“Happy Days” stars Henry Winkler, Anson Williams and Donny Most reunited in Salt Lake City, Utah on Thursday afternoon during a FanX convention panel.
The group started their appearance with a special celebration.
It was Williams’ 76th birthday, and Winkler came prepared with a chocolate cake to share with a select few and led the crowd through a squeaky rendition of “Happy Birthday.”
The singing didn’t end there.
Most and Williams — who both sang on several episodes of “Happy Days” — duetted a mashup of “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” by Paul Anka and “Splish Splash” by Bobby Darin, as the audience clapped along.
Once the three aging sitcom stars had all taken an opportunity to sing, they shared a few behind-the-scenes memories from the decade they spent filming “Happy Days.”
Fonz’s leather jacket
During the early episodes of “Happy Days,” Winkler’s character, Fonz, was not allowed to wear a leather jacket because ABC associated leather with crime, Winkler told the FanX audience.
So, as an alternative, he wore cloth jackets. “It’s really hard to be cool in cloth,” Winkler said.
In search of a solution, Gary Marshall, creator of “Happy Days,” convinced ABC that while Winkler was riding Fonz’s motorcycle, the leather jacket offered him protection from potential falls.
ABC agreed, and told Marshall that Winkler could wear the leather jacket only during scenes with the motorcycle.
Immediately after the meeting, “Gary (Marshall) went down through the lobby, went into a pay phone, called the writer’s room, said ‘Never write another scene without his motorcycle,’” Winkler said.
Gary Marshall’s baseball team
When asked if there were ever any tense moments between “Happy Days” cast members while on set of the series, Williams responded with a resounding, “No.”
He added that all the actors on the series — including Winkler, who he described as “the biggest star in the world” — prioritized the show and its cast, which strengthened their friendships off set.
“I think what really helped too was, Gary (Marshall) had a baseball team,” Williams added. “That played a huge part.”
Being part of a sports team helped encourage the cast to support each other because, “you are always going to have the back of your team.”
Later in the panel, all three of the actors shared more on their 50-year ongoing friendships with each other. Winkler described the group as a “family.”
The group still speaks very highly of each other.
“When we were doing this show, I think we were looked upon as kind of, teenagers goofing around. It was fluff, and it wasn’t taken seriously,” Most said. “But I would always tell people that we had very talented people who work very hard to make it look easy. And that’s the truth.”
‘Jump the shark’
Winkler grew up as a waterskier. His father, who Winkler described as a “very short German,” repeatedly told Winkler he should tell Marshall he waterskied.
When he finally had enough of the pestering, Winkler recalled telling Marshall, “My father wants you to know I waterski.”
“The next thing I know, I’m waterskiing,” Winkler told the audience, laughing.
In the famous “Happy Days” episode where Winkler’s character Fonzie “jumps the shark,” Winkler did all the waterskiing himself — except for the jump, because if anything happened, there were no understudies, he said.
“I come up on the sand, I step out of the skis, and they freeze frame on my smile,” Winkler said of the waterski scene. “Half that smile is Henry (Winkler) going, ‘Oh my gosh, you did it!.’”
He continued, “The other half of the smile is (in the Fonz’s voice), ‘Hey look at that, I did it.’”