Fonzie

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Fonzie
First appearance	"All the Way"
Last appearance	"Passages, Part II" (officially) KSTP-TV's ads (unofficially)
Cause/reason	End of the series
Created by	Garry Marshall
Portrayed by	Henry Winkler
Episode count	255 (Happy Days) 4 (Laverne & Shirley) 1 (Mork & Mindy) 1 (Joanie Loves Chachi)
Information
Gender	Male
Age	17 (in 1956)
Date of birth	1939
Occupation	Part Owner of Arnold's Restaurant (1956-)
Family	Chachi Arcola (cousin)

Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli (also known as The Fonz or simply Fonzie) is a fictional character played by Henry Winkler in the American sitcom Happy Days (1974–1984).

Fonzie was originally a secondary character on the show, but he became the de facto lead rather quickly, dwarfing the other characters in popularity by the mid-1970s. He would eventually receive top billing on the show once Ron Howard left in 1980. He is known globally for his catchphrases: "Whoa", and "Aaay!" while snapping his fingers, and forming a thrust-forward double thumbs up.

Contents 1 Character traits and development 2 Production details 3 References in popular culture 3.1 Television 3.2 Other media 4 See also 5 References

[edit] Character traits and development

Fonzie (The Fonz) is a leather jacketed Italian-American mechanic, and later, part-owner of Arnold's restaurant, who lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the 1950s. He is a high school dropout and is seen by the establishment characters in the show as a rebel.

He commands tremendous respect throughout much of Milwaukee for his well-deserved reputation for fighting (in one episode, he out-duelled an expert fencer; in another, he literally mangled a gangster's prosthetic iron hand with one fist), his skills as a ladies' man and mechanic, his history of romantic involvement with virtually every attractive woman in Milwaukee, and his imperturbable "cool." Opponents far larger and more dangerous-seeming than himself back down from confrontations with him. Those who do confront him never come out on top, leaving "The Fonz" without a scrape.

Fonzie usually exhibited an unflappable personality during times of challenge, stress, or annoyance (although as the series progressed he became more susceptible to irritation). Fonzie's "cool" occasionally manifested as the ability to make mechanical objects function with a single touch, implying that he knew so much about how they worked that he could set the works in motion via one "technical tap"; he frequently started and stopped the jukebox at Arnold's diner by this process. This knack eventually became almost supernatural in nature when he proved able to achieve similar effects by snapping his fingers. In one episode, he is on the phone to Al, who is by the jukebox in Arnold's Drive-In. Al holds the phone up and Fonzie's fingers are heard snapping, causing the jukebox to cease playing. At the end of the phone call Fonzie snaps his fingers again, causing the jukebox to start playing once more. In another episode, while camping in the woods with his friends, he became so annoyed by the repeated sounds of wildlife around him that he shouted "Cool It!" into the woods, silencing every animal in the vicinity. "Let's see Tarzan do that," he mused to himself as he settled into sleep.

Fonzie referred to the men's washroom at Arnold's as his "office" where he would give Richie personal advice or set up meetings on other issues. The walls of the "office" were covered with phone numbers of Fonzie's many girlfriends. When the new Arnold's opened up (replacing the one that was accidentally burned down), Al set up a desk with phone and pull-down sheet of all recovered phone numbers in the new men's washroom just for Fonzie.

Occasional facts about the Fonz's past emerged throughout the series: As a child, he and his mother were abandoned by his father. The only words of advice Fonz ever remembered his father giving him were "Don't wear socks in the rain." When he disappeared, he left behind a locked lock box for his son, but not a key; the young Arthur did everything he could to open the box, finally running over it repeatedly with his tricycle. The contents? "The key, and that's it!" In the sixth season episode "Christmas Time", his father, a sailor, delivers a Christmas present for the Fonz to try to make amends (he does not realise it is his father until after he has gone). Fonzie is very resentful about the present, but at the end of the episode reads his father's letter explaining why he left, and opens it. In a later episode Fonz meets a woman who he believes is his mother. She convinces him she is not but in the end she looks at a picture of Fonz as a small child and sighs.

