Henry Winkler was stunned by his Happy Days fame more than 50 years ago.
In a new interview, the actor, who played tough guy Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli on the ABC sitcom from 1974 to 1984, revealed that he was initially a minor character in the series and was only cast to be in a handful of episodes. Instead, the character’s popularity took off, and Winkler’s role was expanded.
When asked when he realized Fonzie was catching on, Winkler, 81, told NBC News’ Great Americans, “When all of a sudden I had more than seven lines in a script.”
“I was only in seven episodes out of the first 13,” Winkler revealed of the show’s first season, which aired in early 1974. “All of a sudden I was in all of them.”
Winkler also admitted that he embraced the character that made him a household name.
“[Fonzie] gave me life,” the actor said. “He introduced me to the world.”
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Earlier this year, Winkler recalled the exact moment he realized Fonzie had become larger than life.
Speaking on The Jennifer Hudson Show, he recalled taking a red-eye flight to Arkansas in the mid-1970s for a fan appearance at a local mall.
“So we’re on the set of Happy Days…and now I’m invited to go to Little Rock, Arkansas, which is the first personal appearance I’m going to make,” Winkler recalled. “And they paid me to come there to be in the mall to sign autographs on Saturday morning.”
Winkler recalled that his flight landed in Arkansas at around 4 a.m. and he saw a huge crowd and assumed it was for someone else.
The stewardess told him, “I think that’s for you.”
Winkler revealed he was greeted by “3000 people in poodle skirts and ‘50s clothing” waiting to “say hello” to him at the airport.
It was then that he realized that fans were really watching Happy Days—and watching him.
“Somebody is watching,” the actor recalled thinking. “You don’t know because you’re on a soundstage, it’s soundproof. You’re making the best show you can make with this wonderful cast of people—Marion Ross and Ron Howard and Donny Most, Anson Williams. And all of a sudden, you don’t know if anybody is watching.”
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