The comic hit-man genre, it seems, never gets old. Witness
the success at this year’s Emmys of Barry,
the HBO dark comedy co-created by Bill Hader: he has just won a performance
Emmy as a low-rent hit-man who suddenly decides he wants to give acting a try.
A second Emmy, well-deserved, went to ageless Henry Winkler, for his role as a
pompous, name-dropping acting coach. From everything I know, the statuette
couldn’t have gone to a nicer guy.
Henry Winkler, of course, first entered America’s living
rooms as Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, better known as Fonzie or The Fonz, on the
hit nostalgia sitcom, Happy Days
(1974-1984). Initially, Winkler was slated to be a minor player, but his
breakout success as a cocky but lovable greaser-type quickly took him into the
major leagues of TV comedy. While writing the biography of Ron Howard (Ron Howard: From Mayberry to the Moon . . .and Beyond), I learned a good deal about the relationship between an
established young star and a rising one. The fact that Howard and Winkler
became (and remain) close friends is a tribute to two of the industry’s finest
gentlemen.
Howard,
playing squeaky-clean high schooler Richie Cunningham, was supposed to be the
star of Happy Days. But audiences
fell hard for the motorcycle-riding, leather-jacketed Fonzie, and Winkler
quickly became the show’s breakout attraction. As attention shifted away from Richie,
Howard was publicly philosophical, acknowledging that “there was something immediately
electric about Henry. . . . The show was trailing in the first season. Henry got
the demographic for us.” It was due in large part to Winkler that more than
seventeen million households were soon tuning in to Happy Days, leading to job security and fat paychecks for the entire
cast. Yet there’s no denying that Howard’s own morale suffered. At the start of
the third season, the Fonz was brought into the Cunningham household as a
boarder and surrogate son. Howard bore this change with grace, but couldn’t
stomach the network’s later suggestion that the series be renamed Fonzie’s Happy Days. Fortunately, series
creator Garry Marshall agreed with Howard, and the familiar title was kept.
Howard (only twenty but a TV veteran), had much to teach the
29-year-old Winkler. He gave him some
valuable tips on production etiquette, and coached him to success as the
pitcher on the traveling Happy Days softball
team. And the friendship continued long after the show ended. Circa 1981, when
both men were new fathers, People Magazine
revealed, in an item titled “Pappy Days, ”that they spent their get-togethers
debating the relative merits of Pampers and Huggies.
When Howard, moving into directing, launched his first big
studio movie, he took Winkler with him. The film was Night Shift, a wild and crazy
1982 comedy about two opposites who form an ill-fated business partnership.
Chuck Lumley is a mild-mannered nebbish who had become a morgue attendant
because he wanted something quiet. Bill Blazejowski is the hyper-animated “idea
man” who proposes to made the morgue do double-duty as a brothel. To play the
electric Billy Blaze, Howard cast newcomer Michael Keaton. As Chuck, Winkler
got to play a leading man not far removed from his own amiable, low-key
personality. Though he loved being Fonzie, Winkler had sometimes yearned to
show his stuff in a less outrageous role. But while he was playing a quietly
comic version of himself, Keaton walked off with the movie. The lesson, of course: be careful what you wish
for.
I’m thankful to Bill Hader and Barry for giving a talented (and very funny) good guy another
chance to shine.
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| Winkler and Howard, together again at the 2018 Emmys |
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