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Keith Thibodeaux, played on the "Andy Griffith Show", from about 1963 until 1966. He played one of Opie's friends, Johnny Paul Jason. Johnny Paul was Opie's (Ronnie Howard's) best friend, but Keith appeared in only a few episodes and he had rather small roles. He never had any significant roles, but him and Oppie became good friends. Although there is a little more than 3 years age difference between Ronny and Keith, Keith is rather short, so the age diference wasn't apparent. Keith liked working on the Andy Griffith Show much better than I Love Lucy. One factor was that the production was less stressful, in part because there was no live audience. Also he felt that he could be more of a real kid. He writes in his auto biography, "I could be a real kid and didn't have to dress up in short pants an be a goddy goody." [??get exact quote] Ronnie liked Keith and incouraged the writers to write bigger parts for him. After the Andy Griffith show, however, Keith never got any other TV roles. Ronnie went on the "Happy Days".
Keith auditioned for "The Andy Griffith Show" and won the role of Johnny Paul Jason, Opie's best friend. It wasn't a big part but like "I Love Lucy" it was a major hit. Thibodeaux made several appearances on the show over the next 4 years, from about 1963 until 1966. He played one of Opie's friends, Johnny Paul Jason. Johnny Paul was Opie's (Ronnie Howard's) best friend. He explains, "We used to go and get hamburgers together in the commissary, or play catch with a baseball when we weren't shooting. I was 4 years older than Ron and found out that he looked up to me. I didn't know it until I did my first episode, but my former teacher, Catherine Barton, was also Ron's teacher on the set of 'The Andy Griffith Show'. She had told Ron some stories about me when she was teaching me on 'I Love Lucy'. Ron asked them to cast me in episodes with him whenever they could."
Keith never had any significant roles, but him and Oppie became good friends. Although there is a little more than 3 years age difference between Ronny and Keith, Keith is rather short, so the age diference wasn't apparent. Keith fit right in when the group of younger boys that appeared with Ronnie. Ronnie liked Keith and incouraged the writers to write bigger parts for him.
Keith appeared in about 10 different episodes, usually with episodes and he had rather small roles. One of the most memorable was "Andy Discovers America". Andy gets into trouble with Opie's schoolteacher when he criticizes her history lesson in front of Opie and his friends. Keith was one of the wide-eyed kids who is enthraled with Andy's more entertaining version of Paul Revere's ride. Another episode with Keith was "Opie and His Merry Men". Opie and his the gang make friends with a lazy bumb who tells them that lawmen cannot be trusted, not knowing that Opie is the local sheriff's son. Keith takes to Robin Hood hat. The bumb who told the boys that he was lame takes off running when Andy offers to get him a job that will make allounaces for his bad leg. The inference being that unemployed people don't want to work. "The Andy Griffith" show as hardly one of the most socially concious shows on television.
Keith liked working on the Andy Griffith Show much better than "I Love Lucy". One factor was that the production was less stressful, in part because there was no live audience. Also he was was more comfortable working on a television series that was set in the South. He explains, "I would rather have played a character like Opie than Little Ricky. Little Ricky was the All-American boy in a New York kind of way, but I'm an old southern boy. I liked Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, and that is the kind of character that I would like to have played. That would have been more in tune with who I really was." Keith got on well with all the cast, but was closest to Ronie Howard.
Keith liked the idea that he could be more of a real kid. Ronnie and the other boys on Andy Grifith dressed just like most boys did at the time, wearing casual shirts, jeans, and often sneakers--usually Keds. Keith writes in his autobiography, "I could be a real kid and didn't have to dress up in short pants an be a goddy goody." [??get exact quote]
Keith last appeared on the program in 1966. That was the end of his TV career. After the Andy Griffith show, however, Keith never got any other TV roles. Ronnie went on to "Happy Days", another big TV hit. His parents divorced and he moved back to Louisiana from California with his mother and siblings. He latter graduated from Lafayette High School in 1968 and attended the University of Southwestern Louisiana for a while. He also helped support his mother by playing drums in a variety of bands.
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