
-And you won. -I -- I came in second.
-So, did he show up for the money?
-Hell yeah. [ Laughter ]
I mean, the minute -- I'm there, beaming --
"I got a -- I came in second! And he's...
[ Laughter ]
-We had dad mediate.
Dad came in and immediately mediated, and I prevailed.
And I got the $75. -I mean, it must've --
You guys also talk about the fact that you were obviously,
you know, you were in shows that were incredibly popular.
You know, "Andy Griffith," and you were in "Gentle Ben,"
and people knew who you were. And I always kind of wondered
about something like this, because again, you went back,
and you tried to have a normal life.
You played basketball. -Yeah, yeah.
-But you're playing basketball,
and every single kid knows who you are.
Right? Hold on. I have a great photo.
There you are there. -Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-And I guess it made it pretty easy
for the other team to try to get in your head.
-There was always a lot of that.
There was a lot of that at school.
You know? And it was --
You know, it was something I had to learn to cope with,
whether that meant I had to get in a fight,
a wrestling match or something.
Later, when I got into high school,
and we're playing at away games,
you know, they rode me pretty hard.
And at some schools, they did this thing
where I'd be at the free-throw line,
having to take a couple of foul shots,
and all of a sudden, you'd hear the band,
and the band would go...
[ Singing to the tune of "The Andy Griffith Show" theme ]
And then, "Miss it, Opie!" [ Laughter ]
And I'm here, and -- But I am proud to say
that I was a 60% free-throw shooter at home
where the crowd was friendly. -Yeah.
-87% on the road. -There you go.
[ Cheers and applause ]
There you go.
I want to show this photo because I feel like I've seen
so many photos of the "Happy Days"
softball team over the years. -Oh, it was a blast.
-And here you are with Henry Winkler,
who, I think we can all attest -- bad guy.
Just a deeply... -Miserable S.O.B.
-Miserable human being!
-Literally the nicest person I've ever met.
-Godfather to all my kids, by the way.
-Really? Well, you've chosen well.
Clint, true story -- you taught him to pitch?
-Yes, I did. I played high school baseball,
and I had some pretty good chops
and had the opportunity to play on
the "Happy Days" softball team. -He was sort of a ringer.
We grabbed him onto the team.
-And Henry had no skill at all as a baseball player,
and yet within a few short weeks,
he had learned to develop this wonderful pitch
that sort of drifted inside.
And he could tie up really good hitters.
-Well, much like your father, you were a good teacher.
-Yes, yeah. Softball pitcher whisperer.
[ Laughter ] -We all need one.
Gentlemen, congrats on the book. It's such a lovely read.
And thanks so much for making the time for us tonight.