January 31, 2025 • 41 mins
Longevity in Hollywood is no easy feat, but 'Happy Days' icon Anson Williams shares his secret to a long and successful career.
What he remembers about directing several episodes of 90210, and how Bette Davis impacted his career in a major way!
Plus, his special project with Tori's TV husband and why he says the 'Happiest' moments on Happy Days weren't even on the set.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's nine.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
With Jenny Garth and Tory Spelling.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
He's best known for playing Patzi on Happy Days, but
he has also had a fantastic career as a director.
Anson Williams joins US Today to talk about his time
on the side of Beverly Hills nine O two one.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Oh, here's our friend who's a handsome man. Hello, God,
how do you still make goodness?
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Stop it?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
That's so cool?
Speaker 4 (00:36):
You are you kidding me? He was, OK, filter, I
have no filters.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh my gosh, this is so great to see you.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
It's so good to see you guys too. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
In that life, that o Hi life, well O high life.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
It's it's a quiet life up here, but it's it's nice.
It's it's a beautiful place, you know. Yeah, it kind
of time stops here. Yeah, and no one cares about
who you are, which you know, and it's a it's
a very it's a kind creative community.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I don't believe even in Ohai people don't care who
you are, like one of the most characters in TV history. Sorry,
you're not getting away from that.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Okay, all right, okay, fine, but you know, guys, can
you believe how many years since line two. One. Oh right,
how many years since Happy Days? I mean, seriously, we
just had our fiftieth oh last January, this last January.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Would you guys do.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Not much? I thought there'd be a big event, but
but the thing is, I think, like you guys, we
have been close friends for decades, Henry don Ron myself.
I mean we're literally a text way, you know, just
and we never talked business, We never talk about you know,
we just talk about you know, love and heart and family.
(02:08):
And it's just been a wonderful friendship. And just to
have that and on a show, to have that kind
of friendship that many years, it's it's pretty unique. But
that's a lot to do with Gary Marshall, our mentor,
you know. And he was like a like a college professor,
(02:30):
and he he really cared about us, not just as
a showruner, but as young people because we didn't know much.
And he really inspired us to educate ourselves in entertainment.
To our many hats. He made sure that Paramount Studios
was a college. He made it a meaning guys, you know,
(02:51):
if you want to last in this business, you better
wear quite a few hats and get it, get out,
get don't get in the way of yourself. You're not
that great, you know, you really aren't. He said, you know,
shadow directors come to the writing sessions, go to the
editing rooms, whatever you need. This is your school. And
I think that's why all of us are still involved.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
And that's it.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
That's such a giving person. He liked to bring you
in like that and let all of you learn the
ropes in the ins and outs of not just acting
but the business.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yes, I get so smart. I wish we had that.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Well, and I tried as a director to to kind
of pay that forward early on Gary, Here we are.
He sat us down. I'll never get He sat us down.
He said, you guys are gonna be famous. Don't deserve it.
You're gonna be famous. There's gonna be a light on you.
(03:47):
Your responsibility is take the light and put it on
someone that does deserve it, help them out. And it
really hit it hit home, and you know, we've all
kind of live by that. And the other thing he did,
which was incredible. They asked people ask us, oh, what's
(04:09):
the greatest moments on the set of Happy Days? What's
And I think I thought, well, it's not really the set.
I mean we had fun times. It was the ball team.
It was a softball team. And Gary was a sports fanatic,
and he goes, I'd like us to go to every
colleg I'd like to go to every major stadium in
the United States. Let's put together a ball team. We're
(04:31):
all ex athletes. The only one who wasn't was Henry,
but Ron Howard and Clenn Howard's brother taught him how
to pitch and he ended up being really, really good.
So he really had a very good ball team. And
Gary put this team together and we played in every
major stadium in the United States, pregames, hardly ever lost.
(04:51):
We went on USO Tours, playing against the Marines, the
Army you know over the China Sea where the third
Infantry Division Germany, and he said, he goes, and I
put it together because, yeah, he goes, you always have
the back of your teammate. I think it's going to
come back to the set. I think it's going to
stop a lot of egos. And sure enough, I mean
(05:13):
for over a decade. Yeah, ball team, And those are
the moments. I mean, we're we're in Germany. Uh what
was the name of that? Oh gosh, the small third
Infrey Division and what's the name of the town? I
forgot But in that little town, it was very original,
over a thousand years old, and there was a castle
(05:34):
and it was the original suit of armors and everything
else in there. But they turned it into a restaurant
and an overlooked brine river and there's Ron Henry Donny
myself where at the table. Instead of serving water, they
had wine dispensers. You got a glass of wine, not water. Wow,
(05:54):
we were feeling no pain. So we ended up going
outside on this original terrorists that's one thousand and seven
years old, singing splush blasts to the entire over the
Rhine River, to the entire city of Wartzburg. Okay, you
can't make those stories up, man, what.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
An incredibly I wish that we had that kind of
somebody sit us down in the beginning and say, we
are a team, we are together.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
You're so young, you don't know. You need someone to
kind of guide. Wait, was the ball team called Happy
Days or it.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Was the Happy Day Team? And it's so great And
if you wanted a line in Happy Days, it's an extra.
Just be a good ballplayer, football player. Listen, we're taking
you to Germany. I'll give you a line.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
That's how you recruited.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
I'm telling you. It was so basic, it was so tactile,
the whole situation was, and it was so funny. Got
to the point where Jerry Paris are amazing director, one
of the greatest comedy directors in history. He did All
the Dick Band, He played Jerry the dentist next door
in Melbourk's. We had the most most brilliant comedy minds
(07:07):
in the world on that set, which is incredible. But
but it got to the point where people would come
down and they thought we were nuts during rehearsal because
you know, it was three camera at the time, so
it's like a play, you know, which I think, by
the way, really helped with the camaraderie, unlike nine on
two one zero, where it's kind of piecemealed. It's a
(07:29):
you know, it's like a movie. Here we're together every day.
Every day, we're together rehearsing theater basically. But it got
to the point he'd say, okay, here first rehearsal. Okay,
your answers start here, you go there, Henry coming here, Okay,
let's go. It's like going, well, hey, Richie ah, you
never had to say words a grunt. You knew it
(07:52):
wasn't funny, you knew the timing is all. You didn't
have to say anything. You knew. So basically rehearsal was
a bunch of grunts and people would say, what are they?
Is that a language? What are they doing?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
It's yeah, oh that's so good when you know somebody
so well grunts everything, uh huh.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
And I really do think, and I actually think for
you guys, because honestly, the one thing directing nine or
two and zero and all that, I don't remember the
scripts that much. I remember you guys and the joy
of working with you guys all individually different days. Just
a wonderful group, no we goes, I mean really beautiful.
And I really remember the times you reached starting to
(08:33):
direct an episode and all our direct you'd ask questions
and it was just a beautiful time on a set
with a great and a wonderful cast and just so
heartfelt uh so kind to me, you know, I mean,
because you know you're the director, you're the odd person out.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Well, what what made you want to pivot from being
like this iconic character in television history to directing to
going behind the scenes.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Well, actually it actually started early in that I started
writing and producing for directing. I never really meant to
just stay at an actor at all. I actually thought
I got a lot for not much. I thought I
went about as far as I can go as an actor.
I've always been more interested behind the camera, writing or whatever.
(09:21):
So I did educate myself as on the paramount lot,
just in terms of the craft and all that. And
then in nineteen eighty Ron Howard had a deal at
NBC for three movies of the Weeks, and the first
two were like okay, And I told I said to Ron,
(09:45):
you know, I said, you're too good. You got to
do something substantial here. You got a movie of the week.
