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The beloved sitcom Happy Days captured the hearts of American audiences for almost a full decade. Starring the Fonz, Richie Cunnigham, and their wacky friends, the group caused quite a stir in their Wisconsin hometown. While the program might have seemed jolly and carefree on the screen, there were some darker secrets behind the scenes...
"Cool"
Happy Days might be one of those shows that you could never imagine any different, but the show almost had a different name in it's pre-production days. The show was pitched as just one word: Cool. While Fonzie could definitely be described as such, it was deemed to be the wrong fit for the show. That one was scrapped, but there was another possible title in the works as well...
Fonzie Favorite
Once the showrunners realized that the real star of the show was going to be Fonzie, they wanted to capitalize on his iconic characterization. They were so deeply invested in the fictional cool guy that the show was almost titled Fonzie’s Happy Days. This was ultimately dropped, just in case one of their other stars got the celebrity treatment and skyrocketed to the best of the box office...
1950s Fun
This show was truly a blast to the past. It was filled with 1950s fun like music-filled jukeboxes, recklessly riding motorcycles, and cool guys in leather jackets. It's central to the plot, but the show originally was set to be a little farther back in the past. Originally, producers thought it should be set in the 1920s or 1930s, but Garry Marshall, the show's creator, wanted it to be the era he was raised in...
Home Sweet Home
The show promotes the way of midwestern living, but the beautiful house pictured on the show wasn't actually located in Wisconsin. The setting was falsified because the Cunningham house fans know and love can actually be found in the suburbs of California, not Wisconsin. In the show though, viewers were led to believe it was somewhere in the city of Milwaukee...
Midwest Feel
Producer Tom Miller had quite a good idea to make viewers relate to the show. He believed if it had been set in an urban city or even on either coast, the audience wouldn't be inclined to keep watching. He instead pitched the concept of making the setting in his hometown of Milwaukee, WI. The idea worked perfectly, and it became one of the few shows on TV not set in New York City or California...
Pilot Changes
It's no secret that pilot episodes usually result in several changes to the original show, and Happy Days was no exception to the rule. The beloved character of Mr. Cunningham was first portrayed by actor Howard Gould. Though producers loved him for the part, he was unfortunately not able to commit to the project in the long-term. The actor Tom Bosley was then hired to take on the role instead...
Passing Pilot
It may seem like a terrible idea today, but after watching the initial pilot episode, the television network ABC decided to pass on the now-iconic series. After American Graffiti became insanely popular however, the network was inclined to take another look at the pilot. After that, they give Happy Days a fighting chance. The show actually has a strange history with George Lucas films...
Inspirational Role
If you ever thought it was American Graffiti that inspired the show Happy Days, you're definitely close but you're incorrect. In fact, it actually happened the other way around. George Lucas just so happened to spot Ron Howard’s debut performance in the series pilot. When Lucas saw his role, he knew he wanted to cast him in his next picture as the character Steve Bolander...
Robbie Richie
There is always drama in Hollywood, even on the wholesome set of happy days. Robbie Benson was originally set up to play the character of Richie, but he wasn’t exactly excited about the part. Garry Marshall felt that someone else would probably be better suited to the role anyway, so the two got to talking. Together, they conspired for Benson to throw his audition and therefore lose the position to someone who would want it...
Vietnam Veto
The part instead was issued to actor Ron Howard. The child star had hoped to start his directing career soon, but he accepted a part on the show for one huge asset: if he was hired to play a part on a TV show, he would be able to avoid the Vietnam draft. He was happy to avoid shipping out, Garry Marshall was happy to have him as Richie, but others weren't so keen on the cast list...
Pinky Tuscadero
Pinky Tuscadero was supposed to be Fonzie’s love interest but, things were not so lovey-dovey behind the scene. Actually, they were pretty hate-filled if anything. The actress Roz Kelly had trouble getting along with most people in the extensive cast, including her onscreen boyfriend, played by Henry Winkler. It's no surprise that her character was eventually written out of the show, but not everyone had such success...
Big Brother
Remember this guy? Probably not, he was written out of the series pretty early on. Characters Richie and Joanie weren't always alone, they actually had an older brother for the first two seasons of the show. Noticeably, his appearances on the show dwindled until they were entirely nonexistent. This was spurred by two big factors which led to the actor's job loss...
The Fonz
The audiences almost completely forgot about Chuck all on their own. No one really cared about his storyline and he wasn't very popular with viewers. See, Fonzie sort of took over the role of older brother that Chuck had been written in for. When Chuck was up against the Fonz for a better character, the result was a no-brainer, no more chuck or no more Fonz? One had to go...
