{"id":848001,"date":"2026-09-14T23:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T23:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/848001\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T23:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T23:24:13","slug":"henry-winkler-refused-to-let-abc-boss-change-happy-days-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/848001\/","title":{"rendered":"Henry Winkler Refused to Let ABC Boss Change ‘Happy Days’ Title"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHenry Winkler<\/a> opened up on the latest episode of \u201cIn Depth With Graham Bensinger\u201d about refusing to let ABC executives change the name of \u201cHappy Days<\/a>\u201d to \u201cFonzie\u2019s Happy Days\u201d due to the explosive popularity of his character. Winkler starred as Arthur \u201cFonzie\u201d Fonzarelli on all 11 seasons and 255 episodes of the iconic ABC sitcom. He debuted as a recurring role before being upped to a series regular during the show\u2019s second season because of how beloved the Fonz became with fans. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBefore \u2018Happy Days\u2019, ABC was in the basement. It was the last of the three networks,\u201d Winkler said. \u201cAnd [ABC president Leonard Goldenson] came to my office, my dressing room, and he said, \u2018First of all, I would like to call the show \u201cFonzie\u2019s Happy Days.\u201d We\u2019re thinking of changing the title.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Sir, I\u2019m really asking you not to do that\u2019\u2026 We were really soaring in the in the ratings. It wasn\u2019t broken. This would be a slap in the face. Why change the title if it is working so magnificently?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWinkler was also concerned about keeping tensions among the ensemble cast at bay. According to the actor, Ron Howard<\/a> was already annoyed with Fonz becoming the show\u2019s breakout character and felt he was being \u201covershadowed\u201d by him. Howard played the show\u2019s original lead character Richie Cunningham, leaving \u201cHappy Days\u201d after seven seasons. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c[Ron] said, \u2018Look, it hurt my feelings. You\u2019re not doing anything to hurt my feelings. You\u2019re really good and you\u2019re good for the show. It\u2019s helping the show. So I put all of that together and that\u2019s the way it is.\u2019 And we never talked about it again,\u201d Winkler said of Howard\u2019s annoyances. <\/p>\n

\n\tRegardless, Winkler wanted to keep the peace among the cast and turned down the title change because \u201cwe can\u2019t do [the show] if we are resentful or angry of each other.\u201d The actor also turned down Goldenson\u2019s offer to spin off Fonz into his own series because \u201cI have no idea if I\u2019d have a chemistry with new people.\u201d Winkler told the ABC boss: \u201cI don\u2019t think I can do my own show. I think I\u2019m very happy right where I am with this extraordinary family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHoward revealed in a career-spanning Vulture interview<\/a> last year that while he grew comfortable over time with Winkler\u2019s Fonz becoming the star of \u201cHappy Days,\u201d he drew a line at having the show be retitled. Howard even threatened to leave the show if they changed the title.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI never, ever challenged what they were doing creatively. It made perfect sense that you\u2019d build this Fonzie character and maximize that,\u201d Howard said. \u201cBut the optics of now being in a show called \u2018Fonzie\u2019s Happy Days,\u2019 my ego wouldn\u2019t allow for that. I wasn\u2019t bluffing. I would\u2019ve left. And my contract, I\u2019m sure, had no clause connected to titles. They could have said, \u2018Fuck you. We changed the title, and we expect you to show up Monday morning.\u2019 But thank God for great bosses. Garry Marshall said, \u2018If you\u2019re not cool with it \u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI later found out Henry himself thought it was a terrible idea,\u201d Howard continued. \u201cI think the position I took made it easy for both Garry and Henry to also say, \u2018No, let\u2019s not do that.\u2019 Years later, Henry said they were ready to do a spinoff and other things for Fonzie and he just said, \u2018Why fix it if it\u2019s not broken? My success depends on the ensemble I\u2019m in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWatch Winkler\u2019s interview on \u201cIn Depth With Graham Bensinger\u201d in the video below.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Henry Winkler opened up on the latest episode of \u201cIn Depth With Graham Bensinger\u201d about refusing to let…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,12650,97362,12647,92],"class_list":["post-848001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-happy-days","tag-henry-winkler","tag-ron-howard","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}