Season 1 Episode 1 The Fonz

  • 12 years ago
Season 1 Episode 1 The Fonz
This is the very 1st time we see the Fonz do his famous comb mirror thing.

Oh, those AWFUL windbreaker episodes!
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.

Fonzie was wearing a windbreaker instead of his patented leather jacket and motorcycle boots. Somebody at ABC had decided that a hoodlum was an inappropriate character for the eight o'clock time slot. Marshall was able to convince ABC that Fonzie couldn't possibly ride his motorcycle in a thin windbreaker that he was wearing. The network eventually agreed and said that Fonzie could wear the leather jacket only when he was with the motorcycle. The bike never left the Fonz's side during the first season, even for indoor scenes. Finally, ABC decided to let Fonzie wear his leather jacket during all scenes in the later seasons.

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.

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