'Happy Days' stars first public reunion in over 50 years
"Happy Days" stars came together for the first time in decades.
During a panel at Steel City Con in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Anson Williams and Don Most reunited in public for the first time in 50 years and walked onto the stage with loud cheers from the audience.
"It feels like 50 minutes," Howard can be heard saying in an Instagram video posted on the event's official page. "It does. We're having so much fun hanging, and this is sort of our great excuse to come together, so thank you."
The foursome starred on the popular family-friendly sitcom together from 1974 to 1984, except for Howard, who left the show in 1980 after its seventh season. The show followed the Cunningham family and their close friends in Milwakee, Wisconsin, throughout the 1950s and 60s.
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At the event, Winkler reflected on the 11 seasons he spent working on the show, crediting the show's creator, Garry Marshall, for being a "brilliant creator" and "great writer" who put together a "wonderful cast."
"Some of them, unfortunately, are no longer on the Earth with us, but we played together, we stayed together, and we worked hard together," Winkler said about the relationships between the show's cast. "Nobody thought they were better than anybody else."
Howard echoed Winkler's sentiment, explaining "that was a huge key" to the show's success, and that as time went on, "the show evolved as, really, an ensemble."
"It was a life experience that's unlike anything else that I've ever known," he said. "And we had great chemistry. We had fun working together from the beginning, and it never failed us."
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Prior to the panel, Winkler spoke with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about how happy he was to reunite with his former cast mates publicly, noting that while "this is the first time that we will be together in a public setting" in the past 50 years, they have seen each other and "been together."
He also reiterated how instrumental Marshall was in the success of the show, sharing he "would not let bad behavior into the set" and brought the cast together.
"No matter who you were, no matter what, you were part of an ensemble. Everybody respected each other. Then, he created a softball team, and we played every Sunday. Then we traveled all over the country. Then we traveled all over the world."
In a separate Instagram post shared on the events page, the four men can be seen posing for photos while holding a certificate. The caption explained the certificates signify the declaration by the President of Allegheny County Council that April 5 will now be known as Happy Days Day in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
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Winkler and Howard previously reunited on stage at the 2024 Emmy Awards, to honor the 50th anniversary of "Happy Days." The pair walked out onto the stage, which was recreated to look like the set of Arnold’s Drive-In.