Ron Howard says he was treated with 'a lot of disrespect' by 'Happy Days' network execs after Henry Winkler became more popular on the show

• Ron Howard said studio executives were disrespectful after the Fonz became popular on "Happy Days."
• Howard said Richie Cunningham was the lead but Henry Winkler was "remarkable" as Arthur Fonzarelli.

Ron Howard said in a new interview that top studio and network executives involved with "Happy Days" treated him "with a lot of disrespect" after Henry Winkler's character Arthur Herbert "The Fonz" Fonzarelli became more popular than Howard's character Richie Cunningham.

In a clip from Friday's coming episode of "The Graham Norton Show," Howard said that Richie was meant to be "the undeniable lead" of "Happy Days" but Winkler proved "remarkable" as the Fonz from the first episode.

"We immediately bonded and became great friends," he told Norton. "We were a fantastic ensemble - we all got along great."

While Howard said it was "exciting" to watch viewers fall in love with Winkler as Fonzie, he accused "the studio heads" and "network heads" of "really treating me with a lot of disrespect from a business standpoint, just in terms of interaction."

"The press kept saying: 'What's it like? Do you feel that you've become a second-class citizen on your own show?' and these kinds of things," Howard said. "Which I didn't feel within the workspace. And I certainly didn't feel it within our friendship, which endures to this day."

In fact, Howard told Norton that not only did the two men enjoy a close bond while working on "Happy Days" but Winkler remained godfather to all four of Howard's children, including the actor Bryce Dallas Howard.

Moreover, his experience on the ABC sitcom pushed Howard, now an Academy Award-winning filmmaker, to become more serious about his dream to take charge behind the camera, producing and directing his own films.

Winkler separately told Insider in October that he kept getting passed over for comedy roles after "Happy Days" because people still saw him as the Fonz.

"People would say: 'Wow, he's funny. He's such a good actor. But he was the Fonz,'" Winkler said. "And so they would pass me by. You have to learn to find the strength in yourself to deal with that, reinvent yourself, move on."

Howard's full interview is set to air on "The Graham Norton Show" on BBC America on Friday at 11 p.m. ET.