Monkee Mickey
Micky Dolenz would later be better known for his position in The Monkees, but he might have gotten to the limelight earlier if he had been cast as Fonzie, as he was once considered. His auditions for the part went over well with casting directors, but Dolenz was deemed to be too tall for the part. Next in line for the throne was Henry Winkler. The studios really almost ruined everything for the show...
Leather Jackets
Fonzie is certainly the king of the leather jacket, it could even be difficult to imagine him without it. Well, as it turns out, it almost wasn't allowed to even be on the screen. The television network, ABC, had a real problem with the fashion statement. They thought that leather jackets were associated with gangs. They asked him to wear another jacket, but the choice didn't stick with the stylist department...
Windbreaker Fonz
Apparently, they had pitched an idea that instead of a leather jacket, Fonz could instead sport a pale gray windbreaker. Obviously, this was way less cool and kind of lame, so it was scrapped. They even convinced ABC that the jacket was a safety precaution for riding a motorcycle, which they obviously weren't planning on getting rid of. Either way, it totally worked!
Going Grease
Winkler’s portrayal of the fan-favorite Fonzie wasn't just iconic, it also got him a lot of incredible job offers. One of these was pretty special... he was offered the role of Danny Zuko in the classic film Grease. He thought it over but ultimately declined the role because he didn't feel he was a good enough singer to justify doing it in the movie.
Dyslexic Learner
Acting is a pretty difficult job, but it can be way worse when you have trouble reading the lines as Winkler did. The actor was dyslexic, which made the table reads and memorizations hard for him. He began relying on his ability to improvise comedy for shooting, which directors and producers loved. He was able to turn his disability to an advantage that benefitted the character and made him more real to viewers...
Cover Art
Arnold’s jukebox was always getting the brunt of a hit from the Fonz, but did you know this secret fact? Anson Williams sang every song that played out of it, every cover was done by Williams. He might be familiar because he actually played Potsy on the show, the nerdy but talented musician. Little did the audience know that they heard more from him than they ever thought!
Jump the Shark
When a show has gone on for too long, showbiz says that they "jumped the shark". This is a reference to the episode of Happy Days when Fonzie jumps over a shark on jetskis. He even wore his leather jacket into the ocean! Even hardcore fans thought this episode seemed like a stretch. If your favorite show has decreased in quality, it probably earned this nickname.
English Actor
Pat Morita might have made quite a splash as accented Arnold, but he actually was born in California and spoke perfectly fluent English. The role asked for a different dialect, so he started talking in that voice for Arnold's character. It might sound familiar from another role he took on...he used the same voice for his role as Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid.
Cartoonish Idea
Happy Days wasn't just a classic sitcom, but it also created a collection of less-popular spin-offs. In fact, most people don't know this, but there was even a short-lived animated series about the cast of characters. You can spot an animated Fonzie in the cartoon known as The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang. They also appeared in the show Laverne and Shirley.
Paycut
Despite playing a character with not a lot of brains, Winkler made some pretty smart moves behind the scenes. In exchange for accepting a dramatic pay cut from the big salary he was promised, Winkler negotiated for a portion of the merchandising and syndication profits of the show. Happy Days was a huge success for both his career and his bank account.
Play Ball
On the screen, the cast had broken relationships and a close-knit group of friends, but they were never part of a collective sports team! The cast decided to get together for a softball team. Together they competed against other teams and donated the profits of their games to charity. They also visited different military bases throughout the country to show their support. How sweet!
Friends Forever
Fonzie and Mrs. Cunningham had a special friendship on the show. The woman was the only one the character permitted to call him by his real name instead of just "Fonzie". Today, the actor's Henry Winkler and Marion Ross are still fairly close friends, having gone through such an experience together. The Fonz is a great person to be friends with, even though he's had some darker days in his past...
Home Life
On the set of Happy Days, Henry Winkler was living his best life. He was popular, accomplished, and the clear standout star from the show. However, his life off-screen wasn’t nearly as glamourous or even good. Before the world knew him as the edgy boy-next-door, he was struggling in his home life with his immigrant family problems. They started to weigh on him emotionally...
Mental Warfare
Henry Winkler was the son of immigrants from Germany. They escaped the country right before the onslaught of World War II. They were pretty messed up from the experience and tended to take out their frustrations on their son. He remembered the couple being pretty verbally abusive toward him, often referring to him as "dumb dog". This started to affect his mental health...
School Days
Bad mental health can affect you in any stage of your life, but feeling it during his school days meant setting up a difficult future. Though he certainly might have preferred a Miss Honey type of teacher, he didn't have one. His teachers were tough on him in the classroom, and he paid for it in his home at the hands of his disgruntled parents...
Undiagnosed Dyslexia
To make matters worse, Henry suffered from dyslexia, a condition that makes it difficult to read and write. This condition was undiagnosed in not only Henry but many students throughout the 1950s. His teachers thought he was just lazy or dumb, and couldn't support him. They didn't understand how he could learn, so they never bothered to find out...
