Opie Taylor is a fictional character played by Ron Howard in the American television program, The Andy Griffith Show which was televised on CBS from October 3, 1960 to April 1, 1968. Opie Taylor appeared in 209 of the 249 episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, and appeared in 2 spin-off shows. Opie is a 6-year-old when the series opens, who lives in the fictional and idealized small, sleepy southern community of Mayberry, North Carolina with his widowed father, Andy Taylor, the sheriff of Mayberry County, and his father's spinster aunt, Beatrice "Aunt Bee" Taylor. Opie appears once in The Andy Griffith Show spinoff Mayberry R.F.D. and also in the 1986 reunion telemovie Return to Mayberry. There are two explanations of the name's origin. One is that Opie was named after bandleader and radio actor Opie Cates; the other is that he was named for Opie Shelton, a childhood friend of Griffith, who went on to become president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.