Henry Winkler<\/a> has revealed he personally stopped Happy Days being renamed Fonzie\u2019s Happy Days at the height of his fame because he feared it would be a \u201cslap in the face\u201d to the rest of the cast.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Henry Winkler has revealed he personally stopped Happy Days being renamed Fonzie\u2019s Happy Days at the height of his fame because he feared it would be a \u2018slap in the face\u2019 to the rest of the cast<\/p>\n
The 80-year-old actor played Arthur \u2018Fonzie\u2019 Fonzarelli throughout the ABC sitcom\u2019s 11-season run from 1974 to 1984, turning what began as a supporting character into a television phenomenon. <\/p>\n
Speaking on In Depth With Graham Bensinger, Henry recalled how former ABC president Leonard Goldenson approached him with plans to capitalise on The Fonz\u2019s extraordinary popularity by putting the character\u2019s name in the title.<\/p>\n
Henry said: \u201cBefore Happy Days, ABC was in the basement. It was the last of the three networks.\u201d<\/p>\n
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He recalled Leonard approaching him in his dressing room and said: \u201cHe came to my office, my dressing room, and he said, \u2018First of all, I would like to call the show Fonzie\u2019s Happy Days. We\u2019re thinking of changing the title\u2019. And I said, \u2018Sir, I\u2019m really asking you not to do that. First of all, it\u2019s not broken\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe enormous popularity of The Fonz had transformed Henry into one of American television\u2019s biggest stars, with the actor recalling that he received about 50,000 fan letters a week and at one stage found leaving his apartment \u201cscary\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nBut Henry said he was conscious Happy Days remained an ensemble production rather than a vehicle built entirely around him.<\/p>\n
\nThe sitcom also starred Ron Howard as Richie Cunningham, Marion Ross as Marion Cunningham, Don Most as Ralph Malph and Anson Williams as Potsie Weber.<\/p>\n
\nScott Baio joined as Chachi Arcola, while the cast also included Erin Moran, who died aged 56 in 2017, Tom Bosley, who died aged 83 in 2010, Al Molinaro, who passed away aged 96 in 2015, and Linda Purl.<\/p>\n
\nHenry said: \u201cGary Marshall and Marion Ross and Anson and Donny and Erin, bless her soul, I mean, there was an entire cast.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe were really soaring in the ratings. It wasn\u2019t broken. This would be a slap in the face. Why change the title if it is working so magnificently?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHenry also recalled a candid conversation with Ron about the way The Fonz\u2019s popularity had begun to overshadow Richie, who had originally been at the centre of Happy Days.<\/p>\n
\nHenry said Ron told him: \u201cLook, it hurt my feelings. You\u2019re not doing anything to hurt my feelings. You\u2019re really good and you\u2019re good for the show. It\u2019s helping the show. So I put all of that together and that\u2019s the way it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHenry added: \u201cAnd we never talked about it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHe said he remained acutely aware of the unusual position he occupied within the programme.<\/p>\n
\nHenry went on: \u201c(I knew that) underneath all of these actors was the fact that I came with six lines and I was just soaring.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHe also said: \u201cThe character was taking off, and I said, \u2018Oh my god, do not change the name. It\u2019s hard enough to just maintain and keep everybody as the ensemble because we can\u2019t do it if we are resentful or angry of each other\u2019. And he said, \u2018Okay\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHenry said Leonard subsequently offered him a separate television series built around The Fonz \u2013 an opportunity he also rejected.<\/p>\n
\nHe added: \u201cI said, \u2018Look, I live and I am successful in this extraordinary group of people. If I do my own show, now all of a sudden I\u2019m going, \u201cHey, look at that\u201d for about a half an hour. I\u2019m with new people. I have no idea if I have chemistry with these new people. I don\u2019t think I can do my own show. I think I\u2019m very happy right where I am with this extraordinary family\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHenry also said turning down the opportunity was straightforward.<\/p>\n
\nHe continued: \u201cIt was so easy. It was so easy to turn it down. I never looked back. I never thought about it. I was flattered. What an amazing gift, but it was a gift I didn\u2019t want to open.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe Fonz nevertheless became one of television\u2019s most recognisable characters, famous for his leather jacket, motorcycle, thumbs-up gesture and \u201cAyyy\u201d catchphrase. <\/p>\n
\nHenry appeared in all 255 episodes of Happy Days.<\/p>\n
\nAfter the sitcom ended, Henry initially struggled with being typecast but subsequently rebuilt his career as an actor, director and producer, including helping to develop the hit television series MacGyver.<\/p>\n
\nHis later acting roles included incompetent lawyer Barry Zuckerkorn in Arrested Development, principal Gene Cousineau in HBO\u2019s Barry and film appearances in Scream, The Waterboy and Click. <\/p>\n
\nHis performance in Barry earned him the Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series in 2018.<\/p>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"20 September 2026 Henry Winkler has revealed he personally stopped Happy Days being renamed Fonzie\u2019s Happy Days at the height of his fame because he feared it would be a \u201cslap in the face\u201d to the rest of the cast. Henry Winkler has revealed he personally stopped Happy Days being renamed Fonzie\u2019s Happy Days at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":264037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1225,16862,16858,16857,16860,16864,4725,7863,16855,16863,16856,2719,7148,16859,16866,16865,16861,1035],"class_list":{"0":"post-264036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-adam-sandler","9":"tag-al-molinaro","10":"tag-anson-williams","11":"tag-don-most","12":"tag-erin-moran","13":"tag-garry-marshall","14":"tag-henry-winkler","15":"tag-john-ritter","16":"tag-leonard-goldenson","17":"tag-linda-purl","18":"tag-marion-ross","19":"tag-robin-williams","20":"tag-ron-howard","21":"tag-scott-baio","22":"tag-stacey-winkler","23":"tag-stephen-root","24":"tag-tom-bosley","25":"tag-tom-hanks"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}