Happy Days was one of the funniest sitcoms of the 1970s. But once in a while, writers for the ABC hit would feature a serious storyline—and in January 1978, they delivered a doozy.
The episode, titled “Richie Almost Dies,” started as a funny segment about Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) buying a motorcycle from Fonzie (Henry Winkler). But it ended in a hospital room with a heartbreaking heavenly plea after Richie suffered injuries from a serious crash.
The episode offered Winkler, a Yale Drama School graduate, a rare chance to do dramatic acting on Happy Days.
In one of the episode’s final scenes, Fonzie appears at a comatose Richie’s bedside and tells him he can’t die.
“You can't do this,” Fonzie says as he begins to break down. “A lot of people are counting on you... Mother, Father, Joanie, Ralph, Potsie... you can't go yet, you got a whole lifetime ahead of you... I need ya. You're my best friend. I know I've never said that before, but I'm saying that now. You are my best friend, and I don't want to lose you."
Fonzie’s emotional scene also includes a plea to God.
“Hey, Sir? We gotta have a little chat here,” he says as he looks above. “It's about my best friend Richie. He's in really bad shape. I know you know that, but the world's kinda goin' a little wacko, ya know? You need people down here like him, and if you don't, I do! I can fix a lot of things, but this one's all yours, so let's make a little deal. You do this for me, and I'll owe ya one!”
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Decades later, fans still talk about the Happy Days hospital scene on YouTube and on classic TV fan forums.
“What a fine actor Henry Winkler was, this was the first time you ever see Fonz cry,” one fan wrote in a comment on YouTube.
“Henry Winkler should have earned an Emmy for this episode,” another wrote.
“That was probably the best scene in all of Happy Days,” a third fan agreed.
“I remember the night this aired and was in tears along with Fonz,” added another.
ABC Photo Archives / Getty Images
In a 2009 interview with The Television Academy Foundation, series creator Garry Marshall described the episode as the “best” and “most emotional” of the series. He also revealed that the episode was written at the request of staffers at a Massachusetts children’s hospital.
The children, many of whom came from abusive homes, liked watching Fonzie on Happy Days “because he never cried,” so doctors approached Marshall about having the character show that it was okay to show emotion.
“They said, ‘It would be great if [Fonzie] could cry,’” Marshall recalled. “And we did an episode special for that. It was when Richie had an accident.”
Howard also spoke about the episode, telling The Television Academy Foundation that he was glad that Winkler was able to showcase his dramatic acting background on the sitcom.
“By that point in the life of the series, the [Fonzie] character had gotten bigger and broader, and that's what the audience wanted,” Howard shared. “And Henry was capable of giving it …but the kind of emotion and honest emotion and in power that Henry, you know, I knew had to offer just was not on display very often. We didn't do much of that, and so you know I thought it was really good writing.”
“It wasn't a hard episode for me,” the Happy Days star added. “But what I was most pleased with was that it gave Henry a really great moment, and I thought it also was good because it shifted the tone of the show a little bit. … You know, at that point we were pretty broad and really reaching for the most fun that could be had, the biggest laughs we could generate. And to dial it back and, you know, deal with something like that that isn't funny and not play it for laughs was really a nice change. I think we all really loved that script.”
More than 50 years after "Richie Almost Dies" first aired, the episode remains a standout from Happy Days' long run, and a powerful reminder that amid the laughs and nostalgia was a show willing to explore deeply emotional moments.
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