To earn viewers' love while you're acting in a television series is quite the accomplishment. However, any actor can garner a fan base while their series is on air. It is the mark of a good television series and an even better actor when those fans remain devoted after the series has aired its final episode.

According to a 2025 interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Henry Winkler is still regularly approached by fans who remember his time on Happy Days.

Winkler has since appeared in hit shows like Arrested Development and Barry, but fans everywhere still remember him as Arthur Fonzarelli.

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“Happy Days, for 50 years, people have come up to me everywhere in the world and metaphysically embraced me," said Winkler.

Winkler wasn't just embraced by fans of an older generation. Younger viewers also frequently approached them, having watched the series as a means to connect with their older family members.

"Young people come up," said Winkler. "[They] say 'Oh my God,' and they start crying, and they say, 'I used to watch this with my grandmother or my grandfather. This was our activity. We would watch Happy Days and laugh together.' It was a show that brought the entire family under one television as opposed to everybody watching their own TV in their own rooms."

Winkler was never upset at the attention that Happy Days had given him. Rather, he was grateful. "What that show gave me in my life, on every level, the warmth that I receive walking through the world because of that character,” said the actor.