'HAPPY DAYS' STAR'S ALL-TIME FAVORITE EPISODE MARKED A MAJOR SHIFT IN THE SHOW
In September 1975, Happy Days was in its third season, and changes were afoot. The ABCsitcom had gone from a filmed single-camera series to a multi-camera comedy taped in front of a live studio audience, and it had a new opening theme song. The shift of the show was also moving toward Henry Winkler’s Fonzie character, and co-star Don Most’s favorite episode paved the way for it.
In an interview with Woman’s World, Most was asked to name his favorite episode from Happy Days' 11 seasons. The actor admitted that if he had to pick one, his favorite was an episode that featured his character, Ralph Malph, in a bigger role. But it was also a very Fonzie-heavy episode.
“It was the first episode where the storyline really revolved around Ralph,” Most recalled. “There’s this scene where I walk into Arnold’s with a suitcase, and Richie [Ron Howard] asks, ‘Where are you going, Ralph?’ I say, ‘West.’ I was getting the hell out of Dodge.”
“I got really into preparing for that one,” the actor added. “I would go out at night and sneak around alleyways just to get into the mindset of what it felt like to be really scared. I was just so committed to making that moment real."
The episode Most referred to was the second episode of Season 3, titled ”The Motorcycle.” The episode featured a furious Fonzie freaking out after finding that someone wrecked his beloved motorcycle. The culprit was Ralph, who hit the parked bike with his car, and later explained why he stuffed parts of the wreckage into the Cunningham family’s mailbox. “I thought, if I could just hide it…” he explained.
Suddenly, Fonzie’s motorcycle was a new character on Happy Days. “The Motorcycle" episode led right into the iconic two-parter, “Fearless Fonzarelli,” which featured Fonzie jumping his bike over 14 trash cans. From that point on, Fonzie became a much bigger focus on the show, to the point that producers considered changing the name of the show to Fonzie’s Happy Days.
Don Most said producers were good about giving all of the characters' storylines
In an interview with Pop Goes the Culture TV, Most revealed that fans often asked him to name his favorite Happy Days episode.
“It’s tough,” he admitted. “I'm obviously a little biased and lean towards ones where the episodes really featured my character, because they were really good about that, where once or twice a year, there'd be a script where Ralph was a sort of the central part of the story. So I lean towards those.”
“I guess the closest [to a favorite] was one written by Bill Bickley and his partner at the time, Michael Warren," Mots shared. "And it was the one where somebody had totally demolished Fonzie’s motorcycle, and he was out to get the guy who did it, and it turns out I had accidentally hit it. And then I panicked and I backed up, and I went forward and back, and then I was hiding pieces in the mailbox and all that. And he was out to get the guy, and I was like, ‘Don't kill me!”
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Fonzie remained a focus but didn’t get the title change
The Fonzie character had originally been a side character in Happy Days. and had very few lines. But following episodes such as "The Motorcycle" in Season 3, his popularity soared, and he became a main character for the remainder of the series. Still, producers stopped short of changing the show’s name.
In an interview with Vulture, Howard admitted he threatened to walk if the series became the "Fonzie" show.
“I never, ever challenged what they were doing creatively. It made perfect sense that you’d build this Fonzie character and maximize that,” Howard said of Happy Days producers. “But the optics of now being in a show called Fonzie’s Happy Days, my ego wouldn’t allow for that. I wasn’t bluffing. I would’ve left. And my contract, I’m sure, had no clause connected to titles. …But thank God for great bosses. [Showrunner] Garry Marshall said, ‘If you’re not cool with it …'”
2026-03-06T15:46:30Z