College Bound
Henry didn't let his dyslexia define him. He pressed on, studied hard, hit the books, and graduated from high school. He was a little behind the rest of his class, so he wasn't perfectly on time, but he finished nonetheless. He was even accepted to Emerson College for the fall semester. The world was his oyster, and he didn't slow down his success...
Improv Legend
Winkler thrived at Emerson College, finding new ways to learn and new friends to help him along the way. He realized there that he wanted to pursue acting as a full-time career. More specifically, he wanted to attend the Yale School of Drama for his Master's degree. In his audition, he forgot his lines but improvised so well that he ended up landing a spot in the exclusive major...
Easy Hire
Despite struggling to read scripts, he never let this hold him back. "I never read anything the way that it was written in my entire life. I could instantly memorize a lot of it," said Winkler in an interview, "and then what I didn’t know, I made up and threw caution to the wind and did it with conviction, and sometimes, I made them laugh; and sometimes, I got hired."
Supporting Self
Things weren't easy right out of the gate. His first job was as a contestant on a game show, where he only earned $10 for his part. He managed to pay rent in New York City by booking some commercials as well as having a small part on the Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show, both very small roles.
New Kid
After shooting The Lords of Flatbush, Winkler was still majorly unknown but was able to get an audition for a new show. Despite being the opposite of what the producers had in mind, they instantly fell in love with the short goofball character. As Winkler once said in an interview, "The Fonz was everybody I wasn't. He was everybody I wanted to be."
Time Passes
Though he meant to be the side character, Winkler couldn't help but steal the show. He became the focus of the show over a longer period of time. He had done too 'fabammundo' of a job on the silver screen, and now the show was going to be solely about the adventures of this tall-haired teenager. However, success isn't all it's cracked up to be...
Typecast
After the wild popularity of his Happy Days character, he was typecast by every producer and studio in Hollywood. If there was a part that called for a suave Italian-American, he was the first one on the list for casting. He was beloved as Fonzie and was grateful for the start to his career, but he was ready to move on to something different. He just needed people to understand that side of him...
Behind the Screen
When it seemed no one would take a chance on him, Henry decided to send a message by quitting acting. He tried his hand as a producer and director behind the screen. This turned out to be a great move for him. He was just as skilled off-screen as he was on! The hit TV show MacGyver was one of his very first productions and it became a smash hit. He had other Hollywood goals to chase though...
True Love
When he wasn't falling in love on screen, he was in a budding relationship in his own life. He began dating the beautiful Stacey Weitzman and by 1978, married her. He had already established himself as an adopted father to her son born from a previous marriage. His relationship with Stacey and Jed made him realize a shocking truth about himself...
Old Habits
Hurt as he was to realize it, Henry noticed a striking similarity to his own behavior and that of his parents. Jed was struggling in school the same way he had throughout his life. Instead of empathizing with the problem, he just urged Jed to work harder, longer hours. He never even considered that his adoptive son might be experiencing the same issue he struggled with...
Doctor Visit
Keep in mind, Henry still had no name for his condition at this time. He just knew it was hard for him to read and write. He didn't know it was a medical condition. When Jed went to a doctor and got diagnosed with the same problem, Henry had a moment of realization. "I went, 'Oh my goodness. I have something with a name,'" recalled Henry later in an interview. "That was when I first got it..."
Barry
Winkler didn't return to the front of the camera until almost 30 years later when he was asked to star opposite Bill Hader in the show Barry. The program followed a hitman turned struggling actor as he tried to find his true calling and make a name for himself in Tinseltown. No one knew how big of a hit it would become, but the show went on to win an incredible amount of awards...
Outstanding Supporting Actor
The show racked up a ton of fame, awards, and notoriety. Henry was right along for the ride, and it was clear that fans had been waiting for the Fonz to return to the screen, this time in a more serious role. He even took home the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor. This was the actor's first win in over 40 years, and what a success!
Accepting Himself
Henry had gone through some trials and tribulations to get to where he was, but he was proud of his work. In an interview late in his career, Winkler said, "I am what I am, and I am pretty comfortable with who I am and how I got to where I am with my learning challenges." There was one other friend he got to share the screen with again...
Arrested Development
The short-lived cult-comedy Arrested Development starred a wide cast of characters, but Henry Winkler only appeared as a recurring character. He returned to the show, leaving his retirement, and worked once again with Happy Days’ Ron Howard. Howard worked primarily as a director by then, but the two certainly were able to catch up on old times and rehash their treasured memories...
Director Career
For nearly sixty years, Ron Howard has taken the world of Hollywood by storm, both on and off the screen. The famous actor and award-collecting director was certainly a huge name, but he might have had a leg up. The Howard family is one that has been a staple in the industry both before Ron and in the decades following...
