The biggest movie of 1976 was almost a TV movie instead—and the deal was handled by a Happy Days star. During an appearance on Sirius XM’s Sway in the Morning, Happy Days star Henry Winkler once revealed he negotiated a deal with ABC to make Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky script into a network TV movie in the mid-1970s.
At the time, Stallone’s only movie credit was in the 1974 movie The Lords of Flatbush, which also starred Winkler. But Winkler was one of the biggest stars on TV, playing Happy Days icon Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli, when Stallone showed him the script for a feature film.
