Anson Williams is an established actor, singer, producer and director, best known for his role of Warren “Potsie” Weber on the television series Happy Days (1974–1984), a role for which he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. Anson has since become a prominent and prolific award-winning television director, starting with short programs for adolescent-age children, including afterschool specials. He has gone on to direct many episodes for a variety of television series. Williams is also a businessman and Congressionally recognized philanthropist and humanitarian, and the author of Singing to a Bulldog: From Happy Days to Hollywood Director, and the Unlikely Mentor Who Got Me There.
Sharon Scott Williams, author, playwright, and the wife of Anson Williams, first job was as an advertising copywriter and after getting national recognition as a writer was recruited by Young & Rubicam (Y&R), the largest ad agency in the world. Within 10 years of starting her career, she had risen to be the first female creative director at Y&R. Sharon moved to Ojai, Calif., where she focused on developing her own material and became a published author. Working with her husband, she has adapted her stories into a solo stage play starring the critically acclaimed actress, Linda Purl. Her short memoirs about growing up with a paranoid schizophrenic mother in a southern railroad town have won numerous literary awards and served as the inspiration for the Off-Broadway premiere of Crazy Mama: A True Story of Love and Madness.
But first, let’s reminisce about Happy Days and that memorable theme song…Sunday Monday happy days, Tuesday Wednesday happy days,
Thursday Friday happy days, Saturday what a day, Rockin’ all week for you.
By Sheldon Baker
AM: Anson, you’re now a director and a producer, but obviously you may be remembered by many as Warren “Potsie” Weber on Happy Days. What are your fondest memories from that show.
Anson: It’s funny because people often ask that question. Really the memories stem from Garry Marshall who created, produced and directed many episodes.
Garry was a baseball fanatic and he liked playing ball, so he wanted to create a Happy Days softball team. We were all ex-athletes, except for the Fonz, played by Henry Winkler. But we taught him how to pitch and he became very good at it. So, we put together this team for two reasons. One, Garry wanted to play in every major stadium in the United States as pregame entertainment for charity. And we also went all over the world with the team. His belief was you’ll always have the back of your teammates, and he felt that if we’re on the road as a team, we’ll come to the set where we filmed the show and stop egos.
So, we put together the softball team and did play at every major stadium in the United States. I would sing the Star Spangled Banner. We dressed with the Dodgers, and the (Milwaukee) Brewers. It was like fantasyland. Then we started doing USO tours playing against the Army, Navy, and Marines teams all over the world, including the Mediterranean, China Sea, Okinawa, Japan and 3rd Infantry Division in Germany. Those are such special experiences as a team and really the most memorable moments of Happy Days.
Of note, Rob Reiner was on the team. He created the first pilot of Happy Days but it didn’t sell. So, they did a second pilot and I don’t think people realize that Rob Reiner and Phil Mishkin, his partner, wrote it. That’s the one that sold. We’d get ringers like Tony Danza and Tom Hanks who became Happy Days guys for a day. Actually, if you could hit, you got a line on the show and played ball with us.
AM: Still, I imagine working alongside Garry Marshall for so many years, you learned a lot from him about directing.
Anson: Not about directing, but comedy. Ron Howard (Happy Days Richie Cunningham) will tell you too, we had the best comedy director, Jerry Paris, maybe in history. Jerry won all the Emmys and directed all for the Dick Van Dyke shows. He played Jerry the dentist, and Dick’s next-door neighbor. Jerry directed 98% of Happy Days. We learned so much. And Garry learned a lot about writing, humor, and comedy too. But Garry was amazing. He really cared about us. He wasn’t your average showrunner (head writer). He really cared about us like a teacher. And he inspired us, as young actors, to really use the Paramount Studio lot as a college. Garry said, “take advantage and don’t let your ego ruin you. Go watch and shadow directors, get into writing sessions, and editing rooms. Learn every part of the business you can.” Basically, we had over 10 years of film school. I would shadow Roman Polanski doing Chinatown in the back lot, John Schlesinger doing The Day of the Locusts, all the Greece numbers being shot. Whenever I had a free time or a free moment I was out there learning.
