Why ‘Happy Days’ Creator Garry Marshall Almost Killed Off Richie Cunningham
Happy Days ran for 255 episodes over 11 seasons, but there’s one that stood out in creator Garry Marshall‘s memory as being the most heartfelt: when Richie Cunningham nearly lost his life.
“Happy Days tried all these different types of shows,” Marshall said in a 2009 interview with the Television Academy’s Archive of American Television series, “culminating with the best one, which I guess was our most emotional show.”
The episode in question is season 5’s “Richie Almost Dies,” which aired on Jan. 31, 1978. In it, The Fonz (Henry Winkler) sells Richie (Ron Howard) a motorcycle. Richie’s father (Tom Bosley) doesn’t want him to keep it, but The Fonz assures Mr. Cunningham that the bike is safe. Soon after, however, Richie gets into an accident that leaves him comatose and on the verge of death. Seeing his friend in the hospital, Fonzie utters a prayer and ultimately breaks down in tears.
Fonzie’s crying was a key point to the episode, according to Marshall. “There was a group in Massachusetts who [helped] abused children, who were special cases,” he said in 2009. “They didn’t know what to do with them; they were just totally catatonic. They would never show any emotion whatsoever.”
Marshall, who died in 2016 at age 81, said that the children all liked watching Happy Days, and they all liked Fonzie “because he never cried.” Garry said that the children, who came from abusive homes, had already spent most of their lives crying.
The doctors approached Marshall about having Fonz show emotion. “They said, ‘It would be great if he could cry.’ And we did an episode special for that. It was when Richie had an accident.”
“They said they [the kids] were glued to the set,” said Marshall. But Fonzie’s waterworks didn’t instantly change everything for the troubled kids.
“Some just couldn’t take it,” said Marshall. “They got up and left. As soon as [Fonzie] cried, they got up and walked out of the room. But it opened the door for discussion. ‘Did you see? No, he didn’t cry! Yes, he did.’ So that is what I think was the most emotional episode.”
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