As a youth, the Fonz dropped out of high school and ran with at least two gangs, the Demons and the Falcons. His "redemption" began in an incident that occurred months before the series began, when he intervened in a rumble to which gang members had challenged high school student Richie Cunningham, who, to his challengers' surprise, actually showed up for the fight in spite of his obvious fear. Intervening to save Richie, Fonzie developed a respect for him from that moment on, and despite their many differences, the two developed a close friendship. While the naive Richie learned much about the ways of the world from the Fonz, Fonzie in turn learned about the value and benefits of a tight-knit family from the Cunninghams, from whom he eventually rented an attic room. Even Richie's father Howard (Mr. C. to Fonzie), a would-be pillar of the community who was initially quite concerned of his son's streetwise friend, came to regard Fonzie with respect and familial affection. Despite his seeming aloofness, Fonzie had his more whimsical traits, most notably his utter devotion to the Lone Ranger whom he meets in a later episode. While he was always confident with the women, he would still blush when Mrs. Cunningham (Mrs. C. to Fonzie), who became like a surrogate mother to him, kissed him on the cheek. Mrs. C. was the only one whom Fonzie allowed to call by his real name, which she always did affectionately. Richie's sister Joanie also became attached to Fonzie, who called her "Shortcake". Fonzie's shtick of flipping his thumb while saying "aaay" was a way of flipping off people in a manner that could get past the television censors.

During the course of the show, the Fonz finished his high school diploma at night school and became an auto mechanic instructor, and later school teacher. In later seasons, he went from being a womanizer to having a single long-term girlfriend at least twice. Though he never married, he also adopted a son in the final season, completing the transformation from rebel to family man.

[edit] Production details

• ABC's censors initially refused to allow Fonzie to wear a leather jacket, thinking that it made him look too much like a hoodlum. Garry Marshall got them to compromise, agreeing to allow Fonzie to wear his leather jacket when in close proximity to his motorcycle (since a leather jacket is a legitimate piece of safety equipment). To ensure that Fonzie would wear the leather jacket at all times, Marshall instructed the writers to put him near his motorcycle as often as possible, even going so far as to have him ride it into Arnold's. Even so, for some first season episodes, he wears a white jacket. Eventually, the censors relented, and Fonzie was allowed to wear the leather jacket even when not near his bike.
• One of the jackets is now in the Smithsonian Institution. (In the tenth season (1999) Simpsons episode Make Room for Lisa, the family see the jacket in the Smithsonian, prompting the Simpson siblings to ask "who the hell" Fonzie is.)
• Originally Fonzie was also to wear penny loafers. Henry Winkler replaced them with the leather boots he wore in the movie The Lords of Flatbush.
• According to Happy Days creator Garry Marshall, he originally created the character with the surname of Marsciarelli (Marshall's birth name), who was nicknamed "Mash." However, ABC insisted that he change Mash's name in order to avoid reminding viewers of the series M*A*S*H on rival network CBS. Thus "The Fonz" was born.
• Henry Winkler has reported that, even today, he still gets requests to "be the Fonz" in real life. "People expect me to be this guy who can walk into a dark room, snap my fingers, and turn on the lights. Or they want me to pound my fist on the hood of a car, and start the engine. I can't do it. I've tried! I think the silliest request I ever got was when somebody asked me to quiet the animals in a zoo."
• Fonzie was an occasional guest on Laverne and Shirley, a spin-off of the show.
• On an episode of Happy Days, Fonzie met Mork, a wacky alien. Played by Robin Williams, the Mork character proved so popular that he received his own spin-off series, Mork & Mindy.
• Fonzie was one of three Happy Days characters (along with Richie Cunningham and Ralph Malph) who starred in a Saturday morning cartoon spin-off, The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang, where the characters, along with a female character named Cupcake and a "Fonz dog" (an anthropomorphic dog named "Mr. Cool" that imitated the Fonz's thumbs-up "Aaay" catchphrase), traveled through time.
• Fonzie later appeared in the Laverne & Shirley animated series, with all of them in the army, answerable to a pig sergeant voiced by Ron Palillo.
• Fonzie's choice of motorcycle is an English Triumph TR6 Trophy, even though Milwaukee where the series is set, is the home of Harley-Davidson.
• Fonzie is one of two characters, with Howard Cunningham, to appear in every episode in the Happy Days running.