In fact, Garry had a funny and perhaps educational moment with us. He sat us down and he said, “You guys are going be famous. But you don’t deserve it. There’s going be a light on you. Your responsibility is to take the light and put it on someone that does deserve it, that’s working harder than you.” And we did that. We took our celebrity status and shined it in areas that needed our assistance and gave attention to people who really are doing the job.
AM: Certainly, a fond memory. You became a television producer and director a long time ago.
Anson: Yes, around 1980. I was directing, writing and producing. In fact, a show starring Bette Davis, about a paraplegic who wants to learn how to fly went on as a big special on NBC and was the first time a disabled actress had starred in a movie of the week. It really had to do with commentary on disability. We helped Congress pass through the act that helped gain public access for disabled people. I was very involved in that.
I really wanted to get into directing, but no one would hire me, so thank goodness I had a couple of things in development. I created an afternoon school special and a Wonderworks special for PBS. In essence, I had to hire myself twice, and that got me into the room so to speak and I was able to start getting jobs with other companies all the way to 2017 which included The Secret Life of the American Teenagers. Now with my wife Sharon, we’re doing an Off-Broadway play called Crazy Mama scheduled to open in September.
Directing theater is so cool. When you direct film, you’re in the elements. It’s five in the morning, it’s miserable, the coffee stinks, you’re often outside like LA alleyways or it’s raining, and it’s hot. But theater, you go in and it can rain or snow. Who cares? You dress nicely, you get a cappuccino, you’re there at 10 a.m. and out at five. It’s a wonderful life and a beautiful time.
AM: Going back to your baseball team and the fundraising you did within the various communities also says a lot about the entire cast.
Anson: There’s the show, then there’s outside the show, It was a wonderful cast. In fact, Henry, Donny (Most), Ron, and I text all the time. We’re like five minutes away all the time, no matter where we are. It’s not business or anything. We’re really brothers. We’re good friends. And they’re a very giving group. They’ve done so much in so many areas outside the show.
AM: We’ll get into more Happy Days later, but let’s look at Crazy Mama, which opens at the Off-Broadway 59E59 Theaters. Both you and Sharon are a major part of that.
Anson: She’s the one drinking cappuccino. The one writing. Like, if it isn’t on the page, it isn’t on the stage. But I had to get used to this. In film, as a director, you kind of rule the set. Not in theater. You go talk to the writer. I go, oh my God, I have to be nice to the writer.
AM: So, Anson and Sharon, this question is for both of you. I’ll start with Sharon. What is your vision for the play?
Sharon: The reason I wrote it was like a personal emotional excavation project, because I had a very challenging childhood. I know that a lot of kids are going through the same thing. We didn’t have the social safety net back then that they have now. But still, it’s not enough. There’s so much of a stigma around mental illness that people are afraid to talk about. They’re not getting the support they need. My hope is that this play can open the door to conversation to make people have the freedom to discuss a problem they may have in their family and get help. I also believe that art heals. Sometimes it’s not medicine that you need. Often healing can start in a theater seat because it brings all those emotions up. We found that when we ran our world premiere in Ventura, California at the Rubicon Theatre Company, people would come up to us afterwards and just pour their stories out about their mothers and dads, and siblings, and people they were worried about. We even had one woman who said, she had been estranged from her mother for 10 years but was now going to call her.
Anson: That type of response makes it all worthwhile. So, that’s what we’re hoping for, that we get as much exposure as we can for this story and we’re going to be screening and addressing Congress about mental health issues. We’re very excited about that.
AM: The play is a true story about a young girl’s long struggle to save her mother from the grip of mental illness. Please talk more about the play.
Anson: It’s very entertaining and at the same time funny show. It’s a brilliant piece of writing by Sharon. Linda Purl, who appeared in several episodes of Happy Days, as well as numerous other productions, will star in it and play 16 different characters.
