Ain't this the perfect Holiday cards photo...Ron Howard a.k.a. Richie Cunningham posing with Fonzie and the gang from "Happy Days".

For those of us old enough to remember TV shows from the early 1960s, one that will surely conjure images of a Norman Rockwell painting depicting small town USA or a Currier & Ives Christmas cards setting of a snow covered countryside is The Andy Griffith Show. One of the show’s stars was six-year-old Ron Howard.

Ron Howard was born March 1, 1954 to a show business family. His father is actor/director Rance Howard and his mother is actress Jean Speegle Howard. He appeared in his first movie at the age of 18 months and has been in front of or behind a camera ever since.

Ron became well known when he was cast as Opie, Sheriff Andy Taylor’s son on The Andy Griffith Show. Most fans of TV are familiar with the series that is set in the quiet rural town of Mayberry, North Carolina, where Andy and Opie live with the widowed sheriff’s Aunt Bee. Not much crime takes place in town so most of the exploits revolve around Andy handling squabbles between neighbors or calming down his overly reactive deputy, Barney Fife.

I remember The Andy Griffith Show’s first holiday program. It aired on Monday, December 19th in 1960 and was simply titled “Christmas Story”. I was ten-years-old at the time. My younger brother and I were helping our mother prepare holiday cards and address the envelopes as we watched the story of Mayberry’s scrooge, store owner Ben Weaver, insist that Andy arrest local bootlegger Sam Muggins on Christmas Day. Ben, who sells liquor in his store, doesn’t want Sam’s moonshine to outsell his legal booze. Andy reluctantly throws Sam in jail and then proceeds to arrest his entire family so they can all be together for Christmas. With help from Aunt Bee, Opie, and Barney, Andy puts together a holiday party at the courthouse. When Ben sees the festivities he wants to join in, so he begins to commit various petty crimes to get arrested. Andy refuses until he realizes that Ben just wants to share in the holiday spirit.

In 1974 Ron began to play the role of Richie Cunningham on Happy Days. That same year, “Guess Who’s Coming to Christmas” episode aired on Tuesday, December 17th. The story involved Richie, who discovered that Fonzie will be spending Christmas alone, contriving a plan that would get the whole gang to celebrate Christmas together. I can’t remember where I watched the show that year but it wasn’t with mom and my brother stuffing Christmas cards into envelopes.

Ron directed the feature film The Grinch, which was released on November 17, 2000, based on the Dr. Seuss story, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Starring Jim Carrey in the title role of the green, scrooge-like character that would never send holiday cards or celebrate the holidays, it went on to earn $260 million at the U.S. box office.