Ron Howard revives Opie, ‘Happy Days’ to urge Obama vote

Director Ron Howard steps back in time — and winds up in Mayberry — in a video endorsement of Barack Obama posted Thursday on FunnyOrDie.com. Joined by former on-screen cohorts Andy Griffith and Henry Winkler, Howard revives two of his iconic TV characters — Opie Taylor from the 1960s classic “The Andy Griffith Show” and Richie Cunningham from the 1970s hit “Happy Days” — to discuss this year’s election.

“I’ve never done this before and I hope never to do it again, but I guess you could say I’m feeling pretty desperate these days,” Howard says as his beard disappears and he dons a boyish wig. “So as a demonstration of my sincerity, this is for you America.”

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

The FunnyOrDie site made news earlier this year when founders Will Ferrell and Adam McKay produced a campaign ad from Paris Hilton that responded to John McCain’s invocation of her celebrity in an anti-Obama ad.

Howard, who won a pair of Academy Awards for directing 2001’s “A Beautiful Mind,” helms the screen adaptation of Peter Morgan’s “Frost/Nixon,” due in theaters in early December.