Henry Winkler turned back time on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon . The 73-year-old actor, who recently won his first-ever Emmy Award for his role as Gene Cousineau on HBO’s Barry, made his grand entrance on Jimmy Fallon’s late-night show by busting out moves he first debuted more than 40 years ago as streetwise sweetie Arthur Fonzarelli on Happy Days .
As the Tonight Show band played the Israeli folk song “Hava Nagila,” Winkler immediately broke out his famous Fonzie dance moves that he first made famous on a 1976 episode of the ABC sitcom, which he starred on from 1974-84.
Winkler didn’t miss a beat as he revealed his character’s most famous Fonz dance 43 years after he first performed it on the Happy Days episode “They Shoot Fonzies, Don’t They?” In the episode, a motorcycle mishap forced Winkler’s Fonz character to push his broken bike for 12 miles just before he partnered with Joanie Cunningham (Erin Moran) for a grueling dance marathon at Arnold’s. Future Dallas star Charlene Tilton guest starred in the episode that was filmed when Henry Winkler was just 30-years-old, per IMDB .
Fast forward 40 years later and Jimmy Fallon was completely blown away by Henry Winkler’s killer dance moves, which included plenty of energetic kicks and jumps. After Winkler’s fancy footwork was finished, an amazed Fallon remarked, “what an entrance – the audience certainly got their money’s worth.”
You can see Henry Winkler’s original Happy Days Fonzie dance and his Tonight Show redo in the videos below.
While Henry Winkler seems to have a natural dance ability—and a great memory when it comes to dancing moves—he draws the line at competing on the long-running ABC reality show Dancing with the Stars despite his long relationship with the celebrity ballroom competition’s network.
In a past interview with the Hollywood Reporter , Winkler made it clear that he has no interest in ever competing on the popular celebrity dance-off— not even “with someone else’s legs.”
While Henry Winkler admitted that he does watch and enjoy Dancing with the Stars , he added that the only way he would ever consider doing the show is if he could bring his former Happy Days co-star Ron Howard along for the ride.
“ I would do it if Ron was my partner,” Winkler said in 2011. “He’s like my younger brother.”
The second season of Henry Winkler’s new show Barry is expected to premiere on HBO sometime in 2019.
