It is VERY rare to see The Fonz riding his motorcycle

It’s easier to find photos of The Fonz giving a thumbs up them seeing him giving a thumbs down. I put together all the images I could find, if you have more shoot me an email. Thanks!

1st pic - Season 4 Episode 71 The Muck-rakers
2nd pic - Season 1 Episdoe 03 Richie’s Cup Runneth Over
3rd pic - Season 3 Episode 62 A Sight for Sore Eyes
4th pic - Season 5 Episode 96 My Fair Fonzie
5th pic - Season 7 Episode 159 Allison
6th pic - Season 2 Episode 37 Richie’s Flip Side
7th pic - Season 2 Episode 37 Richie’s Flip Side
8th pic - Season 2 Episode 37 Richie’s Flip Side

Did you know that Henry Winkler’s character name in the Lords of Flatbush was Butchie? Here’s a short clip of him entering the classroom while the teacher takes attendance.

Here’s a short clip of Henry Winkler from the Lords of Flathbush as they cattle call to some girls. 1974 was so long ago. HOW IN THE WORLD DID A MAN WITH A MASTER’S DEGREE FROM YALE BECOME A SLICK-HAIRED, LEATHER JACKETED SEX SYMBOL?

Season 2 Episode 36 Happy Days Fish and the Fins - Aired on March 11, 1975 “Fish and Fins” No one believes Richie when he says he knows a member of the group Johnny Fish & The Fins (Flash Cadillac and The Continental Kids).

It was the summer of 1974, and we were on our way back from one of our endless, nameless tours. (Back then, tours didn’t have names.) Late at night, we arrived at the Tiltin’ Wilton, our Ozzie and Harriet-style band house in LA’s Wilshire District. The script for “Johnny Fish and the Fins” was lying on the pool table which was just inside the front door, making it the first thing we saw when we walked in. It was only at that point that we realized we were actually going to be on the show. That was the good part. The bad part was that we had to be at the studio at 6:00 the next morning and we were exhausted. I fell asleep with the script in my hands. I finished reading it in the car on the way to the studio, terrified, because there where actual lines to be learned. Also, there was the slight problem that none of us were actors.

As it turned out, neither of these things really mattered. Even though the show took only 2 1/2 days to finish, there was always some dead time to learn lines. When needed, we could always be found shooting hoops with Ron Howard in the Cunningham’s driveway. He was the only person we already knew, having worked together in American Graffiti. As for the acting, nobody dwelled on it, so we assumed we were doing OK and plowed ahead. The cast and crew seemed to be having a jolly time of it, and we were included as though we were there every week. The general mood around the set was pretty much an all-day practical joke. Director Jerry Paris caught Tom Bosley in a giant butterfly net as he entered the upstairs hallway for his scene with Ape/aka/Spike/aka/Linn Phillips. Just as I started talking to Richie in the kitchen, he stuck his hand through the window, shrugged, and said, “Hey, there’s no glass in the window.” I think they were most proud of themselves for emptying Mrs. C’s refrigerator and filling it with beer. Everyone seemed comfortable to sort of make it up as we went. Jumping on Richie’s car and dunking while he parked in the garage seemed like a good stupid thing to do, so it made it into the show.

The show was aired in September 1975, and was the number one show in the ratings for that week. Suddenly Johnny Fish and the Fins were better known than Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids. Our record company at that time, Epic, had insisted that we play “Youngblood”, because they had decided that was to be our next single, and it would be excellent promotion. As it turned out, “Youngblood” wasn’t released as a single. That was the final straw in our troubled relationship with Epic. We wished we had been allowed to do one of our live show highlights and really put on a Flash Cadillac show.

Want more?
http://www.flashcadillac.com/HappyDays.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Cadillac_%26_the_Continental_Kids
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0596181/

This is how I best remember when The Fonz in his leather jacket and when he was young, thin, and cool

Happy Days - Season One - VERY Rare Fonzie before the network allowed him to wear his leather jacket because they thought he’d be too much of a tough guy hood. Ha ha. This is from Season 1 Episode 1. ABC felt Fonzie would be a hoodlum and associated with crime if he wore leather? So he was forced to wear a Macgregor golf jacket. One was beige and one was puse.
Happy Days- Fonzie’s Jacket - Archive Interviews Excerpt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCKKCea5InA The producers initially wanted Fonz to comb his hair in front of the mirror and fortunately Henry stuck to his guns and simpl looked into the mirror and was like “it’s perfect” no need. This was funny and it worked.