Assess something something. So one night I visited my parents
in Burbank, and I was driving back home and I
passed the Burmac Airport and kind of a remote area
(10:06):
of it, I saw this old plane and I saw
someone in a wheelchair handing something to someone working on
the plane. And I had been involved in with several
palsy because my cousin had several palsy, so I was
I did a lot of charity work. And I looked
at that and I went, WHOA, and this idea came
(10:26):
to be called Skyward. I said, you make this child
in this always look up. You're always looking up, so
they're always looking skyward and this so everything becomes free
in the sky and basically, will I ever look down?
Will they ever look up at me? And I thought,
what if this person learned to fly? So created this
(10:48):
film called Skywork. I visited to Ron, he said, I
love this. We went to Brandon Tartakoff at NBC. He said,
I love this. I looked. So they put it into
the and we wrote a script and they he said, okay,
that's great. Melissa su and is playing the lead. We
(11:09):
have this deal with her, and Ron and I are going,
you know, we really should have we found this disabled actress.
It's fantastic. No one knows they're fantastic, and we really
shouldn't be hypocritical. We should really give a shot to
an actress who's disabled. And he's going on and on,
and we're arguing, and he's going he goes, look, guys,
(11:29):
this is business. We have a deal with Melissa Sue Anderson.
We have to pay her play movie of the week.
And we're going on and on and on finally, So
we go finally, I said, okay, Ron, Ron does the
scene with Susie Gilstrap, who's a paraplegic, and we're there
and we put it together and we bring it back
to Brandon. He's like so frustrated. Now he goes, all right,
(11:52):
you got this other part, Billy an ex stump part
of the Lady. Blah blah blah blah blah. You get me
Bettie Davis, you got your girl. Well that's the pope
at the time. All right, yeah, I mean it's like, really,
I go, thanks a lot. We're walking out. I tell Ron, well,
it's Melissa. We did our best. It's Melissa Swanners and
(12:15):
we did our freaking best. That's it. So that night
on Carson there's Betty Davis no on Curson Society. I'm
tired of playing women's parts. I want to do something
with action.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Hey, that's pretty good action.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
I'm going stumpilot later. That's action, you know. So I go,
I go, Ron, bro, let's get this script over I
don't know the agent. I don't just find a regent.
Let's get it over there. We get the script over there.
Betty Davis trusts nobody in life especially buboynowns to us
she reads everything submitted. We didn't think it ething get
(12:54):
to her.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
She said yes, Oh my gosh, wow, she.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Said yes, And we got Susie and we got and
that was the film that got raw at the features.
That's the film Alan Ladd Junior saw it. Okay, I'm
for night Shifts. Oh. And that all came out of
Happy Days, out of Gary Marshall. I just showing you
how things happened. So produce that and I was exec producer,
(13:20):
wrote the story, We wrote the script, blah blah blah,
did a few others and then I was like, as
I said, you know, this producing stuff's cold. I mean,
you're not involved, You're kind of away. You're not you know.
He goes, you should direct? I go, oh great, a
third career, thanks, you know, he said. So. Basically, I
had a show in development called No Greater Gift. It
(13:43):
was an after school special co wrote with a partner
and it was about it was really one based on
a inspired by a true story about organ downership between
these two kids. Anyway, No Greater Gift, and I was
able to beg the network to let me direct language show.
And that was the beginning of it, and that put
(14:03):
me behind the camera, and from there it just progressed,
thankfully through the years.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
You're a trifecta.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Yeah, wow, that's such a beautiful progression though, because as
you ended that show on Happy Days, I would imagine
I know that we probably felt this way pigeonholed into
that stereotypical character. People didn't really want to see you
as other characters. It was a little more challenging as
an actor, but you could just kind of pivot. Yeah,
(14:50):
when we found out you POTSI was directing our show,
we were all freaking thinking out.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Really, I imagine every buddy who was directed by photos
with you.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Which never did with anyone who came on the show.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Then you ended up being like, we became friends with you,
Like you're one of the few directors on nine that
became like our buddy, our friend, like someone we trusted
and we would have like great conversations outside of directing
and acting.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Because you were started as an actor, like you, he
got us.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Oh really got us totally. And it's acting is very
sensitive area. I mean, we're all I mean, everyone has
the background of why they go into into acting anyway,
it's pretty complex, a lot of a lot of emotions,
a lot of reasons. I'm like, you know, make up
for loss whatever. But you know, and it's a and
(15:51):
there's just I mean, and you know, trust and love
and like comfort means everything, you know where and collaboration
means everything. And I hated directors, honestly, God, they go,
I'm the director. It's like a director is a storyteller.
It's all you are. It's like whatever your psychologist, you ever,
(16:12):
whatever you have to do to make it work. You know,
you're not You're not that. What's important is what's printed.
There's a lot of people involved in that, a lot
of talent involved in that, a lot of sensitive situations
in that, you know, And it's a big how do
you collaborate everyone and get it done and get it
done right? And everyone feels involved and everyone feels satisfied
(16:34):
with their part.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yeah, that's the job.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
It's such a group like village mentality like it is.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
It's really and you guys.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Oh my god, how you could you could? You guys
couldn't be more popular? And how many it was it
ten years or eleven? How many years? Ten years? And
that was happy to its ten ten years the same thing.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Really rarity, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
And here you guys still are still souper, are popular,
but you all give back, you're all, you're all. You know,
it's important to be you know, examples of you know,
of doing the right thing and you know, and it's
you know, not be a giver and not a taker.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
We've always realized and maintained that our fans are are everything,
like we'd be nothing without them. Yes, so we'll forever
be grateful. How often do people say potsy? Nowadays?
Speaker 4 (17:33):
A lot they still say, but it's so funny early
on unhappy days, we're real popular and we're getting potsy
potsy potsy and honestly being young, Ron Howard was there
and I said, you know this Potzi stuff. Man, He goes, answering,
you got to earn your name. They know you this character. Hey,
how do you think I feel? I have two Opi
(17:54):
and Richie. He goes, he got one. Shut up, I
gotta new I that makes OPI is pretty good. Okay,
I get it. Yeah, you have to earn our names
to take this and do something bigger with it. That's
where it's you and that's directing and writing whatever. And
you earn your way, you know, you earn your way
(18:16):
and that makes sense. That was a had a run
had a big influence on me and Gary Marshall. But
it's true. And now and then it gets what were
you doing? They they know what you do now, they're
probably know you're direct they know you're right, but they
still love your character. You know, it's cool, it's great.
I mean, Ron, I was just wrong. Ron had won
the Oscar and they're calling him Richie. It's like, you go,
(18:39):
this's great. Whatever makes forever.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
It's forever.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
The power of what you guys do. Seriously, Henry Winkler
and I don't his popularity at the time, it was
the Beatles times three. I mean, I don't know. I
mean it was nuts and back then there were three networks.
That was it. We had an average of sixty so
(19:03):
million people watching sixty point two wet rating. If we
get that, we figot into the fifties. Are disappointed? Okay? Three? Not? Well? Yeah,
we talk about popularity, man, and you talk about plus
they're syndicating during the day, and I mean, and Henry
was like, just you could you could not be more popular?
In life anyway, he always made a point to visit
(19:27):
children's hospitals when in the town. He would go in,
not as even as the character. He would just you know,
but he would play the character. And he went in
to this one room and I guess they were they
were there was an autistic kid, and there's an old
guess who's coming to visit you? And nothing. He's never
(19:47):
never expressed nothing, no express nothing since birth. Nothing. Henry
comes in, Henry comes into this room. Oh hey, this
is I mean, he goes Henry goes hey, Ka goes hey.
