Henry Winkler on The Fonz, the late Bert Newton and his trip to the Aussie outback

Television icon Henry Winkler reveals details of his secret trip to outback Australia and the deeply personal and professional impact it made.

When television icon Henry Winkler reprises his most successful role since The Fonz, he may have the late, great Bert Newton to thank.

Happy Days nabbed Winkler three consecutive Emmy Award nominations from 1976 to 1978, but he wouldn’t win the coveted gong for another 40-odd years until 2018’s breakout hit BARRY, which returns for its final season on Monday.

“I was invited to the Logies …” Aaaaaay! Stop right there Mr Fonzarelli.

At the height of his success, when Ron Howard’s classic sitcom was almost rebranded “Fonzie’s Happy Days”, Winkler found himself at the Southern Cross Hotel in Melbourne.

Newton wasn’t just the host of the TV Week Logie Awards that year (when Garry ‘Norman Gunston’ McDonald won the Gold), he was synonymous with the ceremony as its 14-time host, and four-time Gold Logie Hall of Famer.

Henry Winkler, pictured in 2020. Picture: Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images

It was the height of that 1970s Moonface era that brought the boy from Brooklyn to the banks of the Yarra, and that left an indelible impact on Winkler that guided his 40-year career to Emmy success.

“I came down there, and then one of the great things is they took me on a trip and I went to the outback,” Winkler told News Corp Australia. “I went to a cattle station, and I have a pointing bone. I have one of those sticks that they hit each other with over the head when they are in battle. And I heard this name, Fair Dinkum. And I thought honest man, the genuine article. I’m not always the genuine article, but it’s something to live up to.”

From hits to flops, from missed opportunities to a late-career renaissance, Winkler has striven to live up to that advice throughout his career: to be genuine, fair dinkum, and follow his gut. It was fitting that in the episode of Bill Hader’s hit Foxtel series, BARRY, Winkler’s character gives the hit man advice on acting.

“I would say tenacity and gratitude. Tenacity helps you get where you want to go. I see myself as that toy with sand at the bottom. You punch it. It goes down and comes right back to the centre and just keeps moving. Everybody is going to say ‘no’. Somebody is going to say ‘yes’. And all those nos, it’s like Tai Chi. You just move out of the way and let that energy go by you. And you just keep going to where your dream is. Tenacity and gratitude.

“Your instinct knows everything. Your brain, as much education as we have, knows very little. I stay with my tummy,” he adds.

Henry Winkler attends the Pluto TV Green Room during Vulture Festival 2021 at The Hollywood Roosevelt in Los Angeles, California. Picture: Rich Fury/Getty Images for Vulture

A couple of years after he visited the Outback, Winkler wrote in the TV Guide in 1979 about how his trip to Australia focused his appreciation for the character that made him famous.

“I went through a period a couple of years ago when I was feeling over-identified with the character that made me famous,” he wrote in the December 15 issue of the US television bible. “My own identity was lost. People got me mixed up with the part I was playing. It scared me. I wanted to yell out.”

A year earlier, like a “damn fool”, Winkler rejected the iconic role of Danny Zucker opposite Olivia Newton-John’s Sandy in the 1978 smash, Grease, which went to the second choice from Welcome Back, Kotter star, John “up your nose with a rubber hose” Travolta. It became the highest-grossing musical film ever at the time of its release, and in 1979 was the second-best-selling album in the US.

“But that’s only part of the story,” Winkler continued in his prophetic op-ed. “The Fonz is a pretty decent guy. He endowed me with a lifestyle for which I will always be grateful. He opened the door to movies … he made it possible for me to form my own company, Fair Dinkum Productions, which means ‘Honest Man’ in Australian vernacular.”

Henry Winkler in an episode from the Foxtel show Barry Season 4. Picture: HBO/Foxtel

Fair Dinkum Productions continues to this day. The first show produced was MacGyver, and the company went on to credits like Beverly Hills 90210 and Hollywood Squares.

Winkler might have missed Grease. But if he didn’t follow his gut, like a genuine, fair dinkum, man, the world may have never had the comedic gold of Barry Zuckerman in Arrested Development, Dr Lu Saperstein in Parks and Recreation, or Gene Cousineau in BARRY.

* BARRY returned for its fourth and final eight-episode season on Monday, April 17 from 9.30pm AEST on FOX Showcase. It is available On Demand on FOXTEL, and streaming on BINGE.

Originally published as Henry Winkler on The Fonz, the late Bert Newton and his trip to the Aussie outback