Though the small Southern town of Mayberry (real-life Mount Airy, NC) made all of us viewers on the edge of our couches feel like we were family members in The Andy Griffith Show, a surprising revelation this week proved that two cast members were, in fact, related.
On February 15, actor-turned-director Ron Howard—who played Sheriff Andy Taylor’s lovable son, Opie, in the 1960-1968 television series—shared a throwback photo on Instagram alongside two Mayberry legends: co-stars Andy Griffith and Don Knotts. Griffith played the titular character with a strong moral compass while Knotts portrayed the bumbling, often over-eager deputy Barney Fife.
Howard, now 70 years old, captioned the photo: “A fun photo of the day in ‘97 when #AndyGriffith and #DonKnotts surprised me with a visit to the set of #Ransom in #Queens. It was recently confirmed that Don and I were actually distant cousins!” (As noted by PEOPLE, this date may have actually been 1996.)
Though not completely shocking—we Southern folk are always connecting with our kin, after all—Howard’s announcement of his distant cousin relation to Knotts is the first time that the director has spoken about the connection. He was born in Duncan, Oklahoma, while Knotts grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia.
After Howard’s time on The Andy Griffith Show, he spoke fondly of his years working with Griffith and Knotts. His role as Opie began when he was cast at just five years old. While reflecting on his early years, Howard once remarked in a 1986 interview with PEOPLE that his dream of becoming a “writer-producer-director” was first sparked on the set of The Andy Griffith Show. In fact, his co-stars were the ones who gave little Opie his first camera. (Later, Howard would win his first Oscar as Best Director for the 2001 film “A Beautiful Mind.”)
The crew reunited in 1986 for the made-for-television comedy Return to Mayberry, bringing Howard, Griffith, and Knotts together in Mayberry for yet another caper.
Though Knotts and Griffith have since passed—Knotts in 2006 and Griffith in 2012—it’s heartwarming to see that the memories of the 1960s classic continue to live on. And now, it’s in the genealogy.
