Hey, Micky Dolenz says he was almost the Fonz

Hey, hey, we’re the Fonzies. People say we Fonzi around. We’re too busy punching jukeboxes to give anyone the thumbs down. Everyone knows Henry Winkler is the Fonz, especially Mr. and Mrs. C. But in a new interview, Monkees star Micky Dolenz introduced a shocking new wrinkle to disrupt our Happy Days: He was the runner-up for the Fonz. In the post-Monkees haze of the early ’70s, three years after The Monkees released Changes, the final album of their initial run, which only features Dolenz and Davy Jones, Dolenz auditioned for the role of Arthur Fonzerelli on what would become the hit series Happy Days. It certainly scared the actor who ultimately won the role. “I almost got it,” Dolenz tells Billboard. “Supposedly, it was between me and Henry [Winkler]. He remembers it too. The story I heard is that he was in the waiting room, saw me come in, and thought, ‘Oh shit, I’ll never get this—Micky Dolenz is here!’ So we laugh about it now. He’s a good friend and a brilliant talent.”