[edit] References in popular culture

[edit] Television

• The ABC sitcom Boy Meets World pokes fun at Happy Days, particularly in an episode where main characters Cory and Shawn go to a rival school's dance and Shawn insists that Cory "be cool" and Cory puts on a leather jacket and walks up to some girls, going, "Aaay!" with his thumbs up. Shawn quickly comes over and tells him he's doing Fonzie, not Shawn. The in-jokes of Boy Meets World being a "modern" Happy Days was a repeated theme throughout the show's run.
• In the animated television show Futurama:
  • In the episode "Bender Should Not Be Allowed On TV", one of Professor Farnsworth's inventions is the hand-held Cool-O-Meter, which measures the coolness of an object in units of "MegaFonzies".
  • In the episode "I, Roommate", Fry fixes the TV by banging on it, then he says "Aay!" and puts his thumbs up.
• The show Family Guy has featured several references to Fonzie, including:
  • In the episode "The Son Also Draws", where Peter Griffin goes on a native vision quest, his spirit guide is The Fonz.
  • In the episode "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz", Peter starts the Church of The Fonz. The church decor contains a number of objects associated to Fonzie and the rituals incorporate his catchphrases.
  • In the episode "Let's Go to the Hop", Peter attempts to turn on a jukebox by slamming it with his fist. Unlike The Fonz, though, his fist breaks the glass and he is badly lacerated.
  • In the episode "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz", there is a cutaway joke, where Peter Griffin mentions that Fonzie is capable of fixing anything. Mr. C is standing next to his bed, with Mrs. C in the bed, and he confides in the Fonz, "Arthur, I wanted to pleasure my wife for our anniversary, but as you know, I suffer from erectile dysfunction." Fonzie turns around, and hits Mr. C's groin, akin to how he hits the jukebox. In reply, Mr. C smiles and says, "Hey, it worked!" Mrs. C says, "Thank you, Arthur.", to which the Fonz replies with his traditional "Aaay!" thumbs-up gesture.
• In the sitcom That '70s Show (which has a number of parallels with Happy Days):
  • In the episode "I Love Cake", Michael Kelso dons a new leather jacket, and everyone mocks him for dressing like the Fonz. Steven Hyde and Laurie Forman make fun of him by saying Fonzie's legendary line, "Aaaay!" Eric Forman asks when Fonzie moved to town, and Fez taunts him with the line "A gang of toughs has taken over Arnold's. Help us, Fonzie; you're our only hope!" (This is additionally a reference to Princess Leia's line from Star Wars.)
  • In the episode "Holy Crap", Pastor Dave compares Fonzie to Jesus. "Fonzie says 'Aaay', and Jesus says 'Aaay-men!'.
  • In the episode "Jackie Says Cheese", Fez imagines himself jumping over a shark on water skis. In his fantasy, people call him "The Fez". When the dream ends, however, Fez remarks that he never really watched the show after that episode.
  • In the episode "Stone Cold Crazy", Samantha advises Kitty to cut her hair so Red would notice her. Kitty refuses saying her hair is her trademark and cutting it would be like telling Fonzie not to say "Aaay!".
  • In the episode "Son and Daughter", Bob Pinciotti says his daughter Donna's new boyfriend Randy calls him "Mr. P" and adds "I wonder where he got THAT from".
• In an episode of Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable asks the title character, Kim Possible, if his dream about her water-skiing over sharks was true, referencing Fonzie's famous stunt.
• In an episode of The Replacements, Dick Daring jumps a shark. Later, in the same episode, a cartoon version of Fonzie does his signature "Heyyy!".
• In an episode of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Arwin has to fix a fan, but he uses the wrong switch - a "Cunningham" - instead of the right switch, - a "Fonzarelli".
• In the TV show The Simpsons:
  • In the episode "Homer the Moe", Homer Simpson attempts to fix Moe Szyslak's jukebox (when Moe allows Homer to run the bar while he goes back to bartending college) by punching the jukebox in a "Fonzie-ish" fashion. Unfortunately, he smashes through the glass and receives a "hemorrhage-a-mundo". When asked by a fellow barfly if he was okay, Homer responded "Aaay", snaps his fingers (spraying blood everywhere), displays two thumbs-ups and faints, presumably from blood loss.
  • In the episode Papa's Got a Brand New Badge, the elementary school installs air conditioning during a heat wave in order to attract students. The plot works so well that Mrs. Krabappel comments that "(she's) seeing students (she) hasn't seen in years". The next shot shows a number of famous TV show school drop-outs entering the school, including Fonzie.
  • In yet another episode, the Simpson family visits a Smithsonian traveling exhibit, and see Fonzie's jacket, which is the single most heavily-protected artifact in the museum (less important and less protected artifacts in the museum include the Bill of Rights).
  • In The Simpsons episode "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", the cartoon dog Poochie sings a rap song including the line "I'm half Joe Camel and a third Fonzarelli".
  • Frequently, characters—both recurring and guest—address to Homer and Marge as "Mr. S" and "Mrs. S," much like how Fonzie and other teenagers addressed Howard and Marion Cunningham as "Mr. C" and "Mrs. C," respectively. Episodes where this happen include "The Otto Show", "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", and "Take My Wife, Sleaze" (the latter an episode where Winkler was a guest voice).

