The deal didn’t close until the following morning, though, so I arrived at work two hours later than the call time. When I walked in, the whole cast applauded.
I loved my Happy Days family, but I was nearing the time to move on. I was fond of the show’s original premise, that it was about a family living in Milwaukee in the 1950s. This became less of a guiding principle as the seasons progressed. Anson was trying to launch a singing career and stopped cutting his hair short. The extraordinarily gifted Robin Williams joined us for one amazing episode as the shaggy-haired, center-parted Mork. He had traveled to Milwaukee from a place called Ork, which I guess meant “the late ’70s.” This guest appearance quickly evolved into a hit series for Robin and Garry Marshall.
And in the show’s fifth season, we opened with an implausible three-episode arc in which the whole gang traveled from Milwaukee to Southern California, where a pompous local bully challenged Fonzie to a waterskiing competition. We shot the exterior scenes in Malibu. My biggest concern that day was how sunburned I was getting—we pale redheads are helpless at the beach. But my fellow redhead Donny Most, also hiding from the sun, was more concerned by the script. We were sitting next to each other as he paged through it.
“This script, Ron. Uh, what do you think of it?” Donny said.
“I don’t know, Donny. The writers know what they’re doing. I’m sure it will work,” I said.
Donny paused and then held the script open, pointing to a specific page. “So Fonzie, he’s . . . he’s jumping a shark now?”
He actually said those words, years before they became a cultural catchphrase. Donny innately sensed that something was conceptually amiss, that maybe, just maybe, the storylines were going a little too far. It must be noted, however, that the “jump the shark” episode was a ratings juggernaut and that Happy Days remained a roaring success, lasting six seasons beyond that one.
When my seven-year contract was up, I didn’t rule out staying on with Happy Days for a little longer. ABC offered me a financially generous new deal. But I had recently made the acquaintance of a remarkable NBC executive named Deanne Barkley, one of the first women to hold real power in the TV industry. Deanne had been impressed by Grand Theft Auto and believed in me as a fledgling director. Through her, I struck up an informal relationship with NBC that led me to produce and direct three modestly budgeted family-friendly television movies over the next three years, all made while Happy Days was on hiatus.
As such, Cheryl and I never got the chance in this period to take time off for a real vacation. But doing those films helped me further hone my chops and build my confidence as a director. So, when ABC and I were in negotiations to stay on Happy Days, I asked them if their offer could be amended to include the opportunity to direct some TV movies and, perhaps, a feature for Paramount, our parent company.
They turned down this request. The response I received was, “We’re happy to hear your ideas. But we don’t make blind deals like that.” NBC, on the other hand, offered me a straight producing and directing deal for three more TV films, a series pilot, and partial financing for a feature film. No acting required. The financial guarantees were paltry compared to ABC’s. Paramount’s chief of TV, Gary Nardino, couldn’t believe I was contemplating NBC’s offer. “Ron,” he said, “did you do the math?”
I had. But at that point, I knew where my heart lay. My negotiations with the networks went right down to the wire. It wasn’t until the day that the Happy Days cast reconvened for its eighth season, in the fall of 1980, that the NBC deal went through officially, sealing my future.
I knew the number of the pay phone on the floor of Studio 19 at Paramount. I called it and asked to speak to Henry.
“Ron, where are ya?” he said when he picked up the receiver. “You’re supposed to be here!”
“It’s going to hit the press in about ten minutes, but I wanted to tell you first, Henry—I’m not coming back. I’m going to direct full-time.”