ABC remembers tv and film wizard Garry Marshall in a two-hour particular airing Tuesday night time.
“The Joyful Days of Garry Marshall” (8-10 p.m.) pays tribute to the mastermind behind traditional TV exhibits “Joyful Days,” “Laverne & Shirley” and “Mork & Mindy” and the director of fashionable films together with “Fairly Lady,” “A League of Their Personal” and “Seashores.”
The Bronx-born Marshall’s life and profession is recalled by way of reminiscences from his household, buddies and colleagues. Marshall’s personal recorded voice options prominently all through the telecast (he died in 2016 on the age of 81).
On-camera interviews embrace Julia Roberts, Julie Andrews, Richard Gere, Pam Dawber and Henry Winkler — who shot to stardom as Fonzie on “Joyful Days.”
“The variety of his imaginative and prescient was shocking at each flip,” Winkler, 74, tells The Publish. “He had the power, as soon as he was drained or uninterested in TV … to problem himself, and he went on to make fantastic films that had monumental depth of the human situation.
“He had this inventive river that simply flowed out of him.”
Winkler says he discovered first-hand the respect, loyalty and — and, in some instances, awe — that Marshall impressed as soon as they grew to become shut buddies.
“I’m so grateful that he got here into my life,” he says. “The wonderful factor was that once I would go and have lunch with him at his workplace on the Falcon Theatre — which is now The Garry Marshall Theatre — it was full of memorabilia from each mission he’d ever labored on. There was nearly no place to sit down down.
“And whereas we’re having lunch, he’s Ace-bandaging each knees as a result of he wouldn’t surrender the chance to play softball or basketball. Whereas we’d be chatting, there was a line of individuals outdoors, some he knew and a few he didn’t know, simply hoping for a second with the guru.
“And he had time for everyone.”
Marshall was no flash-in-the-pan. His comedy-writing resume included “The Jack Paar Present,” “The Dick Van Dyke Present,” “The Joey Bishop Present” and “The Lucy Present.” He’d tailored Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple,” which ran for 5 seasons on ABC with stars Tony Randall and Jack Klugman.
Winkler says that Marshall, for all of his success, by no means affected a show-biz persona.
“He talked like he talked and he would schlep round and would solely use ketchup on his pasta,” he says. “And when he flew he took each deity out of his attache case — little statuettes of Buddha, Jesus Christ, Moses — and put all of them on high of the case. And as soon as we took off and we have been secure, he would put them again within the case underneath his seat.”
Marshall was, at turns, “a disciplinarian, a dad, a psychologist, a author and a creator,” Winkler says.
“One time, on the finish of capturing [a ‘Happy Days’] episode and he was introducing the visitor solid, I went over to him and whispered, ‘Garry, I’ve a airplane to catch. He nodded, then put down the mic, came visiting to me, put me up in opposition to the wall and held my shirt and mentioned, ‘You don’t cease me from introducing the visitor solid. They’ve each proper to be launched similar to you.’ I mentioned, ‘Sorry, Garry, I’m going to sit down right here on this chair and also you name me whenever you want me. I’ll by no means say one other phrase.’ And I didn’t.”
Winkler says he grew to become lifelong buddies with Marshall and together with his household — his son Scott, daughters Lori and Kathleen and together with his “majestic” spouse, Barbara.
“I might name him for recommendation. He placed on a ‘Joyful Days’ musical with Paul Williams. It was at all times [adopts Marshall’s Bronx accent] ‘an annuity for my grandchildren.’ I by no means knew the phrase ‘annuity’ earlier than Garry. Each time he was casting the musical, I went and tried to assist the younger man enjoying The Fonz, and when it was carried out in England, he despatched me over there to work with that actor.
“I do know that he cherished me and I cherished him,” he says. “I like his reminiscence and his whole household.”