Henry Winkler Reveals How Co-Star Struggled When ‘Happy Days' Went Live in 1975

By Victoria Miller Parade - Entertainment Stories

Updated June 21, 2026 9:27 AM

Happy Days was one of the longest-running television shows of the 1970s, airing from 1974 to 1984, but it had a major format change early on.

The first two seasons of the ABC sitcom were shot like a movie in a single-camera format. The early episodes sometimes even featured outdoor scenes, and a laugh track was added in because there was no audience. But the show struggled in its second season.

Speaking on Ted Danson's Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, Henry Winkler, who played Happy Days tough guy Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli for 11 seasons, recalled, "In the beginning, the show was not doing very well. There were 100 shows. We were 48th."

Series star Ron Howard (Richie Cunningham on the series) told the Television Academy Foundation that producers knew they had to make a change. "We fell in the ratings. They almost canceled us," he shared.

So when Season 3 debuted in September 1975, Happy Days had a new look with a three-camera setup filmed in front of a live studio audience. The permanent change came after the Season 2 episode "Fonzie's Getting Married" was shot in front of an audience as an experiment.

The permanent change proved to be difficult for Howard, who had built his career as a young actor on single-camera comedies such as The Andy Griffith Show and The Smith Family and was not used to working in front of a live audience.

"[Happy Days showrunner] Garry Marshall had the idea to make the show three-camera," Winkler said on Danson's podcast. "In ‘75, in September, we went on the air as a three-camera [show]. Ron Howard never [had] worked in front of the live audience. [He was] almost vomiting. Except when you see him, you would never know. He could do anything, this man."

In February, Winkler told Woman's World's What Matters with Liz podcast that Howard was one of the best acting partners he ever had, despite his difficulties with the live audience format.

"Here's a guy who has never done theater before. He's only done film, and I was trained in theater, but Ron had never done it before, and was really nervous, especially in 1975 when we went from doing it like a little movie to in front of an audience," Winkler said. "He was panicked."

Winkler recalled that Howard was still able to follow his lead through the scenes, and that they had a magical connection. "It was uncanny, and you could not fake it. You couldn't make it up," the Happy Days star shared.

This story was originally published June 21, 2026 at 9:20 AM.

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