More like sad days.
Henry Winkler was beside himself when Ron Howard left their beloved sitcom “Happy Days.”
The “Arrested Development” alum, 79, and director, 71, starred on “Happy Days” together from 1974 to 1980. Howard played Richie Cunningham, and Winkler starred as Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli.
After the show’s seventh season, which ended in 1980, Howard decided to exit the series to pursue directing.
“There was a phone booth right by the front door of stage 19,” Winkler recalled to People. “They said, ‘Oh, the phone is for you, Henry.’ ”
On the other line was Howard, who told his friend: “It’s going to come out in the press in about 10 minutes, but I wanted you to know first, I’m not coming back.”
“My first thought was, ‘I’m going to die now,’ ” recounted Winkler. “My great acting partner on this show, my good friend is no longer going to be here. My life is over.”
“And that was in the first two seconds,” he noted. “Then I said, ‘Ron, we’ve talked about this since the beginning. All you want to do is be a director. It’s in your DNA. Go and be the best you can be, and I cannot wait to see what you do.’ “
Howard told the outlet about Winkler, “He was and is kind of like a big brother to me.”
In fact, their working relationship and real life friendship has spanned over 50 years.
“When we worked together, there was something that happens out of the blue,” reminised Winkler. “We had a shorthand with the script. He went where I went, I went where he went, and it became something else.”
Soon after Howard left “Happy Days,” the pair reunited again on “Night Shift.”
The director worked on the 1982 comedy while Winkler starred in it.
“He said, ‘Warner Brothers will give me $6 million to make ‘Night Shift’ if you are in it, and you can play either part,’” Winkler recounted.
“It was a huge pivot point in my career and we were not going to get that movie made,” Howard added. “It became an absolute no-brainer for the studio, if Henry would say yes. I gave him the script. I said, ‘I could see you in either role. And I’d love to do it with you if this interests you. And if it doesn’t, I understand.’ “
Twenty-four hours later, Winkler agreed.
“We got the movie made,” Howard stated.
“It was one of my all-time favorite experiences from then until now,” Winkler explained. “And I’ve had some really wonderful experiences.”
“I even said to him, ‘If you were a brain surgeon, whether I needed it or not I would be your first patient.’ You absolutely knew and felt this man is to be trusted as a professional from his hair to his toes.”
In January 2024, Howard revealed he almost left the series earlier than he did due to a change in Winkler’s popularity on the show.
The “Andy Griffith Show” alum almost quit after producers floated around the idea of changing the show’s title to “Fonzie’s Happy Days” in order to capitalize on fans’ love of Winkler’s character.
“They came to me at ABC and they wanted to change the title to ‘Fonzie’s Happy Days,’” Winkler told the New York Times in 2024. “I said, ‘If you do that, it is an insult to everybody I’m working with. Why fix something that isn’t broken? We are really good. I live in the family and that’s why I’m successful. I’m asking you, if you never listen to me again, leave it alone.’”
The “A Beautiful Mind” director told producers he “would leave” even though he was “contractually” obligated to continue filming the show.
“But I told them if you really want to change the name of the show to that, I would rather go back to USC and film school and what I was doing before the show launched,” he expressed.
Although they remain close, there was a point where the series almost fractured the actors’ relationship.
“I was very aware never to be less than respectful to him,” Winkler told Fox News Digital in 2023. “I was always careful never to flaunt anything that was happening to me on the sound stage in front of the cast members, including him. I’m lucky [my character’s popularity] was happening, but I was a member of an ensemble, which was higher than bragging.”
The voice actor — who is the godfather of Howard’s eldest daughter, actress Bryce Dallas Howard — “learned a lot” from working alongside the “Apollo 13” director.
“He was completely grounded by his parents, who never allowed any bad behavior,” elaborated Winkler. “He was being a professional. This was his job, and I learned from watching him. I’m older — 10 years older — so I had the experience of theater and commercials on the East Coast on how to be a professional. I never doubted my responsibility for what I had to do, but I still had a lot to learn.”
