Turner & Hooch is a family-friendly police comedy featuring Tom Hanks, which enjoyed notable audience success in the United States in 1989. The film was directed by Roger Spotiswoode, but few people know that he wasn’t the production’s first choice: the director’s chair had actually been offered to Henry Winkler, the actor who had portrayed the iconic Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli from 1974 to 1984 in Happy Days, during a period when he was trying to diversify his career. In an interview with Graham Bensinger for his In Depth series, Winkler spoke with a degree of bitter honesty about what happened on set… and why he was moved aside, leaving the directing duties to Spotiswoode. A difficult moment in his career.
Was Henry Winkler removed from directing Turner & Hooch for overreach?
Among the most defining and painful experiences, Henry Winkler—better known as Fonzie—recalls one that he discusses with a heavy heart: losing the directing chair on Turner & Hooch with Tom Hanks, being dismissed by a powerful figure like Jerry Bruckheimer in person, who at the time was the president of the Walt Disney Studios. For those unaware, the then-octogenarian Winkler had made his directorial debut with Discovering Dad (1988) and perhaps hoped to follow in the footsteps of his Happy Days co-star, the reliable Ron Howard. That path did not materialize, because the impact of the following film proved traumatic. “Lesson I’ve learned: when your instincts scream ‘Danger! Red alert!’ you must trust your gut. You can doubt your brain, but never your gut. I went completely against my gut instinct, and I took a solid hit in the face. […] I had met the kids, I had met Tom, we did some auditions together for the female role, he chose Mare Winningham, a very capable actress, there was a rapport, an electricity with Mare. […] I think that at the time, because I was insecure, I talked too much. I always gave directions—I thought that was my job—and I always wanted to shoot more takes. Apparently, that thing made them angry. After thirteen days of filming, I was summoned to Jeff Katzenberg’s office. Then I returned to the set, grabbed my things, got in the car, and drove home. The director had been fired. […] I didn’t take it well, I was devastated. My agent called me immediately: ‘Come on, let’s go to lunch, you’ve got to go out, you’ve got to be seen!’ And I said, ‘Okay.’ But I wasn’t even hungry.”
Winkler, who tried the director’s chair only one more time with A Cop and a Half (1993), before turning to one-off TV episodes, still does not fully explain the reasons behind the tension between him and Hanks, who even refused permission to use a 60-second clip from his Happy Days appearance for a celebration. Henry, who remains active in small roles and enjoyed a renewed wave of popularity with the series Arrested Development (2003-2019), nevertheless maintains optimism about a possible reconciliation.
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