Sharon: The reviews have been phenomenal. It’s very hard to get Off-Broadway, but because of these talents, the impossible happened. The show brings down the barriers to discuss a mental crisis because you feel comfortable, you’re not alone, you’re laughing, and you’re crying, but there’s a lot of hope and love. Mentally ill people don’t adjust to the family that’s breaking apart. The problem is not being addressed. This play does that. How do you stay together? They stay together through humor and through love and finding hope. There is hope in the show and fun just lightening up the situation into a tactile embrace to a whole family.
Anson: As far as Sharon goes, back then her dad didn’t have insurance for that kind of situation in the hospital. He had to earn the money to do it as a life insurance salesman. This guy’s a hero to me, although I never met him, as he passed before we met, but it’s heroic and all these characters are in this play. Linda plays every character, physically- and voice-wise.
Sharon: I don’t think people realize one out of four people in the U.S. have a mental illness problem. But the opening line in the show, you have to listen to this, is funny. We open it with a joke, because we there’s a blues man who sings a song, and kind of moves things forward through music and song, but he comes out, and his first words are. “The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four people are suffering from some kind of mental illness. Look at your three best friends. If they’re okay, it’s you.” And that just loosens up everybody in the audience who were afraid that they came to us with a miserable kind of agonizing experience. But that’s the way my family dealt with it.
Another thing I want to mention that I feel is really important is about 33% of the homeless are suffering from mental illness. A lot of them schizophrenic, which is what my mother was. And the homeless symbolize families that have given up on him. What we think is so important is to keep families together and engaged with the ill person as much as possible. It’s difficult. Just look at what happened with Rob Reiner and Michelle. They were trying to do the best they could, and it just didn’t work out the way they wanted it to. It takes a lot of bravery to stay in the game with mental illness.
AM: The closest I come to that is my wife and I serving as foster parents for newborns, infants, and toddlers who come out of broken homes.
Anson: Bless you.
AM: Thank you. They all come to us having experienced some kind of a negative issue.
Anson: You should come to see Crazy Mama in New York, because I think you’d appreciate it. Take The Diary of Anne Frank and her holocaust experience. It’s one story but it echoed. In its own way Crazy Mama is one story that hits the hearts of everybody.
AM: This the first time you’ve directed on Broadway?
Anson: Yes. Before acting and directing film, I dipped my toes in musical comedy theater then directed quite a few plays just to make sure the chops were there. But this is absolutely the first time for an Off-Broadway show which is just a dream. I must say that this was a really challenging directing job because you have one actress playing 16 parts. Sometimes there are three or four characters on stage at the same time.
Sharon: Anson figured out a way to block those scenes so that you actually believe you’re looking at two or three people on stage at the same time, with one performer. It’s a phenomenal thing to see, and of course, a lot of credit goes to Linda Purl. My feeling is Anson is so subtle, a lot of people maybe don’t recognize that it’s really the director who has made this all work.
AM: Have you written for Broadway before, or is this your maiden voyage?
Sharon: First time. I come from the advertising world. I was with Young & Rubicon for many years as a creative director.
AM: Anson, your show business career has spanned over 50 years. That’s staying power.
Anson: Yes, but that’s Garry’s doing. He said you have to wear many hats to last in this business. On Happy Days I made decisions along the way. I convinced Garry to put music on the show with me singing so that opened up a whole other path for me. But you find your opportunities. Back then we weren’t paid like actors today. Not even near. It was okay but you could not retire on it. I’m one to see what you have, not what you don’t have.
I talked with David Cassidy, (known for his role on The Partridge Family) and he was telling me how well he does off the show because he was a huge singing star. Barry Williams (from The Brady Bunch) told me he didn’t make anything on the show but they put together the Brady Bunch singers and were going all over the place and did quite well.
So, I’m thinking if I can convince Garry to let me sing on the show with the band, maybe I can get booked and make some extra money. I convinced him and one morning, he says “A band? You sing?” I go, yes. He says, “Are you good?” I go, not bad, I used to be a drummer. He responded, “You know, that might work. There’s a show coming up, maybe let’s try a song.” I’m thinking, now I’m singing on national television. But he says, you’ll be singing to a bulldog.