ABC executives did not want to see the Fonz wearing leather, thinking the character would appear to be a criminal. The first 13 episodes show Winkler wearing two different kinds of windbreaker jackets, one of which was green. As Winkler said in a TV Land interview, “It’s hard to look cool in a green windbreaker”. Marshall argued with the executives about the jacket. In the end, a compromise was made. Winkler could only wear the leather jacket in scenes with his motorcycle, and from that point on, the Fonz was never without his motorcycle until season 2.

Trivia: What and where is this motorcycle today from season 1 ???

The original Fonzie bike was a black chopped Knucklehead Harley or I think a Harley-Davidson Sportster that was waaaay cooler than the 2nd bike (grey gas tank we all know) they used. It was used up until Season 1 Episode 16. That bike should be set up in the Smithsonian with his jacket. Only reason they changed the bike is because it was too much bike for Henry to handle. He can not ride a motorcycle at all. He has tried but his dyslexia is SO bad he can’t process how to operate the brake, clutch and gears. I feel bad for Henry cause he is a super nice guy too.
http://www.triumphrat.net/attachments/biker-hang-out/14563d1242413707-henry-winkler-the-fonz-motofonz1.jpg
http://www.therpf.com/f45/fonzis-happy-days-motorcycle-129040/
So any time you see Fonz riding a motorcycle, it’s for only a few seconds then quickly they had to grab him off of it. Other times in the later episodes they had it strapped down while they pulled him and shot him from the waist up.

It is SO RARE to see Henry Winkler as The Fonz actually ride his motorcycle on the Happy Day TV show. I went back and watched all the shows and it was SO rare but I did capture about 4 seconds total.

When?
- The intro of the show they show a few seconds
- Season 2 Episode titled “Cruisin” they show him coasting for a few seconds
- Season 2 Episode 24 “Not with my sister you DON’T”
- Season 3 Episode 47 “Howard’s 45th Fiasco” they show Fonz leaving down the street

BUT it is TRUE he CAN NOT ride at all and it is really sad because he is the nicest guy too. He only coasts on the bike and can not work the gears, clutch, throttle or break because his dyslexia is so bad. I have seen him in a few interviews and he even said he wished he could learn but it was just too dangerous after the 1st accident he had on the show trying. In this interview with Henry Winkler excerpt Fonzie’s Motorcycle - Archive Interview Excerpts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6om6cg8HN8 Members of the cast of “Happy Days” reminisce about how Fonzie (Henry Winkler) never actually rode a motorcycle!

According to Henry Winkler himself: “I never knew how to ride a motorcycle. I don’t to this day know how to ride a motorcycle. As a matter of fact in the credits I ride up the driveway of the Cunningham home. That was the only time I ever rode the motorcycle uh, and I didn’t quite know how to stop it so that I kept going and nearly killed the director of photography and completely smashed into the sound truck.”

I saw a few interviews with Henry Winkler in which he said he never learned how to ride a motorcycle. The only time he was ever feet-up on a bike was in the scene used in the opening credits of the show, where he rides up the street and makes a left turn into the Cunningham’s driveway. The part of that scene you don’t see is three stage hands giving him a running push-start holding the clutch in, then releasing it for him once he’s underway. At the end there are a dozen guys and several feet of foam padding to catch him before he hit the garage. Upon hearing this revelation, I was heartbroken. I grew up on Happy Days and thought The Fonz was the coolest thing to ever walk the earth (when I was ten). But he never learned to ride.

I saw this Fonz poster on eBay and wish I had it!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/FONZ-32-1-4-x-21-1-4-INCH-ORIGINAL-POSTER-ARNOLDS-HIS-TRIUMPH-/190642511794?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c632ddfb2
I have never this photo before? So cool. Does anyone have a better photo? IF I had to guess when this photo was taken, it appears it was shot during the filming of Season 2 Episode 24 “Not With My Sister, You Don’t” as shown a still image from the show in the last photo. Only time I recall shot outside and Fonz with sun glasses?