He also appeared in 1973 in season four of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" in the episode "The Dinner Party" as Rhoda's date, Steve Waldman, and in episodes of "The Bob Newhart Show" and "Rhoda". Although Winkler had already shot the film "The Lords of Flatbush," he was relatively unknown. In 1973, a year before that film was released, producer Tom Miller was instrumental in Winkler getting cast for the role of Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, nicknamed "The Fonz" or "Fonzie", in "Happy Days", which first aired in January 1974. For "Happy Days", director/producer Garry Marshall originally had in mind a completely opposite physical presence. Marshall sought to cast a hunky, blonde, Italian model-type male in the role of Fonzie, intended as a stupid foil to the real star, Ron Howard, and originally envisioned Micky Dolenz for the role. However, when Winkler interpreted the role in auditions, Marshall (realizing that the 5'6" Winkler could more easily interact with the other characters at eye level than the 6'0" Dolenz) immediately snapped him up. According to Winkler, "The Fonz was everybody I wasn't. He was everybody I wanted to be." Winkler's character, though remaining very much a rough-hewn outsider, gradually became the focus of the show as time passed (in particular after the departure of Ron Howard). Initially, ABC executives did not want to see the Fonz wearing leather, thinking the character would appear to be a criminal. The first 13 episodes show Winkler wearing two different kinds of windbreaker jackets, one of which was green. As Winkler said in a TV Land interview: "It's hard to look cool in a green windbreaker". Marshall argued with the executives about the jacket. In the end, a compromise was made: Winkler could only wear the leather jacket in scenes with his motorcycle. And, from that point on, the Fonz was never without his motorcycle, until season 2. "Happy Days" ended its run in 1984. From 1968 to 1972, Winkler appeared in over a dozen Yale Repertory Theater productions, including Shakespeare's "Coriolanus" (May 1968) and "Macbeth" (February 1971), Gogol's "The Government Inspector" (February 1970), the world premiere of "Gimpel the Fool" (an Isaac Bashevis Singer adaptation, October 1970) and "Two by Brecht and Weill: The Little Mahagonny and The Seven Sins" (May–June 1971 and January 1972).[