Whether he’s behind a massive camera in a remote location or filming from his phone, former Happy Days star Ron Howard has a knack for capturing.
In the days since Happy Days and The Andy Griffith Show, Ron Howard has created a legacy as one of the modern day’s most successful filmmakers. From Apollo 13 to Rush, Howard has seemingly tackled every genre and has, more often than not, found great acclaim.
His latest “film,” comes in the form of a phone video, posted to his Twitter account. Howard happened to come across an unorthodox site: bats going to sleep after a long night out.
“#Bats ! As seen on our early morning walk in QLD. this one is having a hard time getting sleepy after a long night. The sun is coming up! better hit the hay.”
Some folks may see the nocturnal creatures and cringe, but not Howard. Keeping his distance but happy to observe, the filmmaker offers some play-by-play in the video as well.
“He’s licking himself almost like a cat,” the former Happy Days actor says, before panning over to two more bats. “These two are still asleep.”
It’s a precious encounter with one of nature’s more elusive creatures, at least for those of us who aren’t nocturnal. Howard has always been exceptional at telling the story of life’s best moments, and it’s proof that even a random morning walk can end up being a chance to capture something unique.
Happy Days Star Ron Howard Never Looked to Direct Show
We’ve touched on how Ron Howard ended up evolving out of acting and into directing after Happy Days, but it may come as a surprise to know he never looked to direct the classic show.
Michael Landon, Richard Thomas, and many other talents looked to direct the shows they were on. And while Howard learned a ton from the Happy Days set, directing wasn’t something on the table.
As Outsider’s own Clayton Edwards wrote, Howard explained there were two factors in his lack of directing. Talking to Jason Bateman and Will Arnett on the SmartLess podcast, it starts with director Jerry Paris.
“Jerry Paris was such a genius,” Howard said. In all honesty, I never wanted to rob the rest of the cast of a week with Jerry.”
Paris ended up directing 251 episodes of the hit program. Another primary reason Howard didn’t direct an episode of Happy Days was his dream of creating cinema, and that making the show was a completely different ballgame than his aspiration.
“The other thing was that I was wise enough to know that if I did a good job on a 3-camera episode of Happy Days… it wasn’t going to be a giant feather in my cap toward my real dream.”
