Henry Winkler on ‘Hazardous History’ Season 2: ‘We’ve Unleashed a Monster!’ (Exclusive)

Season 1 of Hazardous History With Henry Winkler revealed the dumb, dangerous and potentially deadly side of the good ol’ days.

Celluloid combs that burst into flames. Lawn darts that produced 23,000 pounds of force per square inch. Baseball promotions that devolved into riots. A toy pistol that used explosive acetylene gas. Health tonics that were infused with toxic radium. Electrified belts that delivered “soothing current” to the male genitals.

There was also the 1896 “Crash at Crush,” when two trains were intentionally put on a head-to-head collision course for the entertainment of the masses. “I use that as an example when I’m explaining the show to somebody,” Winkler says. “This man built a faux town, laid track, bought these out-of-commission locomotives and had them smash into one another. You would think that people would run away and think this is the craziest thing they ever saw. And it turns out that the crowd only grew, and that people would be injured and run toward it anyway to get a souvenir.”

Season 2 premieres with “Killer Crazes,” looking back at those times when “everybody’s doing it” was reason enough to dive in headfirst.

The human instinct to be in on (and to profit from) the latest craze is a common thread in Hazardous History. “There are people who must have the newest — ‘It just hit the market’ and ‘I’m the first one on my block’ — not even taking into consideration, ‘Is it going to harm me or my family or my neighbor?’ I just need to have it,” Winkler says.

Henry Winkler on New Show 'Hazardous History': 'Oh Wow, What Were They Thinking?' (Exclusive)

'Playing polo on horses is dangerous enough. Playing polo with cars is INSANE. And yet we did it,' the 'Happy Days' star told us.

Remind

The new season also explores bizarre fads, such as the phonebooth-stuffing stunt in the 1950s. It will also look at some more discreet dangers, like how the postwar rise of basement rec rooms revealed an uninvited gaseous guest. “It unleashed a poison that has been waiting there for a millennium,” Winkler says. “But people didn’t know. And everybody got themselves a rec room and then they found out that, ‘Oh my God, we’ve unleashed a monster.’”

Hazardous History With Henry Winkler, Season Premiere, Sunday, April 19, at 9/8c, on History Channel