It's the first time, all of a sudden he was
Everyone's breaking down, crying, the mother, nonverbal and anything anything,
(20:12):
And it was the first time there was any sense
there was a connection. That's that's the power of the
media and it's the power of character. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
So so we learned from you. I mean we learned
I for one, learned from you like just having you,
like the legendary you directing us being so like personable
and chill and just talkative with everyone, just having a
really cool, normal like energy about you. That was inspiring
(20:44):
for me and like an example for how we should
be as we get older. In this business like, you
don't have to be like some affected person star you
know all the things that people assume. You could be
a real person and just light up so many people's
worlds because of who they know you from and what
(21:05):
they know you from.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Yeah, because it's funny when they see someone like you,
just the wall goes down and they go they're vulnerable
and and you you put a little joy in there.
It's it's it's it's very effective. Gary did. He gave
us another great lesson and he said, you guys, you
guys are in it, and in it means yeah, you
(21:29):
got the fire and you want to be successful. You
want to be this, you want to be known. You
got Yeah, never be of it. It's not who you are.
If you're of it, you're hiding behind it. You're running
and that could be. It could be from hiding behind kids,
hiding behind this, hiding behind drugs, hiding behind a VP. Whatever.
(21:49):
Never you're in it, never ever be of it. You
will never ever be happy as a human being. You know,
you're hiding from yourself. Wow, that was it was That
was a very important lesson he taught us. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Yeah, authenticity.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
Yeah, yeah, so it's what we do so who we are?
Speaker 3 (22:11):
That's right, Yeah, they ask you a fun thing about
happy days.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Sure, so we.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Always talk about this when we have people on OMG
from nine oh two one oh and Iron was infamous
for it. Is there anything you took from the set
the very last day, like ten years are up the
final scene, like Iron took the jukebox like I was.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
I didn't. I wasn't there the last day for the
last and I didn't get a chance to take anything
I wanted to complain about that. You're talking about happy days?
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, hap, happy days. Sorry.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
Sorry, Now you're going to see You're going to see
how absolutely dumb and stupid this guy is.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
You got two right here. We took nothing, trust me,
think of it.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Listen to this. Oh no, who knew this stuff would
be like you know, you know Kate Hut's Kingdom. I
mean seriously, it's like, what check this out? Last Night
of Happiness, last show. Mickey Gerard you might know and
you know his his his niece is Jill, the one
(23:19):
on Love Boat, your Dad's show, right, Joe Wheeling whatever, Yep,
Well there's Mickey and Fonsie you know had three jackets.
One went to Slsonian one he owned, and there's one
extra one I'm walking by. Mickey goes, would you like
this jacket? No?
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Oh my gosh, what were you embarrassed to take it?
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Why didn't you take it?
Speaker 4 (23:43):
I know, I know. I was like no, No, I
didn't think it was that important.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Were you like, huh? I don't wear it?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Wow? And now when I was in the Smithsonian.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
He gave it to Jill. Talk to Joe, she's got it.
She didn't.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
How much would that go on? eBay the house?
Speaker 4 (24:01):
Right? Then then he goes wheeling the happy it is jukebox? Right?
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Where's that?
Speaker 4 (24:13):
I could have got it for a thousand dollars? I
don't want it to I don't know.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
And here's the real good one, same as USh.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
The middle the middle you know, the middle booth of
Arnold's right, Yes, everyone's a kind of iconic famous. There
was a seat. There was one episode where Arnold's burned
and they rebuilt the bats going. They said, hey, Hanson,
before we burned this, you want would you like the
center booth if you can figure out how to get
out of here? Nay?
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Were you thinking, what the hell am I going to
do with the booth?
Speaker 4 (24:46):
Exactly?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
So did they only ask you or you just happened
to be there, so they really.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
I don't I don't know if they asked anything. No one
else took it. Put it that way.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
What about your letterman jackets?
Speaker 4 (24:58):
I got that, okay, I got the jacket, sweater and
I and now it's in a there's this guy that
has the most Happy Days memorabilia according to the Guinness
Work of Records. He has a little Happy in his
museum in Italy. Oh, it's in that museum. Yeah, that's it.
(25:23):
I mean we kept I kept so, I mean so little, right, Yeah,
I mean.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
I didn't think it through.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
We weren't forward thinkers, and so we did the reboot.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Iron's like remember where he went wrong before?
Speaker 3 (25:42):
And so I think ten like we took the menus
from like the restaurant we had created on beach. Well
that show was one season, so it's like by the
time we figured it out, it was too late.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
Yeah oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Well back then, memorabilia wasn't
that big a deal. It just wasn't that. Yeah, it wasn't,
you know, there wasn't.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
It wasn't true.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
It really wasn't. Otherwise it's so funny. I directed a
lot of Star treks, right. It's it's like it's like
everything's locked up there. I mean it's like it's.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Like they knew, Oh.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Are you kidding, It's like they had it down with science.
You got nothing, zippo. It was, I mean, every little
prop was locked up.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
I don't know if this.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Is an appropriate question, but I'm only asking because I
think we might be in a similar situation. What happened
with Happy Days and syndication and like residuals for you, oh,
for your cast.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Here's it's so interesting you brought that up because you
know we're all sag after members, right, love, I don't
know how we had I don't know how we had
like almost three hundred episodes whatever, a lot of episodes, right,
And even even if it plays once a day somewhere,
it's like four dollars fight dollars, right, But there's no
(27:17):
forensic accounting going on here. It is like, I'm really
upset with the screen actors go in terms of that.
It doesn't make sense to me because even because today,
even today, and I'm sure nine oh two one oh,
we're like on five eight ten platforms at CBS, you're
on Pluto you're on.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Our show has a channel that's just nine O two
and oh all day.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
There you go, yeah, and you get and you go,
you go ninety two dollars and three cents. It's great,
you know, I mean it's it's it's like, it doesn't
make sense.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Ninety two dollars that's.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
A big one.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
We get like three cents?
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Yeah, are told? Never like you have to cash it,
don't throw it away?
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Bad luck. You're like, are right?
Speaker 4 (28:00):
I love it when it's four d eight cents.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
It's like kid because you know, like Friends, the cast
of Friends like something changed.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Oh no, the reason is smart insiduals. They get ownership
of the show. That's a difference. They own part of
the syndication cell. How could we have the reason? He's
so very he owns the show. So when when when
a station buys it for so much money, they get
a percentage of the sale. It's beyond guilt. That's a
(28:29):
separate deal. That's why. That's why they get very rich.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
But they didn't offer that to us back then.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
No, no nobody.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
I wish we had taken a course or Gary Marshall
had taught us like how to like ownership and just
everything that goes along with it. So as we would
get you know, restructure our deals, we would know like, hey,
this is what I'm interested in. I want this, I
want that, And like we just knew nothing. I mean,
(28:58):
we were happy being a part of something that matter.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
But you don't you don't think that we're not you know,
we didn't go to business school, you know, and we
learned business as you go. Yeah, but actually so the
next one you do them. You know, it's an education,
that's way I see it. It's it's like there's I
look I look through this going oh my god, but
(29:23):
look at the but look at the positive.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Yeah, I mean, we wouldn't change anything.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
We're talking. Yeah, we're still That means a.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Lot, it really does.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
We wouldn't change anything except we would have gotten some
money from like the hair dryers, the perfume, all of
the merch with our faces.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, well god, yess who knew?
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Who knows what was happening on those you know.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
But that's true, and that's that's the other side of licensing.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Yes, well we're not dyeah, we're not crying about it.
But but it's just as interesting how the business changed
involved and people got smarter.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Well, the next show, the next show you're starting in
you know.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Jen and are business woman show me?
Speaker 3 (30:14):
So it's you know, it's just that kick in the
pants of not crying, but like, oh, wish what we
know now?
Speaker 1 (30:21):
We could have applied then. But so is life.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
You always say it, but yet you're you're being able
to apply something now, which is kind of nice.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Wait, I need to know what's happening for you next.
