11 Surprising Secrets Hiding Behind The Classic Show Happy Days

Executive producers wanted the show to be called COOL, but focus groups thought that the show was about eskimos who smoked. To be honest, I might watch that show, too.

When Marshall was approached by Paramount, they wanted him to write a show based in the ’20s or ’30s, but he said he’d be much more suited to write for the time in which he grew up, which was the ’50s and ’60s. His initial pilot wasn’t picked up, but Happy Dayswasn’t too far behind.

Getting the royalties for popular songs was, and still is, very expensive. After producers heard Williams, who played Potsie, singing backstage, they got the bright idea to have him sing the songs on the jukebox for free. They also then wrote some singing into the script.

Howard really did not want to play a teenager for the rest of his life, so he almost turned down the role. But, when Marshall promised that all the boys would graduate from high school, the former child star and future director accepted the role.

While the show was set in Milwaukee, WI, the Cunninghams’ house was actually located at 565 North Cahuenga Boulevard in Los Angeles. Well, at least the establishing exterior shot was. The rest was filmed in the studio, of course.

Executives didn’t want Fonzie to be depicted as a hoodlum, so they put him in a windbreaker in the beginning. However, creatorGarry Marshall convinced the studio to let The Fonz wear his leather jacket while his bike was in the scene, as it’s safer to wear a leather jacket on the bike. When Fonzie became the most popular character on the show, the leather jacket issue was no more, and the Fonz wore it all the time.

Most of the scenes where The Fonz was riding his beloved bikewereshot with Winkler on a stationary bike attached to a moving truck. Imagine that, The Fonz afraid of motorcycles.

Henry Winkler wasn’t diagnosed with dyslexia until he was 31 years old. So, when he went in to read for the part of The Fonz, he thought on his feet and made up his lines. When producers and casting directors asked him why he wasn’t giving them the lines as written, he told them that he was giving themthe essence of the character, and that if he was hired he’d read the lines as is.

Very sneaky, Mr. Winkler. Luckily, it worked!

Robin Williams was performing in the street for cash at the time of the space man episode. Marshall was having trouble casting the role of the alien, Mork from Ork, when his sister suggested the man she’d seen on the street. When Williams came in for the audition, he was asked to take a seat, which is when he set his head down on the chair instead of sitting in it. He got the role immediately.

Henry Winkler remembers seeing Dolenz at the audition and thinking that his chances were shot. Dolenz, though, doesn’t recall seeing Winkler there at all.

Jerry Paris, who played Jerry Helper on The Dick Van Dyke Show directed every episode of Happy Days from season 3 onward, except for these: Jailhouse Rock, Dance Contest, and Arnold’s Wedding. It’s always so fun to learn when two of your favorite shows overlap like this!

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