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October 14, 2025 9 mins
In 1972, Anson Williams landed the role of Potsie Weber in a segment of the comedy-anthology series Love, American Style titled "Love and the Happy Days", which also introduced Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard), Richie's mother Marion (Marion Ross), and other characters that were spun off into the television series Happy Days. (Only Williams, Howard, and Ross reprised their roles for the spin-off).The new series' first season, during which Williams received second billing after Howard, was centered mainly on Richie and Potsie. Eventually, as break-out character Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler) and Richie's mother, father, and sister became more popular, Potsie was joined by Ralph Malph (Don Most, who was merely a side character in season one), and Potsie and Ralph became inseparable.
Unlike Howard and Most, Williams was one of the few to remain through the entire run of the series, although his appearances became less frequent in later seasons. In some episodes, Richie, Potsie, and Ralph formed a band combo that performed at Arnold's Drive-In and other places. As Potsie, Williams actually sang lead vocals for the group. Williams' first wife, Lorrie Mahaffey, portrayed Potsie's girlfriend, Jennifer, in later seasons.
After Happy Days, Williams began a much more prolific career as a television director, starting with short programs for adolescent-age children, including afterschool specials "No Greater Gift" (1985) and "The Drug Knot" (1986), and TV-movie Lone Star Kid (1986). He has gone on to direct many episodes for a variety of television series, including Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, seaQuest DSV, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Charmed He also directed several episodes of the TV series 7th Heaven.
Despite his success as a director and producer, Williams has occasionally returned to his work on Happy Days in retrospective ways. He played himself in a 1996 Happy Days-themed Boy Meets World episode (which also featured former castmates Tom Bosley and Pat Morita). While directing a 2003 episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch titled "Sabrina in Wonderland", he appeared as Potsie in a fantasy sequence. He also joined his fellow Happy Days cast members for reunion specials in 1992 and 2005.
Williams is also a businessman. In 1987, fellow Happy Days cast member Al Molinaro and he opened a chain of diners called Big Al's; the business went defunct. He founded Starmaker Products, a cosmetics company, and was a featured speaker at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's National Trademark Expo in April 2008, at which he talked about the importance of registered trademarks for small businesses (and signed autographs for Happy Days fans). Williams is the author of Singing to a Bulldog: From Happy Days to Hollywood Director, and the Unlikely Mentor Who Got Me There
ABOUT THE PERFECT PORTION COOKBOOK
Anson Williams is living proof that "Sixty is the New Sexy," and now he shares his own philosophy on fitness in "The Perfect Portion Cookbook," which was recently selected and scheduled by QVC to be launched on Super Bowl Sunday. Anson Williams, best known for his role of on "Happy Days," had the 100-calorie idea, based on his own need to stay fit and still be able to eat the foods he loved. He, along with and JoAnna Connell, contacted Bob Warden (New York Times best selling cookbook author and TV cooking personality), who partnered with Mona Dolgov (experienced nutritionist, cookbook author and marketer for the food and appliance industry) and the result was "The Perfect Portion Cookbook." "It's the first 100 Calorie Count System of its kind," says Anson. "America's Favorite Comfort Foods all in Simple 100 Calorie Portions. It's the easiest calorie count in the world. How cool is that?"
Unlike any other programs out there, you can eat what you love and never over eat! The successful entrepreneurial team of Williams and Connell along with Warden and Dolgov, two of the most revered and respected individuals in the cooking world, have created an exciting lifestyle platform that will fight a horrendous problem - obesity. A catastrophic condition in the USA, "The Perfect Portion Cookbook" is a major step toward solving the problem.
In a world that has been so "millennial" focused in recent years and where "boomers" are being judged as old or not happening, Anson sets an example of how vital they can be by using the Perfect Portion Control system himself, which has resulted in a slimmer and more energetic outlook.
With 150 of America’s favorite comfort foods, "The Perfect Portion Cookbook" has everything from French Toast to Lasagna and Apple Turnovers, all with easy, perfect portion control, using a simple 100 Calorie Counting System. The first of its kind, each of the classic comfort food recipes, allow food lovers to eat
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Tarow and iHeartRadio. Actor Anson Williams is living proof
that sixty is the new sexy, and now he shares
his own philosophy on fitness in the Perfect Portion Cookbook,
which was recently selected and scheduled by QBC to be
launched on Super Bowl Sunday. Anson Williams is best known
for his character on Happy Days POTSI, but this man
has hooked up with something that truly is going to