Let's tell us what is going on. I heard you're
getting ready to shoot something.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Are you You're in a movie with my TV husband?
Speaker 4 (30:41):
I you know something that is so funny because the
director is a friend of mine. I haven't acted at all,
and I never I've never had blood on my face.
So I did a horror movie and yeah, so I
did as a favor going in there, and it was
so much fun. It's Killer Pigs, just a kind of
(31:02):
a hoot, little horror movie. But there's Brian right, you know,
and I didn't have a scene with him, but but
it was just it was a lot of fun. And
I'm out there. I'll tell you this. I'm out there
and it's like one in the morning. It's like degrees
on this phone. I'm going. Now I know why I'm
not acting anymore.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Exactly know.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
I said, this is a great reminder. I'm saying, if
you're directing, you go, can I have another code? Please?
Thank you? I'm comfortable action. I go, I'm too old
for it, man, I said, I'm done with this. My
foot off.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
You know, it's not as fun as it used to be.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
No, it's not. That's what. How about a sitcom? Yeah,
Brad Pitt talked about that. He looks at scripts and
I goes, ooh, nic shooting. Oh, I don't know that.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
You're gonna say he was gonna do a sitcom? I
just whoa I did? Yeah, so it's called The Three
Killer Pigs.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Yeah. But one thing I am working on is very
There's one thing that's very important. I'm gonna and I'll
tell you why. And it's this right here. It's called
it's called Crazy.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Mama, Crazy Mama.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Tell us it is a powerhouse. It's a play. It's
a play that's going to premiere at the only equity
equity theater in Materia, counting the Rubicon Theater in the March.
And they're already talking off Broadway, possibly the Hell and
h Theater or whatever. It stars Pearl. I don't know
(32:39):
if you remember Linda Pearl, who you know, she was
Unhappy days first and when she was on Matt Locke
for eight years, tons of movies of the Week, and
then she uh she was on played Carrel's girlfriend on
the Office and all that you would not bring.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
She worked from my dad Little Ladies of I know.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
I directed her in Robin's.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Hoods oh and then and then that yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
That's yes, yeah, yeah, Robins. Anyway, it's a one woman's
show with a blues man, meaning there's there's a certain
song in there, like the Greek chorus, where as a
one woman show like goes down and here it comes
up on him. The song kind of plays the story forward.
It's a true story about love and madness and it
deals with mental illness in the most entertaining emotional tacto
(33:29):
ever on stage. And my wife, Sharon Scott Williams, wrote
it and what happened was and it's based on her life.
She was eight years old, had a wonderful birthday on Sunday.
It was Monday. One piece of birthday cake left. Oh honey,
when you come home, it'll be here for you waiting right,
(33:53):
and and she Monday comes gets off the bus and
gets goes to the kitchen and her mother comes after
with a knife, thinking someone's behind her. She had a
psychotic breakdown. Oh and it's like, okay, that's the and
(34:13):
it's a story. How does a family deal with it?
Through humor to hope, through tears? Will I ever get
her back? Will I ever get she's there? But she's
not there? Will I ever get her back? I can't
tell you the brilliant it's Paulish surprise when it is
freaking brilliant, so brilliant that she writes it. And okay,
(34:35):
I said, okay, now the audience is going to tell
us everything. We're in. OHI, let's go to the underground.
There's a little stage there. Let's rent it. Just whoever
wants to come in. We'll just we had a local actress.
Let's let's just see let's read it and see the
effect of this play. Just kind of a stage reading
standing ovation in her missioners mission. So here's what happens.
(34:58):
So from that, it turned out the owner of the rape,
you know, big industry paper of the rape, the owners
happened to be there, writes the review of it, like
to her, she got he wrote it to my wife
said print this wherever you want. This is important. This
(35:19):
is phenomenon. And another person happened in the audience that
was huge, huge in theater. Wow, calls her director at
the Rubicon says, you got to I know, you get
a thousand places. I mean it's they do they five
shows for their season, and Rubicon is very connected with
New York and all that. It's like very been there
(35:41):
twenty five years. It's just they've never bought a play
at OHI ever, it's so all right. So she reads it,
calls up here and I want lunch. This is a
work of art, sits down and books it for the
season and it's called Crazy Mama. It previews start March
(36:02):
twenty six at the Rubicon. Okay, and the thing is
about it, it's such a When we did the and
we did a few more readings after that, it was
maybe we changed five percent of the show. Maybe, And
I'm gressing and people come up major crawling, like tears
(36:23):
of relief. I'm not alone and these they come up
and go, my mom didn't have a psychotic breakdown, but
she had cancer. I'm looking to who was there is
not there anymore. They all related to it in their
own life somehow. It was mind blowing. But all of
a sudden the walls went down. People talking, people conversing.
(36:43):
But in this show, and it's all true. There is
magic and there is hope. And I will not tell
you the ending, but I'll tell you this. The last
line of the show, I cried thinking about you will
never ever forget ever, Well, you will take your heart solo.
You guys have to. Honestly, it is. It is beyond special.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
All right.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
You heard it from Anson Williams himself.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
The ten's birthday in April. We should make it a
girls trip.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
Well it's it's March twenty. It starts March twenty six,
Mark twenty ninth as the premiere, you know, opening thing,
and it goes into like first couple of weeks of April.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Oh my gosh, I love it that you have all
this passion like you don't. It doesn't stop for you.
Speaker 4 (37:31):
This is Gary Martin, No, this is this is taking,
This is taking our talents. And by the way, Linda
plays sixteen characters. Oh my gosh, no, I'm and I
mean sixty, I mean full, I mean physicality voice.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
Real wow, and you're looking amazing.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
You think there's five people at the same time. Oh
my god, I'm saying it is a tour.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
I smelled the Tony's Yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
She she took over fronnessa Redgrave for your magical thinking
that John Didion play, she did that woman show, One
Woman Show. I mean, it's something, it's it's it's it's
something she it is something you've never seen somebody, You've
never seen this before. It is really what a collaboration
of talent and set designer. You know and you and
(38:19):
you would know this tory, the best set design, the
best life. I mean, just this beautiful group to get
coming together that are just just sensational and we're gonna
create it. It's gonna be something. Not only is it
hugely entertaining, but it's it's just it's so it's so positive.
It's such a healing experience.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
How do people get their tickets for this?
Speaker 4 (38:42):
Like, just just go to the Rubicon Theater dot com?
Are you b I co O N heater t h
G A t R A Rubicon Theater dot com. Honestly, guys,
really really really really important.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
Oh great, well we will check it out. I hope
everyone shows up. That sounds like something we should all see.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
Yes we should, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
And so happy for you and working with your wife.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Isn't that great? That's amazing, And that's a whole new thing.
And we've been you know, we well I won't go
with all the personal stuff they got me here, but
I was pretty much a broken guy whatever. And she
had sold me my o High house fourteen years ago
and at the time and but nothing, but it was
(39:33):
the second home I was in another area with. Of
course life's changed and I'm back to OHI and out
of the the rest and the rest is history. It's amazing,
She's It's just just I almost feel I earned this relationship.
You go through so much, you know, you go through
so much. If you earned something really cool, really good,
(39:56):
that's nice.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
It makes us so happy to see you so happy
and thriving and just loving life, loving your art.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
Like it's all this all good man, you say, going,
keep going, keep creating, Hey, hey, keep it going, you know,
really just to the last breath, man, that's you know,
we have a lot to give still, all of us. Yeah,
and a lot of fun to have. Really a lot,
(40:25):
a lot of good times.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
You know well, we had good times with me with
you that will never ever forget, ever back at you.
So happy to have you on with us. Thank you
so much for taking the time onsen you you.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Are an unbelievable storyteller. You truly are.
