When anyone thinks about “Happy Days,” there is one character that immediately comes to mind. It’s all about Henry Winkler‘s Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli, the man who seemed to have superhero qualities by hitting the jukebox to get it to play again. He became so popular that he took over as more of the main character in later seasons, and ABC noticed so much that they wanted to change the name of the show.
After the initial breakout of “Happy Days,” ABC saw that the ratings were strong and that people resonated with the stereotypical 1950s greaser with a heart of gold. Because of that, the network wanted to change the name of the show to “Fonzie’s Happy Days,” as TVLine looks back on.
Henry Winkler Didn’t Want the Name Change
GettyWhile many actors would love to have a show named after their character and become the lead, that wasn’t Winkler’s wish. He knew that this could be devastating for the series as a whole, and by “Happy Days” Season 3, when the name change was considered, the ratings were strong enough to keep going with no major changes. In fact, a major changes would have led to a drop in the ratings.
So, Winkler urged ABC founder and president, Leonard Goldenson, not to go through with it. He had a whole argument laid out, but it wasn’t just the show as a whole that he was thinking about.
He was also thinking about Ron Howard, who was supposed to be the star of “Happy Days.” Howard had made it clear that if the name change went through, he would walk away from the show. It wasn’t that he hated Winkler or his character, but he was just hurt that there was so much focus on a character who was supposed to be a side character added for laughs.
Winkler knew that problems between him and Howard would also lead to the end of the series. Fortunately, the actor proved his point, and “Happy Days” remained as it was. He also didn’t want a Fonzie spinoff, believing that it wouldn’t work as well as the original show.
Why Did the ‘Happy Days’ Ratings Decline
GettyIf it wasn’t the name change, why did the ratings decline so rapidly? This was arguably as Howard left the series after the seventh season. Howard decided that he wanted to focus on directing, and it changed the fundamentals of the show as a whole, moving from his character’s coming-of-age story to being one that represented so many other ensemble sitcoms at the time.
On top of that, the new series “The A-Team” gave it some stiff competition. ABC had attempted to fight against the declining ratings with a timeslot change, but this made things work. By “Happy Days” Season 11, the network decided it was time to hang up the 1950s nostalgia. The good news is that creator Garry Marshall was given the time to allow the show to go out with grace, and Howard returned in the final season to say goodbye.
There will be some who say that the “jumping the shark” moment was when the decline happened. In fact, the term in TV, “jumping the shark,” comes from the “Happy Days” episode that had Fonz literally jumped over a shark. However, this was in the Season 5 premiere, so doesn’t quite hit the moment the ratings declined, but it is possibly when some of the writing went off track.
