The process was not especially ceremonial. “I then go to the set. I get my things. I drive home. I’m fired as a director,” Winkler recalled.
He described himself as “devastated” and admitted he did not handle the decision well. His account suggested friction with Hanks had contributed to the atmosphere, although he did not claim that Hanks personally dismissed him or identify one definitive cause for the firing.
There had been at least one friendly gesture before the production fell apart. Winkler confirmed that Hanks built and signed a plastic model aircraft for him while they were holding meetings. He remembered it as a Piper Cub or something similar. Hollywood relationships can apparently include both handmade gifts and abrupt unemployment.
Their history began before Hanks became a film star
Winkler and Hanks had already worked together years before Turner & Hooch. In 1982, Hanks appeared as a guest star on Happy Days, the sitcom that made Winkler famous as Arthur “the Fonz” Fonzarelli.
Winkler pointedly described that appearance as happening “before he was a movie star.” Hanks later became one of Hollywood’s biggest actors and won two Academy Awards, while Winkler continued a long television and film career that eventually included Arrested Development and Barry.
Years later, producers of a Happy Days retrospective wanted to include 60 seconds from Hanks’ episode. Winkler said they “did not get permission” to use the footage. He did not specify who withheld approval or explain the circumstances, but he included the episode while discussing the pair’s strained history.
The detail adds another layer to a relationship that has remained difficult to define in public. Neither actor has staged an open war of words. Instead, the story has endured through old production memories, carefully phrased answers and one notably unavailable minute of television.
Could Winkler and Hanks repair the relationship?
Asked about their current dynamic, Winkler said he was “still working on” his perspective. When Graham Bensinger asked whether the relationship could ever repair itself, Winkler answered simply: “Sure.”
That response leaves the door open, though not so wide that anyone should expect an immediate reunion. A representative for Hanks did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday afternoon.
Winkler has also previously rejected the idea that the two men were engaged in a feud. In 2020, he said: “I don’t have a feud with Tom Hanks.” He added, “What everybody says and what is true are two different things.”
His latest remarks do not amount to a declaration of hostilities. They do, however, confirm that being removed from Turner & Hooch still carries some emotional weight. Winkler now accepts that he may have been unsuited to the film, but he also remembers trying to direct it, being fired after less than two weeks and struggling with the fallout. Thirty-seven years later, the dog comedy continues to produce complications.
