Tuning In

Winkler reborn

These are happy days, indeed, for the man formerly known as Arthur Fonzarelli.

Henry Winkler, who shot to pop culture immortality as the uber-cool Fonzie on “Happy Days,” suddenly finds himself all over the television once more.

He’s already earned praise for his deft turn as “Arrested Development’s” hapless attorney and contributed a voice part to an upcoming “King of the Hill.” Now, he’s part of a three-episode arc on NBC’s “Third Watch.”

His “Watch” character, a despicable sort based loosely on convicted child killer Joel Steinberg, debuted briefly last week. Tonight’s episode, airing at 10, provides a better glimpse of Mr. Winkler in not-so-nice mode.

His character is a sketchy lawyer hired by Bosco (Jason Wiles) to defend his brother. When the lawyer’s daughter shows up at the hospital with bruises on her body, the doctors cast a suspicious eye on the lawyer and his wife. Another ’70s mainstay, “Charlie’s Angels’ ” Kate Jackson, plays Mr. Winkler’s wife on the episodes.

The actor, during a recent telephone press conference, couldn’t be any friendlier. Or grateful.

“It’s always amazing that I get to do something that is so against type,” says Mr. Winkler, who appeared in last year’s kiddie hit “Holes.” “I never take for granted that it will happen again.”

The actor underwent the expected career letdown when he hung up Fonzie’s leather jacket.

Unlike many television actors, he rolled with the punches.

“My lawyer said, ’I think I’ll start a company for you,’ ” he recalls. Mr. Winkler built a sturdy, post-“Happy Days” life producing movies and television shows (“MacGyver”), occasionally acting in features (“The Waterboy”) and writing children’s books.

While Mr. Winkler acknowledges that identification with a character as popular as Fonzie can be a trap for an actor, he attributes the revival of his long-dormant acting career to being “a late bloomer.”

“I made the decision, indeed, to be an actor again,” says Mr. Winkler, who is also shooting a pilot for NBC. “I’m finally better. I’m getting to where I want, where I imagine myself.”

Spelling’s rebound

Apparently there’s life after appearing in a really awful sitcom on the WB.

Former “Beverly Hills, 90210” star Tori Spelling, late of the wretched show “The Help,” has joined the cast of UPN’s comedy pilot “Me, Me, Me,” the Reuters News Agency reports.

The pilot follows two attractive New York women who shamelessly climb the social ladder.

Miss Spelling, who recently starred in the Hallmark Channel’s TV movie “A Carol Christmas,” next appears in the indie feature “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.”

In other casting news, comedienne Kym Whitley, who did a memorable turn as the hooker who haunts Larry David in this year’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” has come on board the ABC midseason drama pilot “The Catch.” The show centers on two bounty hunters (Greg Grunberg, Orlando Jones).

Cobain lives

The WB Network has secured the rights to a 2001 Kurt Cobain biography with plans to turn it into a telepicture, Reuters reports.

Charles Cross’ 2001 unauthorized biography, “Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain,” could get a prime-time berth as early as next season. Mr. Cobain killed himself 10 years ago. Robert Munic (“They Call Me Sir”) has been commissioned to write the script for the untitled film.

“The day Kurt Cobain died was the day the music died for a generation,” Tana Nugent Jamieson, senior VP of the WB’s new longform original programing unit, told Reuters. “His story is perfect for our audience.”

No casting or director is attached.

The film will trace the singer’s life from his troubled youth near Seattle to his pioneering role in the emergence of the grunge music genre as Nirvana’s vocal cord-shredding frontman. The film will detail Mr. Cobain’s bouts with depression and drug abuse as well as his turbulent relationship with rocker wife Courtney Love.

Miss Jamieson hopes to give the film a cautionary tone, with a public-service announcement on the dangers of depression. The announcement could possibly be made following the film.

“We can do this right without seeming preachy,” she says.

Mr. Munic said the film was “not your traditional biopic,” noting that “the storytelling will have a nonlinear style, flashing to different parts of his life out of chronological order.”

• Compiled by Christian Toto from staff and wire reports.