The film seemed to capture a ripe moment in America’s past, as one critic wrote, “not only the charm and tribal energy of the teen-age 1950s but also the listlessness and the resignation that underscored it.”

The success of American Graffiti primed the American public for Howard’s next project, the role of Richie Cunningham, a charmingly innocent boy-next-door, on ABC’s Happy Days. The show was an incredible success, capturing thirty percent of its evening’s viewing audience. Many critics attributed the show’s success to the seemingly effortless charisma of Ron Howard, although its focus eventually shifted to the leather-clad Arthur Fonzarelli (aka The Fonz), played by Henry Winkler. Spreading his wings, Howard simultaneously starred in several TV films such as The Migrants, Locusts (1974), and Huckleberry Finn (in which his entire family was cast), earning rave reviews. During all of this activity, Howard was leading somewhat of a double-life. With a keen-eye on the director’s chair, he began experimenting with his Super 8 camera when he was 15, winning a Kodak contest for a short film. After high school, he went on to study cinema at the University of Southern California. In 1976, he agreed to star in producer Roger Corman’s B-grade action thriller Eat My Dust! in exchange for a directing opportunity. Howard co-wrote Grand Theft Auto (1977) with his father, Rance, and played the starring role. Although the film was obviously of Corman’s genre, it received some favorable reviews for its action sequences and broke company records for the efficiency of its production. Deanne Barkley, the vice-president of NBC, recognized the talent and asked Howard to come up with a movie for the network. The result was Cotton Candy, a film about student misfits who form their own rock band, which Howard co-wrote with his brother, Clint. After leaving Happy Days in 1980, Howard increasingly shifted his focus toward directing. In 1982, he had his first feature hit with the black comedy Nightshift. This began his partnership with producer Brian Grazer, with whom he would eventually co-found the Production Company Imagine Films Entertainment in 1985. Over the next few years, Howard hit the big time as a director with two warm-hearted films-- Splash (1984), also considered a breakthrough role for actor Tom Hanks, and Cocoon (1985)—establishing his strength and humanity as a director. However, his next few efforts, Willow (1988), Backdraft (1991), and Far and Away (1992) were critically disappointing and met little success in the box office. After years of spellbinding success, Howard had reached a low-point in his career. In 1995, Howard came back with the powerful story of a failed space mission, Apollo 13.