Ron Howard and Henry Winkler to reunite at the 2024 Emmys for the 50th anniversary of “Happy Days”

For fans of 70s television, Sunday was indeed a happy day.

Beautiful days Former directors Ron Howard and Henry Winkler reunited for the 76th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, September 15. The two came together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ABC sitcom and presented the award for directing of a comedy series.

To add to the nostalgia, the former co-stars gathered on a replica set of the show’s legendary Arnold’s Drive-In. The set recreated everything from the show, including the sports pennants on the wall, the red leather booths, a pinball machine, and even an old hi-fidelity jukebox.

“This is fantastic,” said 70-year-old Howard on stage, and 78-year-old Winkler added, “It feels like home.”

After briefly discussing not getting their theme song during their introduction, Howard encouraged Winkler to play the jukebox like he does on the show. “First of all, I’m out of practice,” joked Winkler, who made the iconic move and got the music playing. “Well done,” Howard said.

Beautiful days ran for eleven seasons between 1974 and 1984. The series followed Howard’s character Richie Cunningham as he navigated life in Milwaukee in the mid-1950s and mid-1960s. Winkler played Cunningham’s friend, the motorcycle-riding, leather-jacket-wearing Arthur Fonzarelli, better known as “The Fonz.”

Missing from the mini-reunion were Marion Ross (Marion Cunningham), Scott Baio (Chachi Arcola), Don Mast (Ralph Malph) and Anson William (Potsie Weber). The late Erin Moran (Joanie Cunningham), Tom Bosley (Howard Cunningham) and Al Molinaro (Al Delvecchio) were also missing.

After the end Beautiful daysHoward changed his career path and directed and produced blockbusters such as Apollo13, The Da Vinci Code, A beautiful spirit And Hillbilly ElegyRecently, Howard won the Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction for Jim Henson, the idea man. Winkler continued his acting career with roles in the hit shows Children’s Hospital And Barry and films like Scream And Here comes the boom.

In February Beautiful days The crew reunited backstage at Winkler’s book event in Australia.

The nod to Beautiful days joins the growing list of nostalgic Emmy moments honoring TV’s most iconic shows and casts. This year, producers honored the beginning of Saturday Night Live50th season by assembling an all-star cast of graduates. Earlier this year, the Academy celebrated the Sopranos, Cheers, Martinand others at the 75th Emmy Awards in January.

Executive producers Jesse Collins, Jeannae Rouzan-Clay and Dionne Harmon of Jesse Collins Entertainment are behind the show’s most viral moments.

“The response to January was incredible and we felt like people really connected to the nostalgia,” Harmon said at a press conference before the show. “So we wanted to find a way to bring that nostalgia into Sunday’s show without doing the exact same thing. We really focused on TV shows that everyone loved in January, and on Sunday we’re going to focus on the characters, individual characters from all sorts of shows.”

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Watch PEOPLE’s full coverage of the 76th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, broadcast live from the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles on ABC.