(00:21):
reshape your life in a very positive way, a one
hundred calorie idea based on his own need to stay
fit and still be able to eat the foods that
you'll love. We are unplugged and totally uncut with actor
Anson Williams. Good morning, Anson, how are you doing today?
I'm good Errow, how are you doing very well? This
book comes out at a very good time because just

(00:42):
this morning on the major news networks they said that
restaurants are overfeeding us and here is your book.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Oh I heard that on the radio and I thought,
what timing is this? No, And seriously, if restaurants should fall,
the restaurant should buy our cookbook.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
They'd solve every problem.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
And right away into this book, you begin educating us
because we really don't know what the right portion is
because I grew up in Montana. Fill your plate up
and have something to eat because you're not getting any more.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
But here's the thing.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
But with our cookbook, you can fill your plate with
smart portions. And here's the whole process of this came
from my It was a problem I had. I was
directing seecret life to the American teenager. And as we
all know, there's craft service on sets, which is an
area on the set where they serve delicious, fatty foods

(01:33):
all day long, and every time you go buy there,
you're taking a little bit, well twenty four pounds of
a little bits. Later, I was in pretty bad shape
and I'm thinking, what can I do? I said, diets
don't work. I can't figure these calorie counts are like
being a physicist. Can I eat what I love and
not overreat? How can this work? And I went to

(01:53):
my business partner because we do other products too, and
she thought on a canal. She thought it was a
great idea too, if we could figure out how to
make it work. We didn't know anything about food, so
we kind of put it in the back of our minds,
and it hit me In one moment at the grocery store,
I saw all the hundred calorie portion snacks, thousands of them,

(02:16):
and I thought, everybody understands under calorie everybody.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
What if we can do a cookbook with all.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Your favorite comfort foods, French toast, lasagna, chicken pop pie,
key lime pie, chili, you know, chicken picada, meatloaf. What
if we can do all these amazing comfort foods, create
the recipes a little healthier and a little larger, so
and and and we're each exact portions and one hundred calories.

(02:46):
Say you want a chicken pop pie? Okay, we recommend
through under calories for an entree, easy one, two three.
There it is on set and it's huge. So you get,
you get your you get your chicken pot pie, you
get your Waldar salads, one hundred calories, and oh what
am I going to have a dessert? I think I'll

(03:07):
take ten chocolate covered pretzels for dessert. All of that
you can't even finish. It is five hundred calories. Can
you imagine how much food you get in an eighteen
hundred calorie day? You can't finish it all. And every
recipe is yummy foods you love and never over eat.
So Joanna thought it was a great idea. We met
with Robert Warden, who's the food guru at QVC, who

(03:30):
everyone who watches QBC knows Bob and he publishes cookbooks.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
He loved it.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
He brought in Mona Dolgov, a huge nutrition expert.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
We spent two years.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
And now we have the perfect portion cookbook, using the
perfect one hundred calorie count, one hundred and fifty of
the most yummy, yummy yummy foods known to humankind, all
in perfect one hundred calorie portions, most under seven ingredients.
Now I'm a guinea pig. It took two Yeah, it

(04:03):
took two years to create this book, and I am
Now I have a body of a thirty year old.
Now my food light is better than it's ever been.
I'm eating foods I never thought I'd be able to eat.
I've denied myself nothing. I've gained so many recipes and
so much better tasting food and so much, so much

(04:23):
better experience. And I have just dropped my weight like crazy,
not denying myself anything.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Without auisine, energy and without going through the blues and
all that kind of stuff. I mean, you've kept going
really well, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
I denied myself nothing. Nothing.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
And I don't know if you've seen the cookbook, but
we have examples in there.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
Like we have a plate of two beautiful pieces.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Of this yummy, yummy, yummy meatloaf recipe with a nice
side a mac and cheese, a yummy recipe, and then
in order and the green beans. That whole plate, which
you can hardly finish, is five hundred calories. So our
whole goal was we're going to stop obesity by giving
people what they love, not denying people, not denying taste,

