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Henry Winkler opened up on the latest episode of “In Depth With Graham Bensinger” about refusing to let ABC executives change the name of “Happy Days” to “Fonzie’s Happy Days” due to the explosive popularity of his
character. Winkler starred as Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli on all 11 seasons and 255 episodes of the iconic ABC sitcom. He debuted as a recurring role before being upped to a series regular during the show’s second season because of how beloved the Fonz became with fans.
“Before ‘Happy Days’, ABC was in the basement. It was the last of the three networks,” Winkler said. “And [ABC president Leonard Goldenson] came to my office, my dressing room, and he said, ‘First of all, I would like to call the show “Fonzie’s Happy Days.” We’re thinking of changing the title.’ And I said, ‘Sir, I’m really asking you not to do that’… We were really soaring in the in the ratings. It wasn’t broken. This would be a slap in the face. Why change the title if it is working so magnificently?”
Winkler was also concerned about keeping tensions among the ensemble cast at bay. According to the actor, Ron Howard was already annoyed with Fonz becoming the show’s breakout character and felt he was being “overshadowed” by him. Howard played the show’s original lead character Richie Cunningham, leaving “Happy Days” after seven seasons.
“[Ron] said, ‘Look, it hurt my feelings. You’re not doing anything to hurt my feelings. You’re really good and you’re good for the show. It’s helping the show. So I put all of that together and that’s the way it is.’ And we never talked about it again,” Winkler said of Howard’s annoyances.
Regardless, Winkler wanted to keep the peace among the cast and turned down the title change because “we can’t do [the show] if we are resentful or angry of each other.” The actor also turned down Goldenson’s offer to spin off Fonz into his own series because “I have no idea if I’d have a chemistry with new people.” Winkler told the ABC boss: “I don’t think I can do my own show. I think I’m very happy right where I am with this extraordinary family.”
Howard revealed in a career-spanning Vulture interview last year that while he grew comfortable over time with Winkler’s Fonz becoming the star of “Happy Days,” he drew a line at having the show be retitled. Howard even threatened to leave the show if they changed the title.
“I never, ever challenged what they were doing creatively. It made perfect sense that you’d build this Fonzie character and maximize that,” Howard said. “But the optics of now being in a show called ‘Fonzie’s Happy Days,’ my ego wouldn’t allow for that. I wasn’t bluffing. I would’ve left. And my contract, I’m sure, had no clause connected to titles. They could have said, ‘Fuck you. We changed the title, and we expect you to show up Monday morning.’ But thank God for great bosses. Garry Marshall said, ‘If you’re not cool with it …’”
“I later found out Henry himself thought it was a terrible idea,” Howard continued. “I think the position I took made it easy for both Garry and Henry to also say, ‘No, let’s not do that.’ Years later, Henry said they were ready to do a spinoff and other things for Fonzie and he just said, ‘Why fix it if it’s not broken? My success depends on the ensemble I’m in.’”
Watch Winkler’s interview on “In Depth With Graham Bensinger” in the video below.
