Those familiar with Happy Days or Arrested Development should know: Henry Winkler, a.k.a. the Fonz, is an important guy. Careers have been made and media fortunes squandered trying to please the man. His opinion matters. Hence titles like Unbilled Scream Cameo Weekly and Why Night Shift Is the Best Comedy of the 1980s Digest being unaffected by the publishing downturn.

In an interview today with FishbowlDC's Betsy Rothstein, Winkler aired his views on various media figures. While he likes everyone--because he's Henry Winkler--he made it clear to Rothstein that there are some people he really, really likes. Among Winkler's super-duper favorites:

Ezra Klein
"He gets to the heart of the matter. This is the third or fourth time I saw him. I looked up the number to Washington Post because I thought he was just fantastic and I'm thinking, I should just tell him. I said, I think you are just of real great clarity. I just was a fan."

Rachel Maddow
"She just has [a] steel trap brain. In my collection I have a hat from her show. Someone got me a hat, I've never been on. And I love that I have it."

Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough
"They are just good, they're smart."

Christiane Amanpour
"Really fantastic."

Fareed Zakaria
"Probably one of the extraordinary minds in all media."

Maureen Dowd
"My wife likes Maureen Dowd."

(H/T, again, to Fishbowl and Betsy Rothstein, who we also bet Winkler likes a lot.)

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at rgustini at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Ray Gustini