This movie was the 1st time Henry Winkler plated a serious role since he was the Fonz in Happy Days. Ron Howard, being good friends with Henry Winkler, put him up for the challenge. H.W. played his first serious, goody two shoe, nerd role. He was very good, and let the audience see at different side of his acting. It allowed the audience to remove his stereo type, and the Fonz was huge in the 70's. Not many actors these days can sherk their stereo-typical acting personalities