See the cast of Happy Days at the height of their fame — including Henry Winkler and Ron Howard

Henry arrived on set, straight out of the Yale School of Drama, and he was struggling with his line delivery and got down on himself in front of the cast.

He recalled on Hoda Kotb‘s Joy 101: “So it’s the first day. First, I’m reading—now you remember I’m a trained actor— and I’m reading the script, and I can’t make the joke work. And I start hitting the script. ‘I can’t do this. What is this?'”

Despite being older than his co-worker Ron, Ron came to him with words of advice that were wise beyond his years.

Henry explained: “And I’m 27, Ron Howard is 18. He puts his arm around me, walks me to the back of soundstage 24 on Paramount Lot and says, ‘You know they’re working as hard as they can. Let’s not hit our script.'”

That interaction changed Henry’s mindset, and he revealed he told Ron: “I’ll never hit my script as long as I live.” 

The feelings of admiration between the two co-stars are mutual, as Ron gushed about how Henry served as a big inspiration for him.

He revealed to People: “Henry’s a few years older than I am. Yale educated, and he looked at acting in a way that was — it wasn’t Hollywood. It was a little more intellectual. It was theater-based, and that was new to me. But more than anything, we just got along beautifully and worked well together.”

The two immediately hit it off and have remained friends for over five decades.

Henry loves their deep connection and strongly believes that fate brought them together back then.

He shared on The Rich Eisen Show: “I met him when he was 18, and I was 27. We were touched by the universe. There was a string between us.”

The actor continued: “I didn’t have to tell him what I was going to do. He didn’t tell me what he was going to do. We just were in the same space at the same moment. It’s rare.”

Erin recalled that her cast members helped her get through her challenging teen years, as she shared on Today: “It was so much fun with these guys. They made it better, they made it easier. I loved it. I had such a good time.”

The actress passed away at the age of 56 in 2017 due to suffering from stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma.

At the start of the sitcom, the cast started with just one camera and then Garry replaced that setup with three cameras and a live audience, which became a huge success.

Marion shared with Woman’s World: “When we started with one camera, it had a very quiet tempo to it. Then Garry decided that we could get more energy if we had an audience out there, which was a lot of fun. That audience really became part of our show, because they loved the Fonz.”

She continued: “At the last minute they would say, ‘Okay, page so-and-so … change that line.’ It kept you on your toes, really. It was tremendous fun, because if you ever did make a mistake, the world stopped. Suddenly we had to correct the whole thing, which was fun. The audience loved it if we made a mistake.”

Marion celebrated her 97th birthday in October 2025.

Tom strongly sees himself in his character being that he too is a proud family man.

He shared with The Tampa Tribune: “I am the character you see on TV—I am Richie Cunningham’s father. I’m a square. Like Howard Cunningham, I have a responsibility to care for my family, keep up the home and see to other needs.” 

Tom expressed: “I get letters from people who see me in other things and tell me they’re happy I can play roles other than Cunningham. But I don’t mind some identity with him. After all, I go into 60 million homes a week as that character.” 

The actor passed away in 2010 due to lung cancer and complications from staphylococcal infection.

Anson believes that the show was a huge success thanks to the cast members’ commitment to the project.

He shared: “The other thing that made it great, we rehearsed and could improve the show. It wasn’t like, ‘Here’s the page, just shoot the scene.’ We can improve it. And I think that’s another reason we stayed on a long time, because we were all able to collaborate,” per the Fanboy Expo Knoxville’s Happy Days reunion panel.