SundayAtDusk's Reviews > The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family

This memoir by brothers Ron and Clint Howard was pretty interesting until Chapter 12, at which time I started skimming. Ron Howard often went on and on about topics that did not interest me. He also included personal things in the book about his life, as well as his parents' relationship that would have been better left out. There is quite a bit, however, about The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days for fans of those two series.

Clint Howard has less to say in the book than his brother. The memoir would have been more interesting if he had talked more about his jobs on the many TV shows he did as a character actor. For example, he mentions doing a Streets of San Francisco, but says nothing else about it. It was entitled The House On Hyde Street and was one of the very best episodes of that series. I'll always remember that episode with him, Lew Ayres and Karl Malden. Yes, he does discuss Gentle Ben, as well as a famous Star Trek episode he did as a young child.

All in all, the book was a good look at an acting family that did not "go Hollywood". Plus, it was a unique look at a family where the parents wanted to be stars, but their sons ended up being the famous ones. They could have made more money for the family if they had capitalized more on Ron Howard's days as Opie Taylor, too, but they did not. They made sure he had a childhood where he had plenty of time to play and be a normal kid. They always watched out for their two sons and allowed no one to use or abuse them.

P.S. I tried to post this review at Amazon, but could not because: Amazon has noticed unusual reviewing activity on this product. Due to this activity, we have limited this product to verified purchase reviews." (I got my copy from the library.) Looking at the reviews, there are quite a few by reviewers who have done very few reviews, so that can be a sign of "suspicious behavior". But most reviewers look to have enough reviews that makes them seem quite legit. The number of positive votes, too, does not seem that odd considering this is going to be a popular book, especially due to fans of the Andy Griffith show.

The only review less than 4 stars, however, was complaining about receiving a damaged book, while still calling the book excellent. Plus, there were 51 ratings at the time I tried to post, but only 17 reviews, so it might be there were lots of 5-star ratings as soon as the book was released, giving the impression that it couldn't have been read that quickly to justify the votes. But who knows? I'm certainly not going to buy a copy so I can post a review at Amazon about it. After reading it, I was happy I didn't buy a copy.

UPDATE 11/20/21: I would check back at Amazon every now and then to see if I could post a review. Last night I could. So, if anyone else didn't buy the book and couldn't post a review, try now.