Henry Winkler had already spent years playing one of television’s most recognizable characters when he stepped behind the camera for a Tom Hanks movie in the late 1980s.

Thirteen days later, he was collecting his belongings from the set.

The experience did more than end Winkler’s brief stint as director of the 1989 comedy Turner & Hooch. Decades later, the Happy Days legend says the troubled production remains connected to a complicated relationship with Hanks — one Winkler still has not entirely figured out.

Looking back on the experience in a 2026 interview with Graham Bensinger, Winkler acknowledged that his own insecurity may have played a role in what happened. He also admitted that something about the project had felt wrong to him from the beginning.

His biggest regret may have been ignoring that feeling.

Winkler said Jeffrey Katzenberg, then chairman of Walt Disney Studios, selected him to direct Turner & Hooch. The movie centered on Hanks as a detective whose investigation forces him to team up with a dog connected to the case.

It should have been an exciting opportunity. Hanks was becoming an increasingly important film star, and Winkler was expanding his career beyond the role of Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli that had made him famous.

But Winkler remembers his instincts warning him that the job could become difficult.

Years later, he described the experience as a lesson in trusting his gut. He felt uneasy before production began, went forward anyway, and ultimately came away believing that he should have listened to himself.

Once he committed to the movie, however, Winkler became deeply involved.

He participated in the casting process, met the dogs being considered for the film and worked with Hanks as they auditioned actresses for the female lead. According to Winkler, Hanks ultimately connected strongly with Mare Winningham, whom Winkler regarded as a talented performer.

The trouble emerged when filming began.

Winkler now believes his own behavior may have contributed to the growing tension. He recalled being insecure at the time and said he probably talked too much.

As director, he gave Hanks and Winningham notes about their performances. When he believed a scene could be better, he wanted to shoot it again. To Winkler, that was simply part of directing a movie.

But he later came to understand that his approach had not been well received.

He said the direction he gave the actors apparently angered them.

Whatever disagreements were developing behind the camera, they did not have much time to simmer.

Only 13 days into filming, Winkler was summoned to Katzenberg’s office.

The meeting brought his time on Turner & Hooch to an abrupt end.

Winkler returned to the set, gathered his possessions and drove home. He had been fired.

Roger Spottiswoode eventually took over directing duties and completed the film.

For Winkler, however, losing the job was not something he could immediately shrug off as another unpredictable Hollywood experience.

He was devastated.

His agent quickly encouraged him to get back into public view rather than retreat. Winkler recalled being told that they needed to go to lunch and be seen. He agreed, although he was so upset that he had little interest in eating.

The professional disappointment eventually became part of a larger Hollywood career filled with successes, setbacks and reinventions. But questions about Winkler’s relationship with Hanks did not disappear as easily.

Their history, in fact, had started before Turner & Hooch.

In 1982, years before Hanks became one of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars, he appeared as a guest performer on Happy Days. He played a former schoolmate of Fonzie in an episode of the hugely popular sitcom.

That earlier connection makes the later tension even more intriguing.

When Bensinger asked Winkler about where any negative feelings between him and Hanks might have begun, Winkler did not point to one definitive moment. He noted that they had worked together on Happy Days before the movie but said he simply did not know exactly how the strained relationship developed.

There was, however, another episode that stayed with him.

Years after Hanks’ appearance on Happy Days, Winkler was involved with a retrospective celebrating the series. He said the producers wanted to include about 60 seconds featuring Hanks from his old guest appearance.

According to Winkler, they were unable to obtain permission to use it.

For Winkler, that became another piece of a relationship that has remained difficult to define from the outside.

Asked directly for his current view of the situation, Winkler gave an answer suggesting he has not reached a final conclusion even after all these years.

“I am still working on my perspective,” he said.

He also mentioned that Hanks’ wife, Rita Wilson, had appeared on Happy Days during the show’s earlier years, adding yet another connection between their careers.

Despite the history, Winkler does not appear to consider reconciliation impossible.

When asked whether he believed his relationship with Hanks could someday be repaired, his answer was simple: “Sure.”

That response is notable because Winkler’s recollections contain plenty of painful material.

He remembers distrusting the project before accepting it. He remembers questioning performances as a director and realizing those notes were unwelcome. He remembers being dismissed less than two weeks into production. And he remembers the personal embarrassment and disappointment that followed.

Yet he also seems willing to examine his own role rather than presenting himself only as the injured party.

By saying he was insecure and may have talked too much, Winkler has given the story a layer that is less about a straightforward Hollywood feud and more about how differently people can remember the same difficult collaboration.

Turner & Hooch ultimately moved ahead without him, while both Winkler and Hanks went on to careers that stretched across decades.

But for Winkler, those 13 days never became just a forgotten directing job from the 1980s.

They left behind a professional disappointment, unanswered questions about one of Hollywood’s most famous actors and a relationship he is still trying to understand.

Nearly four decades later, he may not have settled on exactly what went wrong.

What he has settled on is the possibility that the story does not have to end there.