Happy Days for Obama

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

Long-time readers of this blog will remember that, during the writer’s strike I wound up chatting with Ron Howard for about an hour while walking the picket line (even gave him a newly minted galley copy of “Tigerheart.”) We didn’t discuss politics all that much, although he did make “Frost/Nixon” sound interesting (and the trailer I just saw the other day made it a must-see if it wasn’t already). Recently he put up an ad for Obama featuring him, Andy Griffith and a convention friend of the David family, Henry Winkler, that I thought was an absolute must-see. So see it.

PAD

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

74 comments on “Happy Days for Obama”

  2. Although I’ve become a bit exhausted with Hollywood’s “bully pulpit”, I found that clip to be quite endearing. Good find, Peter.

  3. I know of proud hillbillies who keep Sheriff Andy as background noise in their household. I can’t think of a better endorsement to counter the “Who is Barack Obama” smears.

  4. I know of proud hillbillies who keep Sheriff Andy as background noise in their household. I can’t think of a better endorsement to counter the “Who is Barack Obama” smears.

  5. I believe Winkler is a life long Republican.
    So that makes this endorsement more powerful.
    The Fonz and the Powell, will America listen?

  6. I believe Winkler is a life long Republican.
    So that makes this endorsement more powerful.
    The Fonz and the Powell, will America listen?

  7. That was really good. Kinda mind bending at first. Especially the part with Andy Griffith, he’s been around so incredibly long and I’ve never thought of him as political, so seeing him take a position seems a little more impactful than the average celebrity.

  10. I believe Winkler is a life long Republican.

    that’s pretty unlikely. he has donated a lot of money to politicians and all of them have been Democrats. Andy griffith is also a Democrat. Don Knotts is dead but may still get a vote.

  11. I believe Winkler is a life long Republican.

    that’s pretty unlikely. he has donated a lot of money to politicians and all of them have been Democrats. Andy griffith is also a Democrat. Don Knotts is dead but may still get a vote.

  12. Thanks for that, Peter. While I live in Ireland, and thus can’t vote for your President, we’ll all over here still watching with baited breath.

    Thanks for the video. It’s great to not only see Ron and Henry, but Matlock himself as well! Wow! I remember watching Matlock every week with my mom when I was a kid. We loved that show. So many happy memories.

    Vote Irish. Vote O’Bama.

  13. Thanks for that, Peter. While I live in Ireland, and thus can’t vote for your President, we’ll all over here still watching with baited breath.

    Thanks for the video. It’s great to not only see Ron and Henry, but Matlock himself as well! Wow! I remember watching Matlock every week with my mom when I was a kid. We loved that show. So many happy memories.

    Vote Irish. Vote O’Bama.

  16. Okay, Ron Howard never dresses up the way he did in the Andy Griffith segment again. During the color footage right before they started that segment he looked like the freakiest zombie/ghoul/ghost I have ever seen. I spent the entire segment waiting for him to bite poor Andy and drag him into the fishing pond.

    Other than that it was kinda funny.

  17. “that’s pretty unlikely. he has donated a lot of money to politicians and all of them have been Democrats.”

    I stand corrected (or sit at a keyboard corrected).
    I was probably thinking of Arthur Fonzirelli, who I believe supported Ike.

  20. Just another example of the naiveté of people, not only thinking that a fictional character is real but taking their advice.

    Is Mr. Howards self esteem so low that he has to rely on Opie and Richie to sell this?

    Shameful

  21. Steve, I believe you made a slight typo on the last line there. That should have been spelled “Funny!”

    You’re welcome. 🙂

  22. Steve, I believe you made a slight typo on the last line there. That should have been spelled “Funny!”

    You’re welcome. 🙂

  25. Nah. Steve has no sense of humor. He is acting like a troll that is losing, that’s all.

  26. Nah. Steve has no sense of humor. He is acting like a troll that is losing, that’s all.

  27. “It was a real good thing you’ve done, Ron. And today’s going to be a really good day.”

    Larry — I think you’re thinking of Bill Mumy. He was the kid who wished people into the cornfield.

  28. “It was a real good thing you’ve done, Ron. And today’s going to be a really good day.”

    Larry — I think you’re thinking of Bill Mumy. He was the kid who wished people into the cornfield.

  29. Posted by J.Alexander at October 24, 2008 03:13 PM

    Nah. Steve has no sense of humor. He is acting like a troll that is losing, that’s all.

    Never said it wasn’t humorous.

    Just because I don’t like this type of political advertising, means I’m a Troll. Wow thats a new bumper sticker

    Don’t be a Troll! Vote Obama

  32. So, you guys read about the Republican Texan girl that faked her own sexual assault to try to smear the Obama campaign?

    They’re really getting desperate.

  33. So, you guys read about the Republican Texan girl that faked her own sexual assault to try to smear the Obama campaign? They’re really getting desperate.

    I wouldn’t say “they” simply because of the actions of one deranged girl. And I saw the picture of her. You have to love that they said her “story didn’t hold together.” Story shmory: The likelihood that she carved the B in her face herself was made evident by the fact that it was backwards, indicating that she was looking in a mirror when she did it.

    PAD

  34. So, you guys read about the Republican Texan girl that faked her own sexual assault to try to smear the Obama campaign? They’re really getting desperate.

    I wouldn’t say “they” simply because of the actions of one deranged girl. And I saw the picture of her. You have to love that they said her “story didn’t hold together.” Story shmory: The likelihood that she carved the B in her face herself was made evident by the fact that it was backwards, indicating that she was looking in a mirror when she did it.