Speaker 3 (40:45):
They got a knack, kid, Oh, thank you amongst many
knacks that you have.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Yeah, do you well? Thank you, We love you, good.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
To see you by bye and
It's nine.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
With Jenny Garth and Tory Spelling.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
He's best known for playing Patzi on Happy Days, but
he has also had a fantastic career as a director.
Anson Williams joins US Today to talk about his time
on the side of Beverly Hills nine O two one.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Oh, here's our friend who's a handsome man. Hello, God,
how do you still make goodness?
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Stop it?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
That's so cool?
Speaker 4 (00:36):
You are you kidding me? He was, OK, filter, I
have no filters.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh my gosh, this is so great to see you.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
It's so good to see you guys too. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
In that life, that o Hi life, well O high life.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
It's it's a quiet life up here, but it's it's nice.
It's it's a beautiful place, you know. Yeah, it kind
of time stops here. Yeah, and no one cares about
who you are, which you know, and it's a it's
a very it's a kind creative community.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I don't believe even in Ohai people don't care who
you are, like one of the most characters in TV history. Sorry,
you're not getting away from that.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Okay, all right, okay, fine, but you know, guys, can
you believe how many years since line two. One. Oh right,
how many years since Happy Days? I mean, seriously, we
just had our fiftieth oh last January, this last January.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Would you guys do.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Not much? I thought there'd be a big event, but
but the thing is, I think, like you guys, we
have been close friends for decades, Henry don Ron myself.
I mean we're literally a text way, you know, just
and we never talked business, We never talk about you know,
we just talk about you know, love and heart and family.
(02:08):
And it's just been a wonderful friendship. And just to
have that and on a show, to have that kind
of friendship that many years, it's it's pretty unique. But
that's a lot to do with Gary Marshall, our mentor,
you know. And he was like a like a college professor,
(02:30):
and he he really cared about us, not just as
a showruner, but as young people because we didn't know much.
And he really inspired us to educate ourselves in entertainment.
To our many hats. He made sure that Paramount Studios
was a college. He made it a meaning guys, you know,
(02:51):
if you want to last in this business, you better
wear quite a few hats and get it, get out,
get don't get in the way of yourself. You're not
that great, you know, you really aren't. He said, you know,
shadow directors come to the writing sessions, go to the
editing rooms, whatever you need. This is your school. And
I think that's why all of us are still involved.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
And that's it.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
That's such a giving person. He liked to bring you
in like that and let all of you learn the
ropes in the ins and outs of not just acting
but the business.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yes, I get so smart. I wish we had that.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Well, and I tried as a director to to kind
of pay that forward early on Gary, Here we are.
He sat us down. I'll never get He sat us down.
He said, you guys are gonna be famous. Don't deserve it.
You're gonna be famous. There's gonna be a light on you.
(03:47):
Your responsibility is take the light and put it on
someone that does deserve it, help them out. And it
really hit it hit home, and you know, we've all
kind of live by that. And the other thing he did,
which was incredible. They asked people ask us, oh, what's
(04:09):
the greatest moments on the set of Happy Days? What's
And I think I thought, well, it's not really the set.
I mean we had fun times. It was the ball team.
It was a softball team. And Gary was a sports fanatic,
and he goes, I'd like us to go to every
colleg I'd like to go to every major stadium in
the United States. Let's put together a ball team. We're
(04:31):
all ex athletes. The only one who wasn't was Henry,
but Ron Howard and Clenn Howard's brother taught him how
to pitch and he ended up being really, really good.
So he really had a very good ball team. And
Gary put this team together and we played in every
major stadium in the United States, pregames, hardly ever lost.
(04:51):
We went on USO Tours, playing against the Marines, the
Army you know over the China Sea where the third
Infantry Division Germany, and he said, he goes, and I
put it together because, yeah, he goes, you always have
the back of your teammate. I think it's going to
come back to the set. I think it's going to
stop a lot of egos. And sure enough, I mean
(05:13):
for over a decade. Yeah, ball team, And those are
the moments. I mean, we're we're in Germany. Uh what
was the name of that? Oh gosh, the small third
Infrey Division and what's the name of the town? I
forgot But in that little town, it was very original,
over a thousand years old, and there was a castle
(05:34):
and it was the original suit of armors and everything
else in there. But they turned it into a restaurant
and an overlooked brine river and there's Ron Henry Donny
myself where at the table. Instead of serving water, they
had wine dispensers. You got a glass of wine, not water. Wow,
(05:54):
we were feeling no pain. So we ended up going
outside on this original terrorists that's one thousand and seven
years old, singing splush blasts to the entire over the
Rhine River, to the entire city of Wartzburg. Okay, you
can't make those stories up, man, what.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
An incredibly I wish that we had that kind of
somebody sit us down in the beginning and say, we
are a team, we are together.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
You're so young, you don't know. You need someone to
kind of guide. Wait, was the ball team called Happy
Days or it.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Was the Happy Day Team? And it's so great And
if you wanted a line in Happy Days, it's an extra.
Just be a good ballplayer, football player. Listen, we're taking
you to Germany. I'll give you a line.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
That's how you recruited.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
I'm telling you. It was so basic, it was so tactile,
the whole situation was, and it was so funny. Got
to the point where Jerry Paris are amazing director, one
of the greatest comedy directors in history. He did All
the Dick Band, He played Jerry the dentist next door
in Melbourk's. We had the most most brilliant comedy minds
(07:07):
in the world on that set, which is incredible. But
but it got to the point where people would come
down and they thought we were nuts during rehearsal because
you know, it was three camera at the time, so
it's like a play, you know, which I think, by
the way, really helped with the camaraderie, unlike nine on
two one zero, where it's kind of piecemealed. It's a
(07:29):
you know, it's like a movie. Here we're together every day.
Every day, we're together rehearsing theater basically. But it got
to the point he'd say, okay, here first rehearsal. Okay,
your answers start here, you go there, Henry coming here, Okay,
let's go. It's like going, well, hey, Richie ah, you
never had to say words a grunt. You knew it
(07:52):
wasn't funny, you knew the timing is all. You didn't
have to say anything. You knew. So basically rehearsal was
a bunch of grunts and people would say, what are they?
Is that a language? What are they doing?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
It's yeah, oh that's so good when you know somebody
so well grunts everything, uh huh.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
And I really do think, and I actually think for
you guys, because honestly, the one thing directing nine or
two and zero and all that, I don't remember the
scripts that much. I remember you guys and the joy
of working with you guys all individually different days. Just
a wonderful group, no we goes, I mean really beautiful.
And I really remember the times you reached starting to
(08:33):
direct an episode and all our direct you'd ask questions
and it was just a beautiful time on a set
with a great and a wonderful cast and just so
heartfelt uh so kind to me, you know, I mean,
because you know you're the director, you're the odd person out.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Well, what what made you want to pivot from being
like this iconic character in television history to directing to
going behind the scenes.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Well, actually it actually started early in that I started
writing and producing for directing. I never really meant to
just stay at an actor at all. I actually thought
I got a lot for not much. I thought I
went about as far as I can go as an actor.
I've always been more interested behind the camera, writing or whatever.
(09:21):
So I did educate myself as on the paramount lot,
just in terms of the craft and all that. And
then in nineteen eighty Ron Howard had a deal at
NBC for three movies of the Weeks, and the first
two were like okay, And I told I said to Ron,
(09:45):
you know, I said, you're too good. You got to
do something substantial here. You got a movie of the week.
Assess something something. So one night I visited my parents
in Burbank, and I was driving back home and I
passed the Burmac Airport and kind of a remote area
(10:06):
of it, I saw this old plane and I saw
someone in a wheelchair handing something to someone working on
the plane. And I had been involved in with several
palsy because my cousin had several palsy, so I was
I did a lot of charity work. And I looked
at that and I went, WHOA, and this idea came
(10:26):
to be called Skyward. I said, you make this child
in this always look up. You're always looking up, so
they're always looking skyward and this so everything becomes free
in the sky and basically, will I ever look down?