• In the My Own Personal Jesus episode of Scrubs, J.D. fantasizes about doctors with miracle cures. In the fantasy, he walks in wearing a leather jacket and hits a comatose patient in the chest, causing a full recovery; this of course mimics Fonzie's ability to work the jukebox, then clicking his fingers, an attractive nurse appears who he kisses.

• Henry Winkler played Barry Zuckerkorn on Arrested Development (a show executive produced by Ron Howard). In the episode "Altar Egos", Barry briefly does the Fonz pose in a bathroom mirror. Another reference occurs in the episode "Motherboy XXX", in which Barry jumps over a shark.
• A character named Funzie who is from the show The Oblongs is a spoof of Fonzie.
• In the Friends episode "The One with the Triplets" the gynecologist who is supposed to deliver Phoebe's triplets has a Fonzie obsession. Also in an earlier episode the friends play 'strip poker', but instead of using a regular card pack they use a Happy Days board game.
• In the Season 1 episode of Newsradio, "Smoking", Dave Nelson says "Thanks Fonzie" in response to Joe fixing his laptop by hitting the bottom of it.
• In the South Park episode "City on the Edge of Forever", the kids reminisce falsely about previous experiences in flashbacks. One such flashback involves Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny in a crowd watching Fonzie jump over a line of buses on a motorcycle. Fonzie ends up running Kenny into a brick wall and killing him.
• In the South Park Episode Probably, the Recap includes Fonzie jumping over the shark, but the shark kills him.
• In the Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide episode "Photo Day", when giving tips for school photo day, Ned gives the tip, "Do not dress as someone you see on TV." One of the kids is dressed as Fonzie, and even does the pose.
• On the 80's young undercover cop show 21 Jump Street, episode "Hell Week", when the leather jacket wearing Booker complains about having to befriend a group of nerds for an undercover assignment, Hanson (Played by Johnny Depp) teases him by saying "Oh, come on! You can be just like Fonzie."
• Fonzie is depicted in the British comedy series Bo' Selecta! by Craig Phillips. Appearing in a sketch called Crappy Days, he and the rest of the cast all suffer from extremely loud and violent incontinence and wear large nappies in plain sight. Despite the indignity of his situation, Fonzie still claims to be "cool" before soiling himself explosively.^[1]
• In the British comedy series End of Part One, Happy Days was parodied as a long running series called 'Slick American Goo Days' where all the characters were geriatric, Fonzie was represented by a character called 'Poncey' who was only able to say 'Eyyyy!' and who couldn't stand up without a nurse's support.
• In a deleted scene from The Channel Chasers movie of The Fairly OddParents, Timmy actually jumps a shark with Fonzie.
• Originally, Fonzie wasn't supposed to be the "cool character" which he became. Originally, Potsie was supposed to be the cool character, but after Fonzie gained popularity, Potsie then became a supporting character who is somewhat naive.
• In the 2006 Doctor Who episode "School Reunion" The Tenth Doctor praises a student for getting the answer to a question right by saying "correctamundo". He then goes on to add that this is "a word I have never used before and hopefully never will again.".
• Fonzie appeared in the Robot Chicken episode "Celebutard Mountain" voiced by Breckin Meyer.
• In the British Television Series, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, when actor Ralf Little declined to reprise his role for the 2008 series his character was killed off-screen when he attempted to jump over a shark. The similarities are referenced in the same episode when one character asks why anyone would want to jump over a shark, with another character responding with "Aaaayyyyyyy".