Rance Howard
Ron comes from a long line of actors. His father, Rance Howard, brought his family to Hollywood back in his youth. He was able to begin a profitable acting career by 1948 that supported the family. He briefly acted for a New York-based touring company, but it was the 1950 production of Mister Roberts that got him his big breakout role and launched him into stardom...
California King
Rance then decided to move him and his family to the golden coast, hoping to get some bigger and better roles. The city delivered and soon he made his feature film debut in Frontier Woman, the 1956 western. They also needed a small child for a bit part, and Rance put Ron onto his first of many studio sets to begin acting...
Andy Griffith Show
The small appearance wasn't much for the burgeoning child star, but it was enough to get him started. He soon acquired the role of the little boy called Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show. Rance was proud of his son's success, but things weren't so easy as an adult actor. He wanted to build a career of his own, not just the father of a celebrity kid...
Taking Off
Rance was cast in a variety of small television roles, enough to make a bit of a name for himself. He used these experiences to eventually get cast in a few very beloved films. He even earned a recurring part with his son Clint in Gentle Ben, a 1967 series. Ron and Rance were both finding a lot of good roles in their town, and it wasn't long before they shared the camera lens again...
Father and Son
From their first time together onscreen in Frontier Woman, the father and son duo reunited once more six years later. Rance made a secret cameo for one episode of The Andy Griffith Show. He acted as a bus driver in the town and got to be on the show with his son. He showed up again in a few additional episodes as a variety of characters, like this one where he played a disgruntled treasury agent...
American Graffiti
Ron really shone in his childhood acting roles, but it wasn't long until he was all grown up. He managed to accrue a few smaller roles along the way, showing up in TV and movies of the era, but nothing was really sticking. It wasn't until appearing in George Lucas’ American Graffiti that casting directors started giving him a closer look. One of these helped him land the most impressive and difficult role of his career...
Richie Ready
After his breakout performance in American Graffiti, Ron scaled down to the small screen and landed a role in the newest sitcom called Happy Days. He would be playing Richie Cunningham, a straightforward teenager with a crazy collection of peers. He was beloved by viewers and Richie Cunningham became a household name overnight, but Rance was still producing some interesting content...
Character Acting
While Ron was playing a 1950s teenager in the 1970s, Rance was going way into the past. He began work as a character actor, repeatedly playing priests, sheriffs, and marshals. Really anything serious and old-timey was up Rance's alley. The only time he tended to try out a different kind of character was when he was working with his famous son, which Happy Days allowed to happen more than once...
Guiding Figure
Even in 1977’s Grand Theft Auto, better known to the Howard family as Ron’s directorial debut, Rance participated in the showbiz aspect with his son. With his son's permission and blessing, Rance acted in the film. Not only did he help on the screen, but also off. He was an executive producer on the set as well as co-writing the script with his son. They were working as an unstoppable duo...
Full-Time Director
It was Grand Theft Auto that showed Ron what his true passion was. He decided to ditch Happy Days and pursue directing full time, finally ending his run on the show in 1980. He ran through a collection of poorly reviewed TV movies until 1982 when he finally stumbled into a massive hit. The film Night Shift showed his fans that moving to behind the lens was better for his career and his happiness...
Massive Success
His career succeeded from every film following that one. First, there were films like Splash (1984), Apollo 13 (1995), and How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). This allowed him to approach some more serious flicks down the line, like A Beautiful Mind (2001), and Frost/Nixon (2008). No matter what the subject matter, the type of film, or genre at hand, Rance was always by his son's side...
Father Son Bonding
Rance can be found, at least for a moment, in every single Howard film. In addition to those films, he has had consistent work throughout his career. Long gone were the days of struggling to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. Rance and Ron were an unstoppable duo. Rance racked up more than 100 credits throughout his lifetime...
Gone Too Soon
Sadly, his longstanding career came to an unfortunate end when the actor passed away due to complications from the West Nile virus. All of his former costars mourned the loss of the beloved actor, but it was Ron who suffered the biggest loss. He remembered his father's greatness in a touching tribute he posted to the fans of Rance online...
Clint and Ron
Ron wrote this to the fans who would miss his father's work: "Clint and I have been blessed to be Rance Howard’s sons. Today he passed at 89. He stood especially tall for his ability to balance ambition with great personal integrity. A depression-era farm boy, his passion for acting changed the course of our family history. We love & miss U Dad."
Bryce Dallas Howard
Ron's daughter, actress Bryce Dallas Howard, also expressed her remorse for the passing of her grandfather. She posted to her fans a picture of a poem. The post had the caption: "My grandfather, the patriarch of our family’s favorite poem. He could recite it from the heart. I think I’ll do the same now." The poem was Henry Van Dyke’s "Gone From My Sight".