This is a beautiful memoir of a normal family in a crazy industry. Opie Taylor, Mark Wedloe, Leon, Richie Cunningham. The story behind the characters is even more interesting than the shows they appeared in.
This book almost reads like its own television show. There is some drama and some antics (from Hee-hee man especially) and even a lesson or two sprinkled in for good measure. Written alternately in Ron's or Clint's voices in nice digestible chunks with the occasional sidebar to give us a glimpse at the still existing brotherly relationship. This is the Hollywood memoir that we needed. Even if we didn't know we needed it.
Ron and Clint Howard have both been able to take some phenomenal life experiences (and some not-so-great ones) and make them into life-long careers, mostly because of the support and care they received from their parents. It's clear from this book that they both appreciate both their family and their experiences and have no bitterness about the way the industry works. Somehow they've managed to work around and within it.
What impressed me the most was how they talked about their parents, and how they supported their sons in acting pursuits from a young age but they didn't stage-parent them or resent their children for having the careers that they may have wanted themselves. They operated as a unit and took advantage of opportunities that they were given without taking advantage of each other.
It's a refreshing and heartwarming story in a world where most of the memoirs seem to be "tell-alls", sharing all the dirty secrets. Here, there don't seem to be dirty secrets at all. Just appreciation. And a loving family in an abnormal situation.
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