Fonzie, Julia Roberts & Anne Hathaway: Our critics honor Garry Marshall's gifts to pop culture

As Hollywood and the rest of America mourn Garry Marshall's passing, our movie critic Steven Rea and TV critic Ellen Gray weigh in on why he mattered -- right up to the end.

On the big screen: Julia Roberts, Beaches, Anne Hathaway
By Steven Rea, Movie Critic

It's a safe bet that Julia Roberts would have become Julia Roberts, beaming movie star glamorpuss, even if Garry Marshall hadn't come along to direct her in 1990's smash hit Pretty Woman.

But it was Marshall's handiwork in the bubbly rom-com (and famous bubble-bath scene) that truly launched Roberts' career. Paired opposite Richard Gere's slick corporate raider, Roberts' wacky streetwalker stole the show. And it was Marshall, with his roots in TV comedy, who served as her accomplice and guide - encouraging her to be loose, be funny, charm the pants off of everyone.

A filmmaker unafraid to recognize audiences' need for emotional release, Marshall's biggest successes combined comedy and schmaltz in hefty doses. Marshall's 1988 hit Beaches, with Barbara Hershey and Bette Midler as childhood best friends buffeted by illness and loss, still stands as one of those irresistible feel-good weepies. "Wind Beneath My Wings"? Where's the Kleenex?

Marshall teamed with Gere and Roberts again in the 1999 screwball romance Runaway Bride, another runaway hit. And with 2001's The Princess Diaries, Marshall shepherded the unknown Anne Hathaway through her feature debut. A star is born, again.

Marshall's final three films were teeming, holiday-themed ensemble pieces - interconnecting and overlapping stories full of heartache, heartbreak, and heartwarming sentiment: Valentine's Day (2010), New Year's Eve (2011) and Mother's Day (2016). Roberts appeared in the latter, getting a lot of flack for the wig she wore. But she owed her director plenty. She wasn't about to let Marshall down.

On TV: The Fonz and beyond
By Ellen Gray, Television Critic

Some of his shows -- Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy -- have become nostalgia-channel staples for their enduring ability to make people laugh while creating a sense of family, often among people who weren't related by blood (or even, in the case of Robin Williams' Mork, from the same planet).

But Garry Marshall wasn't interested in being stuck in the past.

When he met with reporters in January 2015 as part of a CBS presentation on the latest TV revival of The Odd Couple, Marshall, who'd recently turned 80, appeared to revel in his role as an executive consultant on a show he'd twice before developed for television.

"I don't want to shock, but when we did our Odd Couple, we weren't allowed to have women writers. Now there are women writers on this show. And Bob Daily [the executive producer] runs a great ship, and I think that's going to really improve the whole show," Marshall said.

"It's very exciting for me. I like to keep doing things, you know."

The legendary producer also seemed to appreciate the time that had passed since he first developed the Neil Simon play for television.

"When I was doing it [in the 1970s], the network was so afraid that the audience would think there was two gay characters. So every week they said, `Put more girls in. Put more girls in.' So on purpose Jack Klugman and Tony Randall, I used to shoot little moments where they hugged and kissed and sent it to the network just to make them crazy," Marshall recalled.

"Now they deal with it. They talk about it. It's a much more modern show."

He was also happy about the new Oscar and Felix -- Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon.

"You know, Jack Klugman used to come and do his part but then check the race track results, and often Tony Randall was busy with opera. But these guys are here pitching in, and I think it's making the show much funnier," Marshall said.

"Garry is at every taping standing right next to us at every live show, and to me the first time I was coming out to the pilot we had rehearsed and he'd come to the table reads and stuff, and I was feeling like the sword of Damocles was hanging over my head to be playing this character," said Lennon.

"And Garry came up and gave me a hug and said, `You're killing it.' I almost I did start crying just a little bit, because this man is like my interaction with television in the world. [It] all came from this man right here."

Afterward, reporters surrounded Marshall with more questions as a minder tried, with some difficulty, to pull him away. As she finally succeeded, he turned to me and rasped, "You didn't ask anything."

I asked him if, given his interest in continued work, he'd be interested in doing a show for a streaming service like Netflix or Amazon.

"Yeah, they're the place now," Marshall said. "Netflix is very big."