Will they ever look up at me? And I thought,
what if this person learned to fly? So created this
(10:48):
film called Skywork. I visited to Ron, he said, I
love this. We went to Brandon Tartakoff at NBC. He said,
I love this. I looked. So they put it into
the and we wrote a script and they he said, okay,
that's great. Melissa su and is playing the lead. We
(11:09):
have this deal with her, and Ron and I are going,
you know, we really should have we found this disabled actress.
It's fantastic. No one knows they're fantastic, and we really
shouldn't be hypocritical. We should really give a shot to
an actress who's disabled. And he's going on and on,
and we're arguing, and he's going he goes, look, guys,
(11:29):
this is business. We have a deal with Melissa Sue Anderson.
We have to pay her play movie of the week.
And we're going on and on and on finally, So
we go finally, I said, okay, Ron, Ron does the
scene with Susie Gilstrap, who's a paraplegic, and we're there
and we put it together and we bring it back
to Brandon. He's like so frustrated. Now he goes, all right,
(11:52):
you got this other part, Billy an ex stump part
of the Lady. Blah blah blah blah blah. You get me
Bettie Davis, you got your girl. Well that's the pope
at the time. All right, yeah, I mean it's like, really,
I go, thanks a lot. We're walking out. I tell Ron, well,
it's Melissa. We did our best. It's Melissa Swanners and
(12:15):
we did our freaking best. That's it. So that night
on Carson there's Betty Davis no on Curson Society. I'm
tired of playing women's parts. I want to do something
with action.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Hey, that's pretty good action.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
I'm going stumpilot later. That's action, you know. So I go,
I go, Ron, bro, let's get this script over I
don't know the agent. I don't just find a regent.
Let's get it over there. We get the script over there.
Betty Davis trusts nobody in life especially buboynowns to us
she reads everything submitted. We didn't think it ething get
(12:54):
to her.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
She said yes, Oh my gosh, wow, she.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Said yes, And we got Susie and we got and
that was the film that got raw at the features.
That's the film Alan Ladd Junior saw it. Okay, I'm
for night Shifts. Oh. And that all came out of
Happy Days, out of Gary Marshall. I just showing you
how things happened. So produce that and I was exec producer,
(13:20):
wrote the story, We wrote the script, blah blah blah,
did a few others and then I was like, as
I said, you know, this producing stuff's cold. I mean,
you're not involved, You're kind of away. You're not you know.
He goes, you should direct? I go, oh great, a
third career, thanks, you know, he said. So. Basically, I
had a show in development called No Greater Gift. It
(13:43):
was an after school special co wrote with a partner
and it was about it was really one based on
a inspired by a true story about organ downership between
these two kids. Anyway, No Greater Gift, and I was
able to beg the network to let me direct language show.
And that was the beginning of it, and that put
(14:03):
me behind the camera, and from there it just progressed,
thankfully through the years.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
You're a trifecta.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Yeah, wow, that's such a beautiful progression though, because as
you ended that show on Happy Days, I would imagine
I know that we probably felt this way pigeonholed into
that stereotypical character. People didn't really want to see you
as other characters. It was a little more challenging as
an actor, but you could just kind of pivot. Yeah,
(14:50):
when we found out you POTSI was directing our show,
we were all freaking thinking out.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Really, I imagine every buddy who was directed by photos
with you.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Which never did with anyone who came on the show.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Then you ended up being like, we became friends with you,
Like you're one of the few directors on nine that
became like our buddy, our friend, like someone we trusted
and we would have like great conversations outside of directing
and acting.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Because you were started as an actor, like you, he
got us.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Oh really got us totally. And it's acting is very
sensitive area. I mean, we're all I mean, everyone has
the background of why they go into into acting anyway,
it's pretty complex, a lot of a lot of emotions,
a lot of reasons. I'm like, you know, make up
for loss whatever. But you know, and it's a and
(15:51):
there's just I mean, and you know, trust and love
and like comfort means everything, you know where and collaboration
means everything. And I hated directors, honestly, God, they go,
I'm the director. It's like a director is a storyteller.
It's all you are. It's like whatever your psychologist, you ever,
(16:12):
whatever you have to do to make it work. You know,
you're not You're not that. What's important is what's printed.
There's a lot of people involved in that, a lot
of talent involved in that, a lot of sensitive situations
in that, you know, And it's a big how do
you collaborate everyone and get it done and get it
done right? And everyone feels involved and everyone feels satisfied
(16:34):
with their part.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yeah, that's the job.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
It's such a group like village mentality like it is.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
It's really and you guys.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Oh my god, how you could you could? You guys
couldn't be more popular? And how many it was it
ten years or eleven? How many years? Ten years? And
that was happy to its ten ten years the same thing.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Really rarity, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
And here you guys still are still souper, are popular,
but you all give back, you're all, you're all. You know,
it's important to be you know, examples of you know,
of doing the right thing and you know, and it's
you know, not be a giver and not a taker.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
We've always realized and maintained that our fans are are everything,
like we'd be nothing without them. Yes, so we'll forever
be grateful. How often do people say potsy? Nowadays?
Speaker 4 (17:33):
A lot they still say, but it's so funny early
on unhappy days, we're real popular and we're getting potsy
potsy potsy and honestly being young, Ron Howard was there
and I said, you know this Potzi stuff. Man, He goes, answering,
you got to earn your name. They know you this character. Hey,
how do you think I feel? I have two Opi
(17:54):
and Richie. He goes, he got one. Shut up, I
gotta new I that makes OPI is pretty good. Okay,
I get it. Yeah, you have to earn our names
to take this and do something bigger with it. That's
where it's you and that's directing and writing whatever. And
you earn your way, you know, you earn your way
(18:16):
and that makes sense. That was a had a run
had a big influence on me and Gary Marshall. But
it's true. And now and then it gets what were
you doing? They they know what you do now, they're
probably know you're direct they know you're right, but they
still love your character. You know, it's cool, it's great.
I mean, Ron, I was just wrong. Ron had won
the Oscar and they're calling him Richie. It's like, you go,
(18:39):
this's great. Whatever makes forever.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
It's forever.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
The power of what you guys do. Seriously, Henry Winkler
and I don't his popularity at the time, it was
the Beatles times three. I mean, I don't know. I
mean it was nuts and back then there were three networks.
That was it. We had an average of sixty so
(19:03):
million people watching sixty point two wet rating. If we
get that, we figot into the fifties. Are disappointed? Okay? Three? Not? Well? Yeah,
we talk about popularity, man, and you talk about plus
they're syndicating during the day, and I mean, and Henry
was like, just you could you could not be more popular?
In life anyway, he always made a point to visit
(19:27):
children's hospitals when in the town. He would go in,
not as even as the character. He would just you know,
but he would play the character. And he went in
to this one room and I guess they were they
were there was an autistic kid, and there's an old
guess who's coming to visit you? And nothing. He's never
(19:47):
never expressed nothing, no express nothing since birth. Nothing. Henry
comes in, Henry comes into this room. Oh hey, this
is I mean, he goes Henry goes hey, Ka goes hey.
It's the first time, all of a sudden he was
Everyone's breaking down, crying, the mother, nonverbal and anything anything,
(20:12):
And it was the first time there was any sense
there was a connection. That's that's the power of the
media and it's the power of character. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
So so we learned from you. I mean we learned
I for one, learned from you like just having you,
like the legendary you directing us being so like personable
and chill and just talkative with everyone, just having a
really cool, normal like energy about you. That was inspiring
(20:44):
for me and like an example for how we should
be as we get older. In this business like, you
don't have to be like some affected person star you
know all the things that people assume. You could be
a real person and just light up so many people's
worlds because of who they know you from and what
(21:05):
they know you from.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Yeah, because it's funny when they see someone like you,
just the wall goes down and they go they're vulnerable
and and you you put a little joy in there.
