Hailing from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this idealized working-class family of the 1950s and 1960s was headed by hardware salesman Howard (
Tom Bosley), and take-no-crap wife/mom/homemaker Marion (Marion Ross). The family had three biological children—Richie (Ron Howard), the show's naïve protagonist, and his younger sister Joanie (Erin Moran), and the mysterious disappearing Chuck; plus, one de facto son in ladies man Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler). Howard was a laid-back father who spent most of his time reading the paper in his recliner, while Marion was quite the firecracker. She was, for example, the only one on the show allowed to call The Fonz by his real, full name. Though Bosley sadly passed away due to lung cancer this week, his fatherly archetype lives on beyond the Nick at Nite reruns. "He will be sorely missed, but never forgotten,"
Winkler told TMZ.