[edit] Other media

• XBXRX sing a song named "The Fonz".
• Smash Mouth also have a song named "The Fonz".
• In the SIRIUS Satellite Radio Covino and Rich on MAXIM 108, they commonly use the "WWFD" (What Would Fonzie Do).
• In the Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction, during the last scene in the coffee shop, Jules and Yolanda (played by Samuel L. Jackson and Amanda Plummer, respectively) hold the following dialogue:
  • Yolanda: You don't hurt him!
  • Jules: Nobody's gonna hurt anybody. We're gonna be like three little Fonzies here. And what's Fonzie like? Come on, Yolanda! What's Fonzie like?
  • Yolanda: Cool?
  • Jules: What?
  • Yolanda: He's cool.
  • Jules: Correctamundo! And that's what we're gonna be. We're gonna be cool.
• In the Quentin Tarantino's segment of the film Grindhouse, Rose McGowan's character calls Kurt Russell's character Stuntman Mike a Fonzie.
• In the film Scream, Henry Winkler plays the school principal. In one scene, he goes to a mirror to comb his hair, then subtly pauses, as if to say "why mess with perfection?" This is a reference to a classic Fonz move from the credit sequence of Happy Days. At one point during this scene you can also see Fonzie's brown jacket hanging up on the back of the door.
• The song "A Pack of Dogs" by Lightyear contains the lyrics "Hello, hey now, the Fonz is cool, the Fonzie don't cry".
• In the film 2 Fast 2 Furious a character played by Tyrese Gibson said to one of the Carter Verone's boys: "Real funny, Fonzie".
• In the film Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, White Goodman likens Peter Lafleur to the Fonzie of his gym. He also imitates Fonzie with his trademark "Aaay!" He also makes the comment 'Joanie Loves Chachi' when two of the characters say they love one another.
• In the Unicorn Tales film The Magic Hat, the characters sing about "being the Fonz" and do his trademark "Aaay!" and stick out their thumbs.
• In the film The Benchwarmers the midget that is made fun of can be seen wearing a red Fonzie shirt with the catchphrase on it.
• Adam Sandler's "The Chanukah Song" makes a reference to Arthur Fonzarelli.
• In The Wedding Singer during the opening scene at a wedding, when Sammy claims that he is going to hit on Julia, Robbie ask him, "You wanna be like Fonzie, don't you?" to which he replies, "Yes I do".
• In the Evil Dead: The Musical song "Do The Necronomicon", some of the lyrics in the chorus are "Do the robot, and the sprinkler, and finish it off with our best Henry Winkler ... Aaay!".
• Appeared in the Weezer music video of Buddy Holly, which also featured several other cast members from the show.

[edit] See also

• Breakout character
• Jumping the shark, a metaphor originating from a Happy Days scene with Fonzie. The phrase symbolizes when a television series loses its credibility with contrived or ridiculous extensions of its theme, usually as a result of the writers being unable to maintain a show indefinitely.
• Fonzie (band) – Punk rock band from Portugal

[edit] References