It's it's it's it's very effective. Gary did. He gave
us another great lesson and he said, you guys, you
guys are in it, and in it means yeah, you
(21:29):
got the fire and you want to be successful. You
want to be this, you want to be known. You
got Yeah, never be of it. It's not who you are.
If you're of it, you're hiding behind it. You're running
and that could be. It could be from hiding behind kids,
hiding behind this, hiding behind drugs, hiding behind a VP. Whatever.
(21:49):
Never you're in it, never ever be of it. You
will never ever be happy as a human being. You know,
you're hiding from yourself. Wow, that was it was That
was a very important lesson he taught us. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Yeah, authenticity.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
Yeah, yeah, so it's what we do so who we are?
Speaker 3 (22:11):
That's right, Yeah, they ask you a fun thing about
happy days.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Sure, so we.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Always talk about this when we have people on OMG
from nine oh two one oh and Iron was infamous
for it. Is there anything you took from the set
the very last day, like ten years are up the
final scene, like Iron took the jukebox like I was.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
I didn't. I wasn't there the last day for the
last and I didn't get a chance to take anything
I wanted to complain about that. You're talking about happy days?
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, hap, happy days. Sorry.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
Sorry, Now you're going to see You're going to see
how absolutely dumb and stupid this guy is.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
You got two right here. We took nothing, trust me,
think of it.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Listen to this. Oh no, who knew this stuff would
be like you know, you know Kate Hut's Kingdom. I
mean seriously, it's like, what check this out? Last Night
of Happiness, last show. Mickey Gerard you might know and
you know his his his niece is Jill, the one
(23:19):
on Love Boat, your Dad's show, right, Joe Wheeling whatever, Yep,
Well there's Mickey and Fonsie you know had three jackets.
One went to Slsonian one he owned, and there's one
extra one I'm walking by. Mickey goes, would you like
this jacket? No?
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Oh my gosh, what were you embarrassed to take it?
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Why didn't you take it?
Speaker 4 (23:43):
I know, I know. I was like no, No, I
didn't think it was that important.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Were you like, huh? I don't wear it?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Wow? And now when I was in the Smithsonian.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
He gave it to Jill. Talk to Joe, she's got it.
She didn't.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
How much would that go on? eBay the house?
Speaker 4 (24:01):
Right? Then then he goes wheeling the happy it is jukebox? Right?
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Where's that?
Speaker 4 (24:13):
I could have got it for a thousand dollars? I
don't want it to I don't know.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
And here's the real good one, same as USh.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
The middle the middle you know, the middle booth of
Arnold's right, Yes, everyone's a kind of iconic famous. There
was a seat. There was one episode where Arnold's burned
and they rebuilt the bats going. They said, hey, Hanson,
before we burned this, you want would you like the
center booth if you can figure out how to get
out of here? Nay?
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Were you thinking, what the hell am I going to
do with the booth?
Speaker 4 (24:46):
Exactly?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
So did they only ask you or you just happened
to be there, so they really.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
I don't I don't know if they asked anything. No one
else took it. Put it that way.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
What about your letterman jackets?
Speaker 4 (24:58):
I got that, okay, I got the jacket, sweater and
I and now it's in a there's this guy that
has the most Happy Days memorabilia according to the Guinness
Work of Records. He has a little Happy in his
museum in Italy. Oh, it's in that museum. Yeah, that's it.
(25:23):
I mean we kept I kept so, I mean so little, right, Yeah,
I mean.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
I didn't think it through.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
We weren't forward thinkers, and so we did the reboot.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Iron's like remember where he went wrong before?
Speaker 3 (25:42):
And so I think ten like we took the menus
from like the restaurant we had created on beach. Well
that show was one season, so it's like by the
time we figured it out, it was too late.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
Yeah oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Well back then, memorabilia wasn't
that big a deal. It just wasn't that. Yeah, it wasn't,
you know, there wasn't.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
It wasn't true.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
It really wasn't. Otherwise it's so funny. I directed a
lot of Star treks, right. It's it's like it's like
everything's locked up there. I mean it's like it's.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Like they knew, Oh.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Are you kidding, It's like they had it down with science.
You got nothing, zippo. It was, I mean, every little
prop was locked up.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
I don't know if this.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Is an appropriate question, but I'm only asking because I
think we might be in a similar situation. What happened
with Happy Days and syndication and like residuals for you, oh,
for your cast.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Here's it's so interesting you brought that up because you
know we're all sag after members, right, love, I don't
know how we had I don't know how we had
like almost three hundred episodes whatever, a lot of episodes, right,
And even even if it plays once a day somewhere,
it's like four dollars fight dollars, right, But there's no
(27:17):
forensic accounting going on here. It is like, I'm really
upset with the screen actors go in terms of that.
It doesn't make sense to me because even because today,
even today, and I'm sure nine oh two one oh,
we're like on five eight ten platforms at CBS, you're
on Pluto you're on.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Our show has a channel that's just nine O two
and oh all day.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
There you go, yeah, and you get and you go,
you go ninety two dollars and three cents. It's great,
you know, I mean it's it's it's like, it doesn't
make sense.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Ninety two dollars that's.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
A big one.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
We get like three cents?
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Yeah, are told? Never like you have to cash it,
don't throw it away?
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Bad luck. You're like, are right?
Speaker 4 (28:00):
I love it when it's four d eight cents.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
It's like kid because you know, like Friends, the cast
of Friends like something changed.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Oh no, the reason is smart insiduals. They get ownership
of the show. That's a difference. They own part of
the syndication cell. How could we have the reason? He's
so very he owns the show. So when when when
a station buys it for so much money, they get
a percentage of the sale. It's beyond guilt. That's a
(28:29):
separate deal. That's why. That's why they get very rich.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
But they didn't offer that to us back then.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
No, no nobody.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
I wish we had taken a course or Gary Marshall
had taught us like how to like ownership and just
everything that goes along with it. So as we would
get you know, restructure our deals, we would know like, hey,
this is what I'm interested in. I want this, I
want that, And like we just knew nothing. I mean,
(28:58):
we were happy being a part of something that matter.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
But you don't you don't think that we're not you know,
we didn't go to business school, you know, and we
learned business as you go. Yeah, but actually so the
next one you do them. You know, it's an education,
that's way I see it. It's it's like there's I
look I look through this going oh my god, but
(29:23):
look at the but look at the positive.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Yeah, I mean, we wouldn't change anything.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
We're talking. Yeah, we're still That means a.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Lot, it really does.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
We wouldn't change anything except we would have gotten some
money from like the hair dryers, the perfume, all of
the merch with our faces.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, well god, yess who knew?
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Who knows what was happening on those you know.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
But that's true, and that's that's the other side of licensing.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Yes, well we're not dyeah, we're not crying about it.
But but it's just as interesting how the business changed
involved and people got smarter.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Well, the next show, the next show you're starting in
you know.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Jen and are business woman show me?
Speaker 3 (30:14):
So it's you know, it's just that kick in the
pants of not crying, but like, oh, wish what we
know now?
Speaker 1 (30:21):
We could have applied then. But so is life.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
You always say it, but yet you're you're being able
to apply something now, which is kind of nice.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Wait, I need to know what's happening for you next.
Let's tell us what is going on. I heard you're
getting ready to shoot something.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Are you You're in a movie with my TV husband?
Speaker 4 (30:41):
I you know something that is so funny because the
director is a friend of mine. I haven't acted at all,
and I never I've never had blood on my face.
