Solution: '60s TV kid - NYT Crossword

This is the first time that this winsome little kid, played by Ron Howard at 6 years old, appears with his character’s full name in the puzzle: OPIE TAYLOR. I thought maybe “Opie” was short for Optimus but he’s more likely named after a bandleader, Opie Cates, who might have had O.P. as his first and middle initials. The Chilean child next to Opie, here, is almost always clued as a goose — a NENE — and looks wrong to me even in the finished puzzle.