Being Henry: The Fonz . . . and Beyond

Winkler recalls attending a summer camp called Secor Lake. Campers were put in tribes and, if one had their shoulder tapped, they could not talk for a week. If caught talking four times, that camper could not join a tribe. Winkler says he was never able to join a tribe because he could not help but talk, especially because it was a way he dealt with his anxiety. He also attended a summer school in Switzerland called Lycée Jaccard. Although he did not learn French there as his father wanted, Winkler was grateful to be able to travel Europe.

Winkler had also learned how to waterski at his family’s country house upstate as a child and worked as a water-skiing instructor at a summer camp in Pennsylvania. When Winkler told Garry about this skill, Garry implemented it into an episode of Happy Days, with a stunt double of the Fonz water-skiing over a shark. Winkler says that the story arcs in the show were not always great. Later on, a college student named Sean Connolly would coin the phrase “jumping the shark” because he disliked that episode and felt that the show had passed its peak (74).

In the fifth season, at the behest of Garry’s then eight- or nine-year-old son Scott, the show introduced an alien named Mork from the planet Ork. They cast a young street comedian named Robin Williams, whom Winkler instantly knew would be a success. He and the audience found Williams’s performance hilarious, and his character would soon get his own spin-off show, Mork & Mindy. Winkler also attended one of Williams’s stand-ups with Stacey.

Winkler recalls his difficulties when being open with Stacey about his insecurities. In 1978, Winkler and Stacey married at his childhood synagogue and held the reception at the St. Regis. Winkler talks about film roles he took while working on Happy Days, such as the boyfriend of the titular protagonist in the 1975 film Katherine, which starred Sissy Spacek, and a 1977 film based on James Carabotsos’s autobiography, Heroes, which also starred Sally Field and Harrison Ford. He enjoyed filming those movies and remembers them fondly. However, he writes that while he was a natural playing Fonzie, it was clear in Heroes that he was trying to be that character and was not doing as well as he could have.

With the success of Heroes, Universal Studios sent Winkler on a publicity tour in Europe around the same time as his honeymoon with Stacey. A reporter from the National Enquirer had tried to get pictures of the couple and attempted to talk to Jed and Stacey’s parents on the flight, enraging Stacey. Winkler compromised, promising them pictures from Paris on the condition that they leave them alone for the rest of the trip and never try to engage with Jed again.

The honeymoon went well. Winkler was happy that the show was being aired in Europe and that Europe loved Fonzie. In London, Winkler saw the Royal Shakespeare Company and admired their acting. He recalls meeting highly esteemed thespian Sir Laurence Olivier and shaking his hand. He also remembers seeing the work of Olivier’s Marathon Man costar Dustin Hoffman, whose work Winkler found stunning.

Winkler concludes the chapter with a story of Ron Howard expressing his desire to direct, which Winkler supported. Howard directed and acted in Grand Theft Auto, which was a Hollywood success, and directed Night Shift with Winkler and Michael Keaton.

In early 1980, Winkler and Stacey learned they would have a baby, which was due in September. Shortly after, Winkler learned that he won a Telegatto award in Italy for Happy Days. He visited Italy with Stacey and loved it there. During the trip, he accidentally sat with his publicist in a woman’s suite. He learned that the woman was the daughter of his father’s employer Baron Von Gruedl and that she had lost her whole family in the Holocaust. Winkler called his father and had him talk to her.

On September 30, 1980, Winkler and Stacey’s daughter Zoe Emily Winkler was born. The family moved to a bigger house in Toluca Lake, where Henry continued to grow as a father to Jed and cultivated his lifelong love for plants and gardening. He adopted two new dogs, Waffles and Tootsie Annamarie, after Percy died and Amanda became older and more lethargic.

Winkler shares a story of receiving a call from a police officer in Indiana while working at Stage 19 on the Happy Days set. A frustrated and distressed 17-year-old actor was standing on a ledge and contemplating suicide. Winkler assured him he still had time to get his start and spoke to him until the boy changed his mind and the police officer got him safely off the ledge. CBS Entertainment head Bob Daly and Nancy, his wife at the time, invited Winkler and Stacey to attend a Christmas Party at McLaren Hall, which housed abandoned, neglected, and abused children. Visiting the children strongly impacted the couple.

Stacey and Nancy joined the children’s nonprofit organization United Friends of the Children (UFC). Their work led McLaren Hall to build a library and bring in computers for the children. Winkler started visiting children with disabilities at Rancho Los Amigos Hospital and attending events at the Special Olympics. Winkler also admired Bob Daly’s hard work getting to his position after growing up with a single mother and his humility after reaching success. The two have remained friends.

During the eighth season of Happy Days. Ron told Winkler he was leaving the show to become a full-time director. He felt that ABC did not care about or respect him. Henry understood this and supported his decision but felt sad and worried about who he and his character would connect with. The had Richie Cunningham leave for the army in the eighth season. Scott Baio joined the show in the fifth season as Charles “Chachi” Arcola and befriended Winkler. Their characters become friends on the show. Winkler admired Baio’s charisma, cooperative attitude, and humility, all of which he credits for the show lasting three more seasons after Ron’s departure.

Winkler talks about Ron casting him in his film Night Shift. He played the mild-mannered Chuck while Michael Keaton, then a mostly small-screen actor, was cast as his wild work partner Bill. This film led Ron Howard to direct more films.

Winkler shares the story of Ron Howard’s brief return in the final season of Happy Days. Richie Cunningham returns from the army and announces his decision to enter screenwriting. Winkler remembers crying both as Fonzie and himself when parting with Ron and his character for the last time. Winkler writes that Ron Howard made a name for himself outside the show. However, Winkler struggled to find work and an acting identity outside of the Fonz.