Ron Howard told ‘Happy Days’ producers he’d leave the show if they changed name to ‘Fonzie’s Happy Days’

nypost.com:

Ron Howard nearly left “Happy Days” after Henry Winkler’s popularity changed the course of the show.Howard almost quit when producers floated the idea of calling the hit show “Fonzie’s Happy Days” in an effort to capitalize on fans’ love of Winkler’s character, Arthur Herbert “The Fonz” Fonzarelli.“They came to me at ABC and they wanted to change the title to ‘Fonzie’s Happy Days,'” Winkler told the New York Times. “I said, ‘If you do that, it is an insult to everybody I’m working with.

Why fix something that isn’t broken? We are really good. I live in the family and that’s why I’m successful. I’m asking you, if you never listen to me again, leave it alone.’”Howard told producers he “would leave” even though he was “contractually” obligated to continue filming the show.“But I told them if you really want to change the name of the show to that, I would rather go back to USC and film school and what I was doing before the show launched,” he recalled.Winkler previously shared how his rise to popularity tested his friendship with Howard, who starred as Richie Cunningham on the show.“I was very aware never to be less than respectful to him,” Winkler told Fox News Digital. “I was always careful never to flaunt anything that was happening to me on the sound stage in front of the cast members, including him.

I’m lucky [my character’s popularity] was happening, but I was a member of an ensemble, which was higher than bragging.”Winkler “learned a lot” from working alongside Howard.“He was completely grounded by his parents, who never allowed any bad behavior,” he recalled. “He was being a professional.

This was his job, and I learned from watching him. I’m older — 10 years older — so I had the experience of theater and commercials.