TVSquad

I recall a time when Ron Howard was diligently trying to distance himself from the two television icons that made him famous: Opie Taylor and Richie Cunningham (from The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days, respectively). Now, thanks to Funny Or Die and in an effort to get his candidate of choice (Barack Obama, if you didn't know) elected, he is prepared to step back into those two roles. And to do so, he takes Andy Griffith and Henry Winkler with him.

I didn't really grow up with Andy Griffith, but it was quite the nostalgia trip to see Ron Howard and Henry Winkler as Richie and the Fonz again. Winkler seemed to just slip back into the character despite all the years.

How good are you at spotting someone's true age? There's been a few times I've caught myself wondering how old that actor really is on TV, when they're playing someone my age and look ten years older. Do I really look that good? Then again, I've seen the opposite and thought, "damn, I am an old decrepit fart." In any case, I'll pull up IMDb and usually find myself in shock of how young/old the actor on-screen really is.

The whole actor-to-character age ratio thing got me curious, so I did a little research (with the help of some of the TV Squad team) and made a list of some of the more extreme and well-known (or, maybe to some, not-so-well-known) examples. By the way, we didn't include actors who played flashback scenes of their characters for short periods of time, as there are more of those than we have room for.

It looks like the "Bronze the Fonz" campaign worked. The archetypical Happy Days character will be getting his own bronze statue in the city where the T.V. show was set.

This isn't the first time a television character has gotten a statue. I live near New York City and I walk past the Ralph Kramden statue every time I take the bus. The cable channel TV Land has arranged for a half-dozen statues to be placed across America. TV Land is co-sponsoring the Fonzie statue as well.

TV Land isn't making statues of their TV characters any longer (after everyone from Mary Richards to Dr. Bob Hartley were made into statues and put in various cities around the country), but that isn't stopping a group in Milwaukee from raising money to make a statue of The Fonz for their city. And they have the permission of Viacom to do it.

Vist Milwaukee and others have raised $57,000 of the $85,000 needed to make a statue of Arthur Fonzarelli for the city. Artist Gerald Sawyer says it's going to be one of the Fonz's classic poses, so I'm guessing he'll be standing and giving a "thumbs up" sign. (Please don't let it be of him in a leather jacket and swim trucks on water skis...). It won't be of him on a Triumph motorcycle as in the show, because Milwaukee is the home of Harley-Davidson!

The statue will be placed near the Chase Plaza office tower.