Henry Winkler Thought He'd Be On Arrested Development For 2 Episodes, Stayed 5 Years

Sometimes, the smallest roles end up becoming the most memorable ones. That’s exactly what happened with Henry Winkler, who recently looked back at his time on Arrested Development and shared how a brief guest appearance turned into a five-year run on the hit comedy.

Speaking on The Rich Eisen Show, the 80-year-old actor recalled joining the series as Barry Zuckerkorn, the Bluth family’s quirky lawyer. According to Winkler, he had initially signed on for only two episodes.

“First of all, the cast was amazing. Second of all, I was hired for like two episodes, and I stayed for five years. Third of all, it was written so incredibly well,” Winkler said.

He also praised the show’s creator, Mitch Hurwitz, for constantly finding ways to make scenes even

funnier.

“Mitch Hurwitz, the creator, had a feed in his office of what we were doing on the soundstage,” Winkler explained. “He could see every angle of the cameras, and you were about to say something so funny you couldn’t believe it, and he came running in, ‘Say this! Say this!’ And it was funnier than one of the funniest things I was ever going to say that he had already written.”

Although Winkler couldn’t pick one favourite moment from the series, he said he remembers the experience very fondly.

“I enjoy my job, I love my job every day,” he added.

Winkler appeared as Barry Zuckerkorn in 33 episodes across all five seasons of Arrested Development. He was part of the original run between 2003 and 2006 before returning for the revival seasons in 2013 and again from 2018 to 2019.

The comedy also starred Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Portia de Rossi, Alia Shawkat, Tony Hale, David Cross and Jessica Walter.

During the interview, Winkler also spoke about his long friendship with Ron Howard, who narrated Arrested Development and had earlier starred alongside him in Happy Days.

“Ron comes from a family that left the farm in Oklahoma. They went to New York. This was before Ron and his brother Clinton were born. I met him when he was 18 and I was 27. We were touched by the universe,” Winkler reflected. “There was a string between us. I didn’t have to tell him what I was going to do. He didn’t tell me what he was going to do. We just were in the same space at the same moment, it’s rare.”

Arrested Development is currently available to stream on Netflix.