 In one episode the Cunninghams are coming out of a theater playing  _Music Man, The (1962)_ (qv) when Mrs. Cunningham comments that the  little boy in the movie looks just like Richie (Ron Howard (qv))  when he was little. Mr. Cunningham replies that shes being silly  and that the boy in the film looks nothing like Richie. In fact,  Howard did indeed play the little boy, Winthrop Paroo, in the film,  when he was eight years old.