‘Happy Days’ Star Henry Winkler Shares What He took From the Set

HAPPY DAYS, Henry Winkler, Ron Howard, 1974-1984.
Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection.

Henry Winkler recently revealed on his wife and daughter’s podcast What in the Winkler?! what he took from the set of Happy Days when the beloved series ended and it may not be what you expect. The 79-year-old admitted that he took a shelf from the set, but it was for a very heartwarming reason.

Winkler appeared on the podcast alongside his former costar Ron Howard and Howard’s daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard. He said that the shelf was sitting just outside of Arnold’s, the drive-in where a lot of the show’s scenes took place. “And we put our coffee cups or our water bottles on it as we went through the swinging doors before we made our entrance,” Howard recalled.

HAPPY DAYS, set for Arnold's Drive-In, 1974-84

ABC/Everett Collection

Over the years, Winkler said he would write on the shelf to describe what happened each season in their lives, including the moments that Howard and Winkler found out that they were going to be fathers. He also had Howard, series creator Garry Marshall and actress Marion Ross sign the shelf.

HAPPY DAYS, Henry Winkler, Ron Howard, television, 1974-1984.

Everett Collection

During the episode, Howard and Winkler also spoke about their close friendship, which stared on the show and has lasted decades. “There was like a thread that was connected between us,” said Winkler, who is also close with their former costars Anson Williams and Don Most. While Howard is almost a decade younger than Winkler, Winkler said that Howard always had a “wisdom about him that I talk about all the time. This depth of understanding.”

Bryce chimed in that the two families remained close over the years, with Winkler being her godfather. She said it was like she had “another set of parents, another set of siblings” growing up.

Tell us, who is your favorite Happy Days character?

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