Being Henry: The Fonz . . . and Beyond

He and Stacey describe his father Harry’s arrogance. They also describe his mother Ilse’s disregard for personal boundaries, especially with her son, and her disrespect toward Harry. Stacey had struggled to understand Winkler’s anger at his parents. Winkler expressed frustrations at his parents’ constant troublemaking, as had Stacey. Winkler recalls how Harry once slapped then-three-year-old Zoe and her slapping him back. Winkler took Zoe’s side and secretly felt satisfaction that his daughter slapped his father. After Ilse had a stroke in 1989, Winkler visited her and soon learned that she had suffered from depression and trauma from losing her family in Berlin; Harry’s lie to get her to leave Berlin with him haunted and embittered her for years. When Jed went to college at Georgetown, the family traveled with him to say their farewells. After he left for his dorm, Stacey sobbed.

Winkler starred in a TV movie called Absolute Strangers and, shortly before MacGyver ended in 1992, parted with John Rich. Ann Daniel became the head of the production company and Winkler was a producer for the Fox series Sightings. Winkler also acted as the antagonist in the TV movie The Only Way Out, which starred John Ritter. Winkler remembers seeing Ritter falling comedically in a commercial promoting Three’s Company while he was filming Happy Days. The two first met at ABC’s 25th anniversary celebration and became friends, raising money for cerebral palsy and having dinner on Mondays with their wives and Ron Howard and his wife Cheryl.

Winkler also worked on the TV movie One Christmas with Katharine Hepburn. He met Orson Welles, who was pleased to meet him. He also met and had dinner with Bette Davis. Winkler directed his second feature theatrical film, Cop & ½, with Burt Reynolds, which had a somewhat tumultuous filming but was a box office success.

Stacey encouraged Winkler to move the family from Toluca Lake to Bel Air. While waiting for work on the house, they stayed in another house, which they had to leave following the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Winkler then worked on the short-lived NBC show Monty, which was supposed to focus on a Rush Limbaugh–inspired talk radio host and his lesbian daughter. It was censored by worried executives, who changed the daughter into a son moving from being a lawyer to a chef. Winkler, writer Marc Lawrence, and director John Pasquin were angry with this change. Pasquin left, but Winkler stayed. The show failed. This made Winkler realize he needed to start following his instincts.

In 1995, Harry Winkler died, and Winkler reluctantly attended the funeral. He then acted in the TV movie A Child Is Missing but once again believed he was not fully authentic and that he was allowing his anxiety to detract from his performance. Wes Craven asked him to play the principal in Scream. He accepted. Executives did not want to put him on the poster, worried that the Fonz would overshadow the film. However, they encouraged Winkler to do press due to his popularity. People talked to him about Scream and had him sign memorabilia from the Scream movies.

In 1997, Ilse Winkler died, and Winkler begrudgingly went to her funeral and talked about his memories of her as a mother. His sister confronted him about his stories. She said that was not how she remembered their mother. He replied that it was how he remembered her.

The Winklers moved into the Bel Air house. They found the house too big for the family, and started planning a move to a smaller house in Santa Monica that was being rented out by Cary Grant’s widow Barbara. Winkler recalls his son Max getting suspended at school as a freshman for underage drinking, with Winkler and Stacey grounding him for four weeks. He later received a reward from his class when he was a senior.

Winkler mentions he was in a horrible movie called Ground Control with poor direction. He befriended Adam Sandler, whose kindness and humor he admires, and acted as the coach in The Waterboy. Shortly after, the Winklers moved into the Santa Monica house. Winkler realized Stacey wanted to move from Toluca Lake to be closer to her parents.

Winkler says he enjoyed working on The Waterboy with Adam Sandler and that it was the best thing he did for a while. He then got to act alongside John Ritter in Neil Simon’s play The Dinner Party. He remembered the dinner he had at Neil Simon’s house with Stacey, which he felt was a disaster due to his tendency to talk when nervous. He was excited to act in the play, but because of the dinner he was apprehensive about working with Simon. However, rehearsals went well and, after a few rewrites, the play got to be on Broadway. The play was a success and Winkler stayed on it for several months until June 2001, when he returned to Los Angeles to act in the film Down to You with Freddie Prinze, Jr.

He shares the story of how Stacey found a Labrador puppy while he was giving a speech. The family ended up adopting him and naming him Linus. Shortly after, Zoe returned from college due to her struggles with dyslexia and enrolled in college in Los Angeles to become a preschool teacher. Stacey had also been diagnosed with breast cancer. Though Winkler tried to support her emotionally, he struggled to. He includes Stacey’s perspective, and she addresses the reader. She relays that while she was disappointed at times with Winkler being away, she understood that he was miserable when he was not working and that she did not want him to resent her.

Still looking for work, Winkler was in an episode of Clifford the Big Red Dog, a few episodes of The Practice, and the failed drama series Battery Pack. He did a cameo in Adam Sandler’s film Little Nicky at Sandler’s request. Winkler also appeared in a single episode of both Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and The Drew Carey Show. Despite the lack of opportunities, he was afraid to change agencies because he was not sure he would have better opportunities.

Frustrated with the lack of work, he talked to Alan Berger, who encouraged him to write children’s books about his dyslexia with the help of Lin Oliver, the co-founder of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Winkler told Oliver about his childhood. She said his experiences were great stories for the Winkler-esque character, whom he decided to name Hank Zipzer. Winkler wrote a book proposal and had an agent at ICM send it to five editors. Debra Dorfman at Penguin Putnam gave him a contract for four novels (149).

Winkler wrote the books. In September 2003, he was supposed to appear in an episode of John Ritter’s sitcom 8 Simple Rules. During a break, he got a call from one of the producers telling him that John Ritter had died from a torn aorta. The loss devastated him, his family and friends, and the entire 8 Simple Rules cast and crew.

After, Winkler continued writing books with Lin’s help and voiced a character in the Clifford the Big Red Dog spin-off Clifford’s Puppy Days. Ron Howard contacted him, offering him the role of the lawyer Barry Zuckerkorn on the sitcom Arrested Development. Winkler ended up being on the show for five seasons and enjoyed working with Jason Bateman, Jessica Walter, Tony Hale, Will Arnett, Portia De Rossi, and Michael Cera, all of whose talent he admired. His character in Arrested Development also jumps over a shark in one episode. Winkler remarks that he is now “the only actor to alive who has jumped the shark twice” (152).

Winkler recalls how Jed struggled with writing sentences for his school and had him tested for dyslexia. He learned that both he and Jed were dyslexic. This made him angry: He realized his struggles could have been reduced or prevented had his parents and teachers tried to help him rather than dismiss him as being dumb. He wrote the Hank Zipzer books to confront his anger about his struggles and to tell the story of an underdog, something that made him relate to Adam Sandler and his movies. He began speaking publicly about his challenges with dyslexia, and learned he had helped several children.

He then worked to combat his negative thinking, using psychoanalyst Fritz Perls’s and philosopher George Gurdjieff’s works to silence negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones. He chose to let go of ambivalence so he could better make his dreams a reality. For this reason, he started taking photographs during his fishing trips to Montana and Idaho; this was to remind himself of what he could do when he tried and did not let negativity take hold.

Winkler played the father of Adam Sandler’s character in the movie Click, which he described as a drama disguising itself as a comedy. He enjoyed working alongside Sandler, Julie Kavner, and Christopher Walken. He has a fond memory of eating at a restaurant with Walken in Bakersfield. Walken seemed to struggle to decide what to eat. Winkler helped him before Walken whispered, “Succotash” (157).