I go, what? And Garry goes, “Elvis sang to a bulldog on the Ed Sullivan Show, and I don’t have time to hear you, but I believe you’ll be good just singing to a bulldog. If you’re bad, I get laughs. If you’re good, I get laughs. You’re singing to a bulldog.” That was it, first time on air, singing All Shook Up to a bulldog. And wouldn’t you know it, the letters come pouring in. Garry comes to me and says “Anson, the audience likes it. We’re going to put more songs in.” I thought don’t complain about it. I found an opportunity and helped the show. That started my singing career.
AM: It’s kind of like being in the right place at the right time.
Anson: Yes. In fact, one night I was at Resorts International in Atlantic City. They were discussing Vegas, and I said that’s it. I can feel and hear it. I have to move in that direction. That’s when I went totally behind the camera. It was great and I’m so glad I listened because otherwise I may have been performing in some bar in North Hollywood doing karaoke or as a lounge singer.
AM: Do you still hang out with some of your co-stars from Happy Days?
Anson: All of them. Ron’s (Ron Howard) is all over the place. We’re best friends. In fact, Donny (Most), Henry, and I did a benefit together for community colleges in Boston. We’re together at least eight times a year, but we’re always texting and calling. We’re a very close knit family.
AM: Are you still living in Ojai, California, and might you run for public office again?
Anson: Still in Ojai. But never again in my life for will I do that. That was another challenge. You can put it on record. I went into the politics business and between that and entertainment, I thought I’ve seen every side of human nature, the best and the worst. Not even close. Going into politics was an entirely other side that I never knew existed. But it was a great education, and it proved I can do more outside the political arena than in it. It’s so hard to get anything done. But outside it’s much more of a powerhouse to achieve things.
AM: Like you, I’m a cancer survivor. The doctors must have done something right for us. We’re still here doing this interview. What does your health regimen look like today because of what you went through?
Anson: That was a tough time for me. That was about seven years ago. Aside from the cancer, the mistreatment almost killed me. I went to a surgical center, which is kind of very civilized. There’s no emergency rooms. You just make an appointment and show up. I had an operation for colon cancer. My operation was right where the small and large intestines connect, and they had to get a little thing out and then put me back together. So, a few days later, it’s supposed to be three or four days, and I’m out. But now it’s day three. My stomach’s expanding and I’m wondering what’s going on. I’m in the hall just trying to walk it off and the doctor comes running to me saying, “We need emergency surgery because it fell apart.” I ended up going to the regular hospital. They finally put me back together and about five weeks later I’m finally released. But it had nothing to do with cancer.
I want to say, everyone out there, vet your doctor. Really do your due diligence because it does make a difference. As far as my regimen now, it’s moderation and I don’t overdo anything. Moderate exercise and eating.
And more than anything a positive mind. Your mind controls so much.
Sharon helps me so much to be productive. We’re both in a good mental state, positivity, and also luck.
AM: Crazy Mama opens September 18th in New York.
Anson: Yes. Previews on the 16th.
AM: How long is the run scheduled for?
Anson: About four weeks.
AM: Then what do you hope happens?
Sharon: There are many things that could happen. I doubt that it goes to Broadway, but that would be a dream. As it was adapted from my memoir I have a lot of content. We could easily do a mini-series out of it like the Baby Reindeer series on Netflix. That was a one-man show and Crazy Mama easily could be adapted to a limited series. So, we’re hoping we can build it up and maybe go to Netflix.
AM: What else would either of you like to add about Crazy Mama?
Anson: One of the things about doing theater is that you always have to raise money. We’re trying to raise $180,000 to pay for our Off-Broadway production. We just may do an Indiegogo campaign which is like GoFundMe, only for independent creative projects. RubiconTheathres.org tells you about the show and tax-deductible fund raising opportunities. We hope your readers will have an opportunity to see Crazy Mama.
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