Talk:Fonzie

Character traits and development section

the Character traits and development section of this article is a very long combination of biographic details about the character and information about the character's development, all without any citations.

I think this section should be split into two sections; a character biography / traits section and a "Development" section

Character traits

Extra material from the article that needs a rewrite.-Classicfilms (talk) 18:23, 9 September 2023 (UTC) _____

Fonzie seems to respect people brave enough to stand up to him, as evidenced in the episode where Richie recalls meeting Fonzie for the first time while he was a member of a gang called the Falcons. Fonzie resented Richie at first, threatening to beat him up; but when Richie refused to back down, Fonzie told him "you got guts". Early on, Fonzie almost invariably addressed Richie and his peers by their surnames. Fonzie regards Richie's two closest friends, Ralph Malph and Potsie Webber, as nerds, largely because of their collective willingness to do virtually anything to fit in. Contrary to Ralph and Potsie, Richie does not readily compromise his own principles and sticks to what he believes is right, and on occasion even stands up to Fonzie himself. Because of this, Fonzie begins to admire Richie and over time grows fond of him, eventually referring to him as his best friend.

At the beginning of the series, Fonzie is a high school dropout, prompting establishment characters to view him as a rebel and bad influence. Fonzie is shown once attempting to go back to school with Richie, but he later decides it just is not for him and drops out again. However, a few seasons later, Fonzie is secretly attending night school and ultimately earns his high school diploma. Through it all, Fonzie worked as an auto mechanic. He later became an auto mechanic instructor at Jefferson High School and finally a full-fledged teacher.

Fonzie has a very high moral code. He always treats others with respect and sticks up for those who cannot defend themselves. On the other hand, he often expects others to follow his example. After Chachi accidentally burns down Arnold's, for example, Fonzie disciplines him severely for his carelessness in forgetting to shut off the kitchen grill and then tossing his apron onto the grill, even though other characters (including owner Al) understand it was just an accident.

Fonzie was consistently portrayed as being very successful with women. Very few women turned down his advances or made him nervous. While displaying somewhat of a womanizing behavior, Fonzie always treated whomever he happened to be dating with utmost respect. His success with women made him a frequent source of advice for Richie, Potsie, Ralph, and Chachi. In Season 10, Fonzie maintained a long-term relationship with a single mother (played by Linda Purl), but they would break up by the following year. Though he never married in the series, he adopted a young orphan boy named Danny Corrigan, Jr., in the final season, completing his transformation from rebel to family man.

Despite his aloofness, Fonzie had more whimsical traits, such as a devotion to the Lone Ranger, whom he excitedly meets in an episode (played by John Hart). While confident with women, he blushed whenever Marion ("Mrs. C." to Fonzie), who became like a surrogate mother to him, kissed him on the cheek. She was the only person Fonzie allowed to address him by his first name, Arthur, which she always did affectionately. Richie's sister Joanie also became attached to Fonzie; his pet name for her was "Shortcake". In one episode, when it is revealed that Fonzie had never been christened as a baby, the Cunninghams stood by him at church so that he could finally be christened.

Fonzie is able to be the big brother figure Joanie needs after Richie leaves for California. Fonzie and Joanie grow to be very close, especially in the later seasons. Fonzie gives Joanie advice about everything from boys to schoolwork. Fonzie is naturally delighted when his cousin who is also his best friend decides to marry a young woman he has grown to love as a little sister. Fonzie serves as Chachi's best man at their wedding.

Fonzie self-appointed the men's restroom at Arnold's as his "office", where he, Richie, and his friends would gather to work out developing problems. Written on the walls were phone numbers of his many girlfriends, as well as a payphone. On opening night of the newly rebuilt Arnold's (after Chachi accidentally burned the old one down), Al had a desk set up in the new men's room exclusively for Fonzie. It included a desk telephone and organized pull-down sheet of all the phone numbers Al recovered from the fire.

Fonzie's rough past earns him a great deal of respect and fear from more antagonistic characters. Throughout the series he served as defender and protector of Richie, Ralph, and Potsie whenever they were confronted by various bullies and hoodlums. Various episodes indicate that Fonzie has extensive martial arts training. Even opponents larger than he are shown to back down from confrontations. Those who do fight him never come out on top. In one episode, he compares his nerve strike knowledge to that of a woman (Katmandu) while both use Ralph as a training dummy. In subsequent episodes, he out-dueled an expert fencer and mangled a gangster's prosthetic iron hand with one fist. Meanwhile, more sympathetic characters idolize Fonzie due to his success with women and his imperturbable "cool." Despite the respect he has earned, several people still antagonized him – including Officer Kirk (Ed Peck), an overzealous police officer who sometimes (though never successfully) tried to frame Fonzie or run him out of town.

Richie is the only person in the series to have ever struck Fonzie without retaliation. In the episode "Welcome Home: Part 2" from Season 11, Fonzie finds Richie (who has just returned home from the Army) drowning his sorrows in a local bar after resigning himself to a job at the Milwaukee Journal rather than follow his dream to become a Hollywood screenwriter, largely to please his family. Richie punches Fonzie in the face after Fonzie tries to take him home, but puts Richie in a full nelson after Richie takes a second swing at him. "What, you think you're gonna do that to me a second time?" is what Fonzie says before pinning Richie to a pool table. They patch things up and Richie returns home and decides to go to California.

Fonzie has an almost magical ability to manipulate technology with just a nudge, bump or a snap of his fingers; he is shown starting a car, turning on lights, coaxing free sodas from a vending machine, making girls respond, or changing the song selection on a jukebox – occasionally pounding one with his fist and eliciting the response of a classic 1950s tune, such as the Elvis Presley song "Hound Dog". Somewhat hyperbolic examples of his abilities can be seen in his dreamlike encounter with the extraterrestrial Mork, such as a form of psychokinesis or a thumb capable of resisting Mork's finger.

Fonzie thinks he is never wrong and, consequently, has trouble admitting so. He attempts to say he was wrong in the episode titled "Tell it to the Marines", which originally aired on December 16, 1975, but can only get as far as an r with an unidentifiable vowel. He also has trouble apologizing and saying "sorry" as shown in "My Fair Fonzie", which originally aired on November 22, 1977. This feature of his personality was parodied by Winkler's character in Children's Hospital, an administrator who cannot admit he was wrong about a decision. (The staff assumes he is having a seizure.)

One of Fonzie's few soft spots was for his beloved iconic motorcycle. Without it, he feels uncool, as shown in the season 3 episode, "The Motorcycle", when Ralph Malph accidentally destroyed it with his car. When Mr. Cunningham told Fonzie, "it's just a motorcycle", Fonzie responded that it is what made him cool when nothing else worked.

During the episode when Fonzie [[Jumping the shark| on the visit to California, it is revealed that sharks are just one of his fears; the other was liver, as seen in Episode 135, "The Muckrakers", in 1975. Classicfilms (talk) 18:23, 9 September 2023 (UTC)