Do You Remember the ‘Happy Days’ Episode When Fonzie Finally Saw His Dad?
Hello, sailor! For Happy Days‘ leather-clad cool guy The Fonz, that playful greeting could really mean “Hi, dad!” After years of claiming he hadn’t seen his papa since he was a kid (more on that in a bit), Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli finally lays eyes on the man who sired him in the Season 6 episode “Christmas Time,” which aired Dec. 9, 1978. Problem is, doesn’t know the guy’s his dad until he’s gone again.
Here’s what went down when Fonzie (Henry Winkler) finally met his real father on Happy Days.
A sailor walks into a scar
As Fonzie is entertaining some ladies during the holidays, there comes a knock at his door. The Fonz opens it to find a silver-haired gent (Eddie Fontaine) wearing a black pea coat and a matching captain’s hat and holding a package. The fellow says he met Fonzie’s dad while both were sailors in Singapore (which Fonzie thinks is in New Jersey), and he asked the guy to deliver the parcel to his son.
Fonzie balks at the mention of his dad and tells the guy to get lost, just like his dad did when he was only 3. “Vito Fonzarelli?” the gentleman says. The name clearly means something to Fonz, and he lets the guy in. The sailor wonders if Fonzie might have a message for his old man, too, should the guy bump into Vito again. Fonz’s guard goes back up. “I got nothing to say to him … ever,” he grouses. The sailor beats a hasty retreat.
“Do I owe you anything for this?” Fonzie asks the guy of the package before he closes the door. “You don’t owe me anything,” the heartbroken sailor responds.
Oooooooh!
My daddy wrote me a letter
Paramount/Courtesy: Everett Collection
Later, reluctant Fonzie opens the package and discovers a letter revealing that the messenger at his door really was his dad after all. “I didn’t even get the chance to see his face real good!” Fonz says of the now two times his dad left him without a proper good-bye.
With the Cunningham family gathered, Richie (Ron Howard) cajoles Fonz into letting him read the letter out loud anyway. Turns out, Vito was a merchant seaman when he met Fonzie’s mom, stirring up even more tough feelings for Fonzie. Vito thought maybe he could settle down and be a family man, but he’s a wanderer at heart. And that’s that. Everyone else wants Fonz to try a little Christmas forgiveness, but Howard (Tom Bosley) assures his de facto son that Vito Fonzarelli is, indeed, an excuse-making bozo and a poor excuse for a dad.
Everett Collection
“Woooo!” Fonzie howls, hopping up on the table and looking completely unburdened. Howard’s validation frees him from thinking he did something to make his dad leave. “I thought I did something wrong … like gettin’ born,” Fonz explains.” But he gets that some people are just free spirits through and through.
“Do you know how good it feels not to hate anymore?” Fonz says burrowing his head into Marion’s neck. “It feels good!”
The episode’s success convinced show runners to later introduce Fonz’s mom and, in the show’s final season, his half-brother by Vito. To Fonz’s chagrin, the guy is a suit-wearing nerd who is also named Arthur Fonzarelli, but he goes by Artie. But he can sing the family lullaby, so there you go.
Past mentions of Fonzie’s dad
“Christmas Time” wasn’t the only time the Fonz mentioned his dad, perhaps to the chagrin of viewers concerned with continuity. In the Season 2 episode “A Star is Bored,” the Fonz plays Hamlet in a church play and compares himself to his character. He says Hamlet has a better lot than he does, because Fonzie’s dad left when he was 12 years old and it had a serious impact on the kid.
Or maybe he left when Fonzie was four.
In the Season 3 episode, “Howard’s 45th Fiasco,” Howard hides out from his family in Fonzie’s apartment when they don’t his misgivings about turning 45 seriously.
“I’m 45 years old and I’m never going to do anything great,” he tells the Fonz, who proceeds to set him straight.
“You do something great everyday of your life,” hollers the self-proclaimed “Dear Abby of Arnold’s.” “You take care of business, Jack! You take care of your family — your wife and your kids.”
“Anybody can do that,” Howard protests. Poppycock, Fonzie retorts (yes, poppycock). His dad left him when he was four years old, with nothing to show for it but a strong box with the key inside.
So was Fonzie 3, 4 or a mopey preteen? Doesn’t matter when Fonz’s dad left him — the guy can sit on it. What really counts is that Fonz has a forever family in the Cunninghams. Aaayyyyyyy!
Remind 
1974 (50 Years Ago)
January 2024
In this time capsule issue of ReMIND Magazine we look back 50 years ago to 1974!
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