Happy Days feud: Ron Howard’s ‘feelings were hurt’ by fans’ love of The Fonz

Henry Winkler has revealed how Ron Howard was “hurt” when fans fell in love with The Fonz on Happy Days rather than his character.

Henry Winkler’s epic month of tea spilling continues.

Just a few days after he threw shade at Tom Hanks, the Barry star sat down with Alec Baldwin on Inside the Actors Studio where he dished on his Happy Days co-star Ron Howard.

Winkler said he was surprised when fans fell in love with his character, The Fonz, particularly as Howard was the show’s “intended star”.

Henry Winkler with Ron Howard in Happy Days.

The veteran actor went on to say they eventually addressed the situation head-on, with Howard allegedly telling Winkler, “My feelings were hurt, but it’s good for the show.”

During their wide-ranging interview, Baldwin asked Winkler about his relationship with Howard, who arrived on the Happy Days set fresh off The Andy Griffith Show.

“There’s an intended star of the show, and that person doesn’t always end up remaining the star of the show,” Baldwin said. “This was a show that was really built around Ronnie.”

Happy Days was meant to centre on Howard’s Richie Cunningham, a teenager with an idyllic midwestern life, but Winkler’s Arthur Fonzarelli quickly became the fan-favourite character.

Henry Winkler is 73.

Ron Howard is 65.

“I was supposed to be seven out of 13, which meant I was only supposed to be in seven out of the 13 shows each cycle,” Winkler said on Inside the Actors Studio. “(But) The Fonz has taken off.”

After a few years, he and Howard finally discussed the shift in dynamic.

“The fourth year, we went to a dude ranch and did a two-parter, riding wild bulls. I had to sit on a bull,” recalled Winkler. “Ron Howard drove me home in his VW, and I said, ‘Ron, tell me now. How are you feeling? We haven’t talked about this’.

“He said, ‘You didn’t do one thing other than be good at what you’re doing. You never do anything on the set where you try to be the star. And it’s good for the show. My feelings were hurt, but it’s good for the show’.”

The boys from Happy Days.

Despite Howard’s hurt feelings, Winkler says they never had a tense relationship on set.

“He was one of my most wonderful acting partners ever,” The Fonz said. “We could do a scene — we could read it, rehearse it, memorise it, and shoot it three times in 20 minutes. There was a thread between us that was amazing.”

This article originally appeared on The Decider and was reproduced with permission