So I did a horror movie and yeah, so I
did as a favor going in there, and it was
so much fun. It's Killer Pigs, just a kind of
(31:02):
a hoot, little horror movie. But there's Brian right, you know,
and I didn't have a scene with him, but but
it was just it was a lot of fun. And
I'm out there. I'll tell you this. I'm out there
and it's like one in the morning. It's like degrees
on this phone. I'm going. Now I know why I'm
not acting anymore.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Exactly know.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
I said, this is a great reminder. I'm saying, if
you're directing, you go, can I have another code? Please?
Thank you? I'm comfortable action. I go, I'm too old
for it, man, I said, I'm done with this. My
foot off.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
You know, it's not as fun as it used to be.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
No, it's not. That's what. How about a sitcom? Yeah,
Brad Pitt talked about that. He looks at scripts and
I goes, ooh, nic shooting. Oh, I don't know that.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
You're gonna say he was gonna do a sitcom? I
just whoa I did? Yeah, so it's called The Three
Killer Pigs.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Yeah. But one thing I am working on is very
There's one thing that's very important. I'm gonna and I'll
tell you why. And it's this right here. It's called
it's called Crazy.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Mama, Crazy Mama.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Tell us it is a powerhouse. It's a play. It's
a play that's going to premiere at the only equity
equity theater in Materia, counting the Rubicon Theater in the March.
And they're already talking off Broadway, possibly the Hell and
h Theater or whatever. It stars Pearl. I don't know
(32:39):
if you remember Linda Pearl, who you know, she was
Unhappy days first and when she was on Matt Locke
for eight years, tons of movies of the Week, and
then she uh she was on played Carrel's girlfriend on
the Office and all that you would not bring.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
She worked from my dad Little Ladies of I know.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
I directed her in Robin's.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Hoods oh and then and then that yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
That's yes, yeah, yeah, Robins. Anyway, it's a one woman's
show with a blues man, meaning there's there's a certain
song in there, like the Greek chorus, where as a
one woman show like goes down and here it comes
up on him. The song kind of plays the story forward.
It's a true story about love and madness and it
deals with mental illness in the most entertaining emotional tacto
(33:29):
ever on stage. And my wife, Sharon Scott Williams, wrote
it and what happened was and it's based on her life.
She was eight years old, had a wonderful birthday on Sunday.
It was Monday. One piece of birthday cake left. Oh honey,
when you come home, it'll be here for you waiting right,
(33:53):
and and she Monday comes gets off the bus and
gets goes to the kitchen and her mother comes after
with a knife, thinking someone's behind her. She had a
psychotic breakdown. Oh and it's like, okay, that's the and
(34:13):
it's a story. How does a family deal with it?
Through humor to hope, through tears? Will I ever get
her back? Will I ever get she's there? But she's
not there? Will I ever get her back? I can't
tell you the brilliant it's Paulish surprise when it is
freaking brilliant, so brilliant that she writes it. And okay,
(34:35):
I said, okay, now the audience is going to tell
us everything. We're in. OHI, let's go to the underground.
There's a little stage there. Let's rent it. Just whoever
wants to come in. We'll just we had a local actress.
Let's let's just see let's read it and see the
effect of this play. Just kind of a stage reading
standing ovation in her missioners mission. So here's what happens.
(34:58):
So from that, it turned out the owner of the rape,
you know, big industry paper of the rape, the owners
happened to be there, writes the review of it, like
to her, she got he wrote it to my wife
said print this wherever you want. This is important. This
(35:19):
is phenomenon. And another person happened in the audience that
was huge, huge in theater. Wow, calls her director at
the Rubicon says, you got to I know, you get
a thousand places. I mean it's they do they five
shows for their season, and Rubicon is very connected with
New York and all that. It's like very been there
(35:41):
twenty five years. It's just they've never bought a play
at OHI ever, it's so all right. So she reads it,
calls up here and I want lunch. This is a
work of art, sits down and books it for the
season and it's called Crazy Mama. It previews start March
(36:02):
twenty six at the Rubicon. Okay, and the thing is
about it, it's such a When we did the and
we did a few more readings after that, it was
maybe we changed five percent of the show. Maybe, And
I'm gressing and people come up major crawling, like tears
(36:23):
of relief. I'm not alone and these they come up
and go, my mom didn't have a psychotic breakdown, but
she had cancer. I'm looking to who was there is
not there anymore. They all related to it in their
own life somehow. It was mind blowing. But all of
a sudden the walls went down. People talking, people conversing.
(36:43):
But in this show, and it's all true. There is
magic and there is hope. And I will not tell
you the ending, but I'll tell you this. The last
line of the show, I cried thinking about you will
never ever forget ever, Well, you will take your heart solo.
You guys have to. Honestly, it is. It is beyond special.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
All right.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
You heard it from Anson Williams himself.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
The ten's birthday in April. We should make it a
girls trip.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
Well it's it's March twenty. It starts March twenty six,
Mark twenty ninth as the premiere, you know, opening thing,
and it goes into like first couple of weeks of April.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Oh my gosh, I love it that you have all
this passion like you don't. It doesn't stop for you.
Speaker 4 (37:31):
This is Gary Martin, No, this is this is taking,
This is taking our talents. And by the way, Linda
plays sixteen characters. Oh my gosh, no, I'm and I
mean sixty, I mean full, I mean physicality voice.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
Real wow, and you're looking amazing.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
You think there's five people at the same time. Oh
my god, I'm saying it is a tour.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
I smelled the Tony's Yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
She she took over fronnessa Redgrave for your magical thinking
that John Didion play, she did that woman show, One
Woman Show. I mean, it's something, it's it's it's it's
something she it is something you've never seen somebody, You've
never seen this before. It is really what a collaboration
of talent and set designer. You know and you and
(38:19):
you would know this tory, the best set design, the
best life. I mean, just this beautiful group to get
coming together that are just just sensational and we're gonna
create it. It's gonna be something. Not only is it
hugely entertaining, but it's it's just it's so it's so positive.
It's such a healing experience.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
How do people get their tickets for this?
Speaker 4 (38:42):
Like, just just go to the Rubicon Theater dot com?
Are you b I co O N heater t h
G A t R A Rubicon Theater dot com. Honestly, guys,
really really really really important.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
Oh great, well we will check it out. I hope
everyone shows up. That sounds like something we should all see.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
Yes we should, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
And so happy for you and working with your wife.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Isn't that great? That's amazing, And that's a whole new thing.
And we've been you know, we well I won't go
with all the personal stuff they got me here, but
I was pretty much a broken guy whatever. And she
had sold me my o High house fourteen years ago
and at the time and but nothing, but it was
(39:33):
the second home I was in another area with. Of
course life's changed and I'm back to OHI and out
of the the rest and the rest is history. It's amazing,
She's It's just just I almost feel I earned this relationship.
You go through so much, you know, you go through
so much. If you earned something really cool, really good,
(39:56):
that's nice.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
It makes us so happy to see you so happy
and thriving and just loving life, loving your art.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
Like it's all this all good man, you say, going,
keep going, keep creating, Hey, hey, keep it going, you know,
really just to the last breath, man, that's you know,
we have a lot to give still, all of us. Yeah,
and a lot of fun to have. Really a lot,
(40:25):
a lot of good times.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
You know well, we had good times with me with
you that will never ever forget, ever back at you.
So happy to have you on with us. Thank you
so much for taking the time onsen you you.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Are an unbelievable storyteller. You truly are.
Speaker 3 (40:45):
They got a knack, kid, Oh, thank you amongst many
knacks that you have.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Yeah, do you well? Thank you, We love you, good.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
To see you by bye and
Hosts And Creators
Tori Spelling
Jennie Garth
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