(05:07):
only giving them the best tasting food in the world,
with the easiest portion control known to humankind, and being
incredibly satisfied with the.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Portions you're getting.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
There's got to be a side of you that's thinking,
I can market this even in a restaurant or to
be able to open up a specialty store, because this
book really does take you into an area where people go,
I really want to do this. This is a lifestyle
but it's a positive lifestyle change.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
It's a lifestyle change because taste is everything. Yes, I
mean it's an important part of our life.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Food, breaking bread with people. It's important. You don't want
to deny that experience. You want them, you want, but
you want them to be able to have a full
meal but.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
With perfect calorie count.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
So you're not you know, you don't even think about
overreading because you're never you never will overread again. And
for restaurants, honestly, if they picked up our book, it
would change the dynamic of the entire food in the
entire restaurant fast food industry in this country.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
It would stop the problem.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
You know, where this book needs to be at a
home depot or lows up there in the front where
they have all those construction books because people walking by,
and you can you can market it as rebuilding your life.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
Absolutely with and and and and again. Our big, you know,
our big you know statement is eat what you love
and never overread.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
You know this, this is I'm a kindle person. And
so this book, all the recipes, I mean, they're not
like long stories. You you have made it so in
detail but not but it's not over detail. I can
go shopping and cook without even losing my smartphone.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
No, exactly.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
We wanted to make sure ninety percent of the recipes
are under seven We're under seven ingredients, under seven ingredients,
and I'm one of I'm one of everybody out there.
I didn't know how to cook. I didn't know I
had this idea, but I knew nothing about it. Joanna
knew nothing about it. Bob Ward, Mona Dogov.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
They taught us everything. I can cook every recipe in
that book.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Now you know I. You know I, and most of
the ingredients you have already in your refrigerator. There's nothing
you have to go to some specialty store for, you know.
So it's not only yummy and tasty, it's so much
fun and it's so much fun for me to be able.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
To cook for people. So who's really cool?

Speaker 1 (07:21):
Whose idea was it?

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Though?

Speaker 1 (07:22):
That when when it comes to your meal plan, dude,
we get three snacks in that meal plan.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
That that's unheard of.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
I know, that's all.

Speaker 3 (07:30):
That's all.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
Bob and Mona and their team and their team had
nothing to do with me, because I mean I didn't
know how to do that.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
They figured it out. I mean, look at that French toasty.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
You can have two delicious slices of French toast. I mean,
wait to try the recipe with fruit on it, and
it's two hundred calories. It's two hundred calories. I'm like,
how cool is that?

Speaker 1 (07:53):
Southern style had bread, crispy baked potatoes, glazed carrots. Dude,
this is pure Southern food. But it's very good for you.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Southern food, yes, and it's all real ingredients.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
We have a flat bed pizza oh three and perfect
one hundred calory portions you can have. You cannot finish
the three hundred calory portion of pizza. You can't finish it.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
And my father used to tell me all the time
that my eyes were bigger than my stomach. But you
give me the opportunity here to where I don't have
to sacrifice what what I truly love.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Then you don't have to sacrifice anything. If anything, you're
going to be able to eat things you didn't think
it can eat.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
What's to that book?

Speaker 2 (08:28):
I mean, we have we have these little cheesecakes. There
are one hundred calories each with the topping and everything.
But they're dense. They're very dense, and one of them
is really feeling. But oh, you know, maybe you want
to take two. You can do it. It's in your
it's in your it's in your calorie count.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
Well, this book has come out at the right time.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
Ants.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
And because of what they said today about restaurants and
I and people in your right restaurants need to be
marketing this and using it inside their kitchens.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
Everybody should be using it.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
We can literally change We can literally change the obesity problem.
Following following following this book absolutely can, and and and
it's gonna and the reason it's gonna work it's not
a diet. And it's foods people love. They're not going
to feel that they're missing anything, and and and and
your way will just drop and you'll stay there. You will,

(09:19):
you will, you will stay consistently looking good, feeling good,
being healthy, and and not denying yourself. You know the
wonderful you know the wonderful importance of eating a nice meal.
M
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