Linda Purl got one of her big breaks on Happy Days, and then she got another one nearly a decade later.
In a new interview, Purl, 71, revealed that it wasn’t hard to step into a role as Fonzie’s (Henry Winkler) fiancé, Ashley Pfister, in the 10th season of the “huge” ABC sitcom because she’d already been on the show in its earlier days.
Appearing on Steve Kmetko’s Still Here Hollywood, the actress explained, “Because I was on the show the first or second season, so it was all new. …And I was Ron Howard’s girlfriend. And Donny Most and I had been friends in New York. So Donny had moved out to L.A. and then eventually I did too. And he called me up one day, and he said, ‘There’s a role I think you should, you know, go in for.’ He’s the one that said, ‘Come in and audition for Ron’s girlfriend.’ I did, and I got that. And so everybody was still kind of getting to know each other and the show. So I got to be in on that ground floor.”
Purl noted that when Howard decided to try his hand at directing, he left the show, which meant some of the side characters relating to Richie Cunningham were “out of a job.”
“So, then many years later, Garry [Marshall] put out a casting notice and said they’re looking for a fiancée for Fonzie and they wanted a Linda Purl type,” she shared. “Can I audition for this? So I did, and then I got to, but Garry let me come back then as an entirely different character many years later. It felt like coming home in some ways.”
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Purl first played Richie’s gum-chewing girlfriend, Gloria, in five Happy Days episodes in Season 2 before returning as accountant and divorced mom Ashley in Season 10 for 22 episodes, per IMDb. Ashley and Fonzie came close to getting married at the end of Season 10, but broke up off-screen, with Purl‘s character written out for the show’s final season.
“Originally, I was first on the show as Richie Cunningham’s girlfriend in a recurring role,” Purl told Woman’s World in 2025. “When Ron left the series, all the ancillary characters were out of a job. Many years later, they had put out a casting call for Fonzie’s fiancé. I asked if I could audition and when I got the part, it felt like a homecoming.”
The actress also shared that she kept in touch with her former TV flame Winkler, telling the outlet, “We check in with one another from time to time and see each other at autograph shows.”
While Ashley was the better-known of Purl’s characters, Purl once told Pop Goes the Culture TV that her early character Gloria was known for chewing gum.
“I don’t even think Gloria had a last name,” she shared. “Anyway, she was Ron Howard’s girlfriend, probably one of his many girlfriends, and it was such a fun set right from the get-go to be a part of this.”
Purl recalled that producer Jerry Paris often liked to give characters a signature move, and for Gloria it was the gum in her mouth.
“For Ron’s and my scenes, we would go to kiss, and I would stop and take the gum out and kiss,” she shared. “Well, this was, eventually, it was ruled sort of unacceptable by the powers-that-be because it was unsanitary, so we had to cut the business, and I think that was pretty much the end of my character!”
Related: 49 Years Ago Today, ‘Happy Days’ Jumped the Shark and Still Lasted 6 More Seasons
