During the 2024 Emmy Awards on Sunday night, the former Happy Days stars Ron Howard and Henry Winkler shared a touching reunion forty years after the beloved sitcom ended.

Howard And Winkler Reunite

Howard, 70, and Winkler, 78, teamed up to present the award for best direction of a comedy series. They walked out onto a set that paid tribute to the iconic Arnold’s Drive-In from Happy Days. It was even complete with a vintage jukebox!

“This is fantastic,” said Howard, who portrayed Richie Cunningham. Winkler, who portrayed Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli, was quick to agree, saying, “Feels like home.”

Howard proceeded to try and convince Winkler to recreate one of Fonzie’s signature moves. This involved him banging on the jukebox to get it to play music.

“First of all, I’m out of practice,” Winkler said. Howard, however, wasn’t having any of it, and he insisted that he try.

“You went to the Yale School of Drama, Henry!” Howard exclaimed. “C’mon, you know you can do it.”

Winkler Bumps The Jukebox

After shrugging his shoulders in the way that The Fonz always did, Winkler bumped the machine. This caused the Happy Days theme song to begin to play.

“Well done,” Howard said as the audience cheered.

Emmys executive producer Jesse Collins had teased this reunion last Thursday.

“I’m curious to see if you think we matched the jukebox,” Collins told Variety. “There’s a whole jukebox conversation.”

Check out the full reunion for yourself below.

Related: ‘Happy Days’ Alums Henry Winkler, Donny Most, And Anson Williams Reunite To Attend Iola Car Show

Happy Days History

Howard later took to social media to say that the reunion was “so …. much… fun. and a little emotional.”

Happy Days ran for eleven seasons from 1974 until 1984. The show also starred Tom Bosley, Marion Ross, Erin Moran, Scott Baio and Anson Williams. In the decades since the show went off the air, the entire cast has remained very good friends.

“We immediately bonded and became great friends,” Howard said back in 2021. “We were a fantastic ensemble — we all got along great.”

Howard and Winkler are particularly close. In fact, Winkler is godfather to all four of Howard’s children. This is all the more impressive, given how open Howard has been about clashing with network executives after Winkler skyrocketed to fame playing Fonzie.

“It was a really interesting kind of paradoxical situation because the show began, and the Richie Cunningham character was the undeniable lead of the show,” Howard previously recalled.

“When we would go out of the road to promote the show, it was just insane, focused on Fonzie, clearly that was very exciting,” he continued. “Except the executives, studio heads, network heads, you know, they started treating me with a lot of disrespect from a business standpoint [and] in terms of interaction.”

“The press kept saying ‘What’s it like? Do you feel like you’ve become a secondhand citizen on your own show?'” he remembered.

Related: Henry Winkler Opens Up About ‘Debilitating’ Pain After ‘Happy Days’ Ended

Howard And Winkler Head Down Under

While this was understandably difficult for Howard, he never let it damage his friendship with Winkler.

Earlier this year, Howard and Winkler met up in Sydney, Australia. There, Howard supported Winkler as the latter was on his book tour for his “Being Henry: The Fonz…and Beyond” memoir.

Howard and Winkler’s reunion was one of the highlights of last night’s Emmy Awards. We wish them both many years of health and happiness to come!

Mentioned in this article:

More About: