When Travolta Auditioned to Play Fonzie.

i did not know that welcome to another episode of i did not know that thanks for stopping by ever wonder about something maybe you'll find it here check out all the other videos on this channel and remember to like and subscribe can you imagine john travolta as not only the fonz but a blonde fonzie well it could have easily happened in a 1977 interview travolta talked about his happy day's audition for the role of fonzie and that's what we'll look at on this episode of i did not know that classic tv happy days premiered in 1974 but actually the original concept for the show aired on an episode of a tv show called love american style in 1972. when they decided to make it into a series some of the cast was replaced including howard the father and joanie richie's sister the character fonzie never appeared in the love american style program when they had tryouts for the role of fonzie it eventually came down to two actors mickey dolans and henry winkler dolans of course had already been in a hit tv series called the monkeys when winkler saw that dolan's was the other finalist he thought oh great mickey dolan's now i'll never get the part and he was almost right gary marshall the producer really liked mickey for the role he'd seen dolan's play a biker in an episode of adam 12 and he thought he'd be perfect and he probably would have gotten the role except for one thing dolan's was six feet tall and the rest of the cast was rather short he was ahead taller than ron howard and anson williams and they felt that winkler at 5 6 would be a better fit for the rest of the cast but what most people probably don't know is that there was another actor who wanted that role john travolta like winkler was an unknown actor at the time he'd been doing commercials and playing the character of duty in the broadway musical stage play grease and thought he'd be able to play the part of fonzie travolta said that when he read the script fonzie was described as having blonde hair he said he kept wondering if he'd have to dye his hair blonde if he got the part and he sounded like he wasn't real crazy about that idea he didn't have to worry about it long because he didn't get the part maybe the hype thing doomed him like mickey dolan's he also tried out for the role of potsie and didn't get that part either travolta said that when happy days eventually came on the air and became a hit he saw the fawns had dark hair and thought i could have been the fonz after all well he was disappointed he knew there'd be other chances and not long after that he hit it big as barbarino on welcome back cotter ironically both he and henry winkler became two of the biggest tv male stars of the 1970s the funny thing is that it wasn't long before magazines attempted to portray the actors as enemies and rivals for the teen audience but in reality it was the complete opposite winkler watched as travolta suddenly became the new media sensation and he understood exactly what he was going through he knew what it was like to go from a nobody to fonzie so he reached out to travolta and asked how he was handling the sudden fame it wasn't long before the two developed a friendship travolta of course went on to become even a bigger star in films like saturday night fever and greece after his sweat hog days after seeing how well travolta portrayed a 50s member of the t-birds in greece it's not too hard to imagine him doing a pretty good job as fonzie ironically the first choice the producers had to play danny zuko in greece henry winkler but he turned it down because he said he couldn't carry it to him hey thanks for stopping by and watching i appreciate you supporting this channel [Music]

Channel: I Did Not Know That

Views: 344,573

Keywords: John Travolta, Happy Days, Fonzie, The Fonz

Id: SIEJ3g5T2mk

Length: 4min 20sec (260 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 21 2021