    PAD

  35. Didn’t mean “they” as implying “all the Republicans”, but…

    Both parties have some deranged people as supporters, but these last few days the Republican side is taking the cake, with this girl, the creepy people in the rallies, that Congresswoman…

    The possibility of an Obama presidency is really scaring these people.

  36. Didn’t mean “they” as implying “all the Republicans”, but…

    Nah, just the Pennsylvania head of the McCain campaign…

  37. Didn’t mean “they” as implying “all the Republicans”, but…

    Nah, just the Pennsylvania head of the McCain campaign…

  40. I wouldn’t say “they” simply because of the actions of one deranged girl. And I saw the picture of her. You have to love that they said her “story didn’t hold together.” Story shmory: The likelihood that she carved the B in her face herself was made evident by the fact that it was backwards, indicating that she was looking in a mirror when she did it.

    YUeah, this one was so obvious even Michele Malkin called it a probably fake when it came out. I figured she just used her fingernail to scratch her face and if you do that right handed you would probably draw a backwards B. At any rate, one didn’t need to be Hercule Poirot to figure out that if someone carved a B into your face with a knife it would not be such a neat B–most of us would be moving under such an assault.

    Me, I’ve always maintained that anyone reporting false crimes should get the same penalty as what the criminals would have gotten were there an actual crime. Would nip that stuff right in the bud.

  41. It’ll nip it in the bud, but they’ll also just move to taking hostages. How is increasing the taboo supposed to guide anyone to cutting their distress? (Or am I asking the wrong person?)

  42. Quote:”Just another example of the naiveté of people, not only thinking that a fictional character is real but taking their advice.

    Is Mr. Howards self esteem so low that he has to rely on Opie and Richie to sell this?”

    I don’t think it’s a matter of whether or not he has to use the characters, I think he’s showing how sincere he is for wanting change with this candidate.

    He hasn’t played these characters in decades. I’m not sure why he hasn’t but I’m pretty sure that there’s a good reason on his part for not wanting to play them. For this ad, he was willing to put on costumes and play people he hasn’t looked back on that often to put across the fact that he wants people to listen and think. If he has to use Opie and Richie to get that point across, I say more power to him.

  43. Quote:”Just another example of the naiveté of people, not only thinking that a fictional character is real but taking their advice.

    Is Mr. Howards self esteem so low that he has to rely on Opie and Richie to sell this?”

    I don’t think it’s a matter of whether or not he has to use the characters, I think he’s showing how sincere he is for wanting change with this candidate.

    He hasn’t played these characters in decades. I’m not sure why he hasn’t but I’m pretty sure that there’s a good reason on his part for not wanting to play them. For this ad, he was willing to put on costumes and play people he hasn’t looked back on that often to put across the fact that he wants people to listen and think. If he has to use Opie and Richie to get that point across, I say more power to him.

  44. “Nah, just the Pennsylvania head of the McCain campaign…”

    Yeah, I would not be thrilled with them right now if I was John McCain. A lot of the most damaging quotes that came out about the “assault” and the very race button pushing imagery created apparently came from someone in the Pennsylvania campaign office. They’ve tried to deny that now and claim that it was a case of misattributed quotes that were actually from the police, but several reports actually included the police response and their response wasn’t the same. They’ve also spoken to several of the reporters and they still have their original interview notes. (Duh!)

    While I don’t think that this was planned and executed from the office itself, it’s pretty clear that some people in the office, some very desperate people, tried to ride this event for everything they could get out of it right up until it exploded in their faces. It also shows how poorly their (and likely everyone else’s) local campaign office screened volunteers and staff. It seems that this young woman has a history of telling lies that’s even documented on her web blogs. You wouldn’t have needed to have NCIC or whatever local system they use there to find this out either. 20 minutes of questions and 30 minutes computer searches would have likely turned something up in this case.

    My take on it? I’m with Bill here. Jam people up with the time that the crime they made up would carry.

  45. The possibility of an Obama presidency is really scaring these people.

    Probably as much as the thought of McCain/Palin is scary to me. Except I’m reasonably sure that the past eight years have given us a nice preview.

    PAD

  46. The possibility of an Obama presidency is really scaring these people.

    Probably as much as the thought of McCain/Palin is scary to me. Except I’m reasonably sure that the past eight years have given us a nice preview.

    PAD

  47. Oh, and I would just like to say that as a former police dispatcher, a trainer of just about a generation of dispatchers in my department and someone who still has to help out in both of those capacities from time to time now; John McCain’s brother is really holding a special place in my heart right now.

    Sheesh…

  48. You know add this to Palin’s ignorant mocking of potential autism research http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/24/palin-fruit-flies/

    and it’s been a really bad day for the McCain campaign.

    I’ll say this though McCain was VERY lucky that the hoax was discovered as quickly as it was. If it had lasted through the weekend I guarantee you there would have been something out there he wouldn’t be able to deal with.

  49. Oh, and I would just like to say that as a former police dispatcher, a trainer of just about a generation of dispatchers in my department and someone who still has to help out in both of those capacities from time to time now; John McCain’s brother is really holding a special place in my heart right now.

    I say this as a producer of a comedy group…

    I wish the election was over. We REALLY don’t need to competition from the McCain campaign.

  50. Oh, and I would just like to say that as a former police dispatcher, a trainer of just about a generation of dispatchers in my department and someone who still has to help out in both of those capacities from time to time now; John McCain’s brother is really holding a special place in my heart right now.

    I say this as a producer of a comedy group…

    I wish the election was over. We REALLY don’t need to competition from the McCain campaign.

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