Anson Williams Reveals John Lennon Sneaking Onto the 'Happy Days' Set

During its 11-season run, Happy Days featured a large list of guest stars, but one of the biggest star sightings took place behind the scenes. Fifty-two years ago, John Lennon showed up on the Happy Days set—totally unplanned. The Beatles legend’s son, Julian, was a huge fan of the ABC sitcom, so the two snuck over during a tour of the Paramount lot.

In an interview on the Still Here Hollywood podcast posted on Oct. 5, Happy Days star Anson Williams shared details on the singer’s visit to Happy Days. “It was the first year of Happy Days, 1974,” Williams told host Steve Kmetko. “And it was a very cold morning. We’re on the set, you know, bored out of our mind, like kitchen scenes or something at the time. It was before we went live audience, so it was like a movie. And it’s just it was a guest star and the four of us and Jerry, our director.”

Williams added that he went over to get a cup of coffee and saw Lennon standing to the side.

“And there’s this guy with kind of cool glasses and a young kid,” he recalled “Walk back, go to go up to Donny [Most]. ‘Hey, Donny. This guy looks just like John Lennon with a kid.’ And Donny’s going [sarcastically] ‘Oh, yeah. John Lennon is here to hang out with us.’ It was John Lennon there to hang out with us. And it was Julian’s favorite show and he saw the show. He loved the show.”

Williams revealed that Lennon “stuck around for hours” “And pretty soon it was like it was he was like, ‘Hey John,” he said. “I mean it was at first you’re like gaga, and then he becomes a friend. So shy, so nice, and he’s doing all these original doodles for the crew.’ They now could buy houses with them, right?”

“What happened was they were on a VIP tour, and they escaped, and no one knew where they were …’Oh, Happy Days is there,’ and they snuck on,” Williams explained. “So the PR department found out about it, and they brought a guy who shot a picture. There’s a picture. That’s all we got. We have a picture. But we didn’t get a signature or anything … but it’s fabulous. It was fabulous to have that opportunity with a legend like that.”

Williams isn’t the only Happy Days star to talk about that fateful day. In 2018, Henry Winkler (Fonzie on the show) appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and recalled the day that “John Lennon just came to visit and brought with him Julian.”

“He was so—he was so shy, and I didn’t know how to get into a conversation with John Lennon,” Winkler shared. “Then I just started talking about his Imagine solo album. There’s a cut on it called ‘Mother,’ which is like a primal scream. I started talking to him about that, and he opened like a flower. It was amazing.”

Source: parade.com/Victoria Miller

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