Today is Henry Winkler’s birthday. Hooray! The erstwhile Fonz is 78 years young, and for his big day he got to spend on television, talking to the ladies of The View. He was a predictably lovely guest, as one would expect from a beloved actor who loves nothing more than catching fish. But they did something equally lovely for him.
Per People, Winkler was grinning from ear to ear as a View employee brought out a perfectly themed birthday cake. On it was a replica of Winkler as Fonzie, in one of his more iconic Happy Days moments: the bit in Season 5, Episode 3 in which he jumps a shark while waterskiing.
Winkler was beside himself, and he responded to his hosts in kind. “First of all, my birthday cake is that I got to sit at this table,” he told them. “That’s number one and that is the truth. You are very powerful, point-of-view women and that is amazing.
“Number 2,” he added, “I am the only actor in the world that jumped the shark twice — once on Happy Days, and once on Arrested Development.”
It’s true, Season 2, Episode 13 of the latter features an Easter Egg joke in which Winkler, as eternally disgraced Bluth family attorney Barry Zuckercorn, does a little jump over a small shark while on a dock.
When Winkler first jumped a shark back in 1977, he made history. The term “jump the shark” comes from that beloved bit, although its meaning is not heroic, as was Fonzie’s feat. Instead it’s a pejorative term about either a creative type (or a show, or a franchise, etc.) suddenly losing “it” and going stale. It certainly doesn’t apply to Winkler, who’s had quite the second act post-Happy Days and has, in fact, always ruled.
You can watch Winkler get his birthday cake in the video above and you can see both times he’s jumped a shark on TV below.
(Via People)