Playing The Mentor

Lessons in Mentorship from Henry Winkler

Henry Winkler has had a prolific career, as an actor, a producer, and a director. He even has some writing credits on his resume. His portfolio of work is huge, but it has been a handful of iconic acting roles that have set his career apart. The roles have ranged the gamut. Comedian and straight-man, young and old, mechanic to professional — he has successfully played them all. One thing they all had in common — mentoring.

The Fonz

It began with the iconic Arthur Fonzarelli. A role which propelled Winkler to stardom as a leather jacket wearing 50’s mechanic living over the Cunningham’s garage. It was not a natural role for a mentor, but over 11 seasons and through numerous spin-offs and crossovers — that is exactly what the Fonz became.

The Fonz was unconventional. He held consultations in his office, the bathroom of Al’s Diner. He held interventions, typically in the form of threats to use his fists. He was incredibly articulate — Whoaa! Ayy! But he was also a great sounding board, role model, and problem solver.

In interviews, Winkler has noted that many of those catch phrases were used to cover for his struggles with dyslexia. He intervened early in character design to make the Fonz a better role-model for children — the Fonz was originally a smoker. These are just a few example of Henry’s innate sense of how to be a mentor and Happy Days used it well.

Chuck Lumley

It is hard to imagine a role more distant from the Fonz than Night Shift’s Chuck Lumley. Chuck is a former investment counselor turned mortician turned pimp. If that wasn’t enough, while Winkler received top-billing for the role, he clearly takes the comedic backseat to Michael Keaton.

Lumley is the conscience of this comedic duo. He is the mentor to Michael’s apply nicknamed — Blaze. While at times an unwitting accomplice, he adds both maturity and experience. Winkler has a knack for adding dark elements to his comedy.

Chuck Lumley: As we sit here and idly chat, there are woman, female human beings, rolling around in strange beds with strange men, and we are making money from that. Bill Blazejowski: Is this a great country, or what?

Once again, Lumley is by no means a natural role-model or mentor. But that is exactly what Winkler delivered when he played the role. The movie was released in 1982, if you have yet to see it — check it out.

Coach Klein

We would have to wait until 1998 for Winkler’s next break out role — Coach Klein. Once again, he would play a flawed and broken man. Once again, he would play the role of mentor, though this time more naturally.

Coach Klein provides the main character, Bobby Boucher, with advise, guidance, and motivation. He rescues Bobby from the back bayou and helps him make his way through college and college football. All this while mastering that darker comedy for which Winkler is now known.

Coach Klein also emphasized another trait of great mentoring — personal growth. Much like the Fonz and Chuck Lumley, Coach Klein is working against his own personal challenges. These feature front and center in the Waterboy plot. The audience watches as Klein puts his own advice and guidance to personal use.

Barry Zuckerkorn

On the hit series Arrested Development, Winkler returned in the role of counselor. He played Barry Zuckerkorn, the Bluth family lawyer. He is not a very good one.

Detective Fallows: Are you willing to take a polygraph?

Barry Zuckerkorn: [Michael refers to his lawyer for advice, who whispers rather loudly] Are you nuts?

Michael: [to the detective] Not without a better lawyer.

The Barry-role had Winkler once again featured in mug shots, hanging with prostitutes, and further perfecting that dark but hysterical humor. His role as mentor, despite the obvious fit, is actually quite thin. Or perhaps it is more accurate to label Zuckerkorn as an anti-mentor. He almost perfectly encapsulates almost everything a mentor could do wrong.

While on Arrested Development, Winkler had the opportunity to play the role of mentor in a very different way. Max Winkler, his son, was cast to play Barry in a flashback sequence. While Henry had actually directed Max in an earlier film, this was their first opportunity to collaborate on a top-flight production. Max is now a successful director and producer in his own right.

Dr. Sy Mittleman

Winkler’s latest series is Children’s Hospital. It is a dark comedy in its own right. Perhaps not oddly, Winkler plays an overly nice, naive, and optimistic hospital adminstrator named Sy Mittleman. Children’s Hospital is a medical drama parody and Sy is clearly the anti-thesis of the hospital administrator stereotype.

While it is difficult to point to specific character aspects in this role, Winkler’s decision to take it is inspiring. Children’s Hospital was created during the writer’s strike in the newly emerging digital format. While the lack of other work may have helped, it was a big risk for folks like Winkler and Megan Mullally to accept a role like this. Risk taking is another often overlooked asset of mentorship.

Splitsider — Do you have a favorite scene you’ve ever done on Childrens Hospital? Henry Winkler — We did an episode where we all of the sudden went back into revolutionary times. We did an episode where I take Megan Mullally on a date, and last year, I gave a fourth grader in a body cast lying in the bed a service animal. She said, “I hope it’s a dog.” I said, “Well, we don’t have the money,” and I presented her with a python that eventually devoured her. And we used the python as a piñata to get her back. Who thinks of this stuff?

Both Arrested Development and Children’s Hospital have taken considerable risks. They have also exploited Winkler’s history for humor. Dr Sy’s office is the hospital bathroom and Barry famously “jumped the shark” for a second time on Arrested Development.

Winkler’s knack for mentoring is prolific. He has shown us experience, conscience, creativity, problem solving, motivation, and risk taking. He played a plethora of roles and counseled a wide array of co-stars. His career has been successful and humorous — but also inspirational. Thanks for reading!