If you’ve ever watched “Arrested Development,” you know that Henry Winkler is really good at playing comically bad lawyers on TV. It’s honestly impossible to forget (and not to laugh at) his Barry Zuckerkorn.
Now, Winkler is about to star in a legal comedy all of his own. “Last Chance Lawyer,” in which Winkler plays “hard-driving and unconventional criminal defense attorney” Howard Greenberg, is currently in development at NBC, according to Variety.
Unless this is a Saul Goodman of “Better Call Saul” type of situation, I just can’t imagine a lawyer named Harold Greenberg, played by Henry Winkler, not being Jewish. (It’s also hard to imagine Barry Zuckerkorn not being Jewish, but here’s hoping Greenberg will be Winkler’s first great Jewish TV lawyer, though perhaps that won’t be quite as funny).
The premise sounds delightful, and Winkler is signed on not only to star but to executive produce, along with Mike Gagerman and Andrew Waller, the writing team behind the show. The duo previously collaborated on the movie “Search Party,” which stars Alison Brie and Adam Pally, two Jewish actors we’d love to see on episodes of “Last Chance Lawyer.” Personally, I’m hoping that the show will feature some shots of Howard unwinding from a long week of litigation by fly fishing: There’s nothing I love more in this world than pictures of Henry Winkler with the fish he just caught.
Winkler, who most recently starred in the film “Normal” alongside Bob Odenkirk, turned 80 this past October. He recently celebrated his milestone birthday with the delicious chocolate cake at Phil Rosenthal and Nancy Silverton’s new diner, Max & Helen’s. A prolific children’s book writer (alongside his writing partner Lin Oliver), Winkler’s latest book in his “Detective Duck” series came out in September 2025.
While we don’t know when “Last Chance Lawyer” will air yet, it will truly be wonderful to have the Fonz back on our TV screens. We’ve missed him since “Barry,” the role that earned the actor his first Primetime Emmy, aired its last season back in 2023. And here’s hoping Winkler’s other incredible recent TV role — that of a devoted Orthodox Jewish father in the Israeli show “Chanshi” — becomes available for us to watch here in the U.S. soon.
