Henry Winker Surprises Jon Hein to talk ‘Jump the Shark’ on Wrap Up Show

When a young Jon Hein coined the phrase “jump the shark” in college to represent the direction he thought the sitcom “Happy Days” was going in, he couldn’t possibly have known where it would take him. And, some 40 years later, he couldn’t possibly have known he’d be sitting across from the actor that inspired it. On Wednesday, Henry Winkler surprised Jon and his co-host Gary Dell’Abate in the middle of the Wrap Up Show.

“I am not in this chair without you,” a heartfelt Jon Hein told Henry, who played Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli on the iconic show. “I have always said I’ll appreciate it to the day I die because it will probably be on my tombstone.”

“I think it is amazing,” Henry told Jon of his trajectory. “It is America.”

And while the phrase was meant to symbolize the show’s potential decline, Winkler insists he’s always been okay with it. “Every time they mention ‘jump the shark’ at that time they had a picture of me on water skis, and I had great legs, so I didn’t care,” the actor explained. “You got a book, a radio show, a board game … you made an industry out of your imagination of having one phrase about how you felt about ‘Happy Days,’ [and] I have a great respect for that.”

Henry Winkler’s latest children’s book, “Detective Duck: The Mystery at Emerald Pond,” is available now.