If anything, we could actually say the show was a Fonzie success story.
He goes from high school dropout… who worked as a mechanic…. to owning his own garage… he goes back to get his high school diploma…. He becomes partner in the new rebuilt Al’s Diner, after the old one burns down… he meets a woman he falls in love with and leaves all his womanizing in the past…. he then goes to college and gets his teaching degree…. he gets his teaching job… and to cap it all off, he ends up adoption a young boy by the name of Danny.
I always took that adoption ending of his story to be the end-cap on his journey. Richie and all the others who he guided, had moved on and started their adult lives, and Fonz’s need for family would only make sense that he longed to be the father figure he never had.
So his story isn’t about a loser, but more about someone who struggled and overcame.