Henry Winkler Bares It All In ‘Loot’s Season 3 Premiere As Leader Of Nudist Utopia

Maya Rudolph’s hit Apple TV comedy, Loot, is back for its highly-anticipated Season 3, and let’s just say its eventful premiere is hilariously NSFW.

From Benjamin Bratt to Tony Hawk and more, Loot has had its fair share of iconic guest stars over the years, but Season 3’s premiere features one of the show’s most iconic celebs yet: Henry Winkler. And not just any Henry Winkler. Naked Henry Winkler!

Season 3, Episode 1, “Bye-Bye Mode,” kicks off with Molly (Maya Rudolph) and Nicholas (Joel Kim Booster) realizing their plane crashed on a deserted island and they’re stranded — or that’s what Nicholas wants Molly to think. In reality, he staged a plane crash on her private island so she could escape from reality, recharge, and heal from her Season 2 finale heartbreak over Arthur (Nat Faxon).

Everything’s going according to plan until Sofía (Michaela Jaé Rodriguez), Howard (Ron Funches), and Rhonda (Meagen Fay) track them down and expose Nicholas’ secret. After Molly sends her colleagues away and vows to live a peaceful “castaway chic” life, the trio learn there’s a ferry on the other side of the island that can take them home. Again, everything’s going great, until they meet the man who owns the ferry, Mr. Gerald Canning (Winkler).

As the three reach the other side of the island, the delightful Caribbean rhythms of Sir Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” start to swell and Howard realizes they’re on a nude beach surrounded by “a bunch of naked olds!” Gerald, the leader of those naked olds, enthusiastically greets them with a chipper, “Oh, HELLO! I knew I smelled clothes. Welcome to Vagine!” (Yes, really!)

For his revealing Loot role, Winkler proudly stripped down, donned a patterned silk robe (open in the front, of course), a massive gold chain, and a tan fedora. During his grand entrance, four naked people stand behind him, private bits blurred out with boxes. The perfectly-cast legend bares it all in the name of crafted a unique, cringey, downright hilarious Season 3 premiere, and his upbeat energy, beaming smile, and fearless commitment to comedy makes the storyline work so well.

“It was a real dream come true,” Funches told Decider over Zoom when asked about working with Winkler as he led a “free-thinking, pan-genital, ADA-compliant utopia.”

“I’ve been such a fan of his from way back to Happy Days, to his work on Barry, to animation work that he’s done, and if you work in Hollywood long enough, you hear all these tales about how he’s such a great guy, and you want to meet him. They say ‘Don’t meet your heroes,’ and then you find out he’s even better than you think,” Funches continued. “He is so sweet, so kind, so funny. He was willing to do anything. Appreciative is the word that I would say for him. I think someone like him knows his power, and how much joy he brings people, and he uses it a lot in that first episode. And it was cold, so I respect him so much for [what] he did out on a beach in the middle of January.”

So what else did Winkler do out on that beach? Gerald introduces Loot‘s core characters to dozens of naked olds at his mansion, asks them to disrobe, and denies them ferry access when they decline. Watching him go head-to-head with Sofía, “the most clothed person [he’s] ever seen,” is comedy gold, as is him telling his mysterious neighbor, Molly, “I have sent you so many erotic fruit baskets, but nothing!”

After Molly and Nicholas arrive in hopes of saving their friends from Vagine, she and Gerald slip away to talk in private, specifically in his teepee, which features a “self portrait” penis painting on the outside. The two sit beside a giant bowl of hummus, which Gerald seductively eats with his fingers, and he tells Molly his jaw-dropping Vagine origin story. When she finally asks him to let her friends use the ferry to get home, he invites her and her group to “bacchanal,” get “pregnant with hummus,” “undulate to the rhythms,” and “create art with what God gave us…nipples and penis tips.” HENRY WINKLER, I’M WHEEZING FROM LAUGHTER!

Molly accepts his invite to party but negotiates “shoes off, no socks” as the Wells Foundation’s terms. As The Beach Boys’ “Kokomo” blasts, the naked olds dance, swim, feed each other grapes, limbo, wheelbarrow race, and more. Finally, Gerald calls on his “fellow Vagineers” to crown Molly her “Royal Vagesty,” and after a naked group hug, the ferry is secured. Before the episode ends, Molly and the group bid Gerald and his naked pals farewell, Rhonda tears her shirt off and decides to stay behind, and Arthur surprises Molly with a kiss in front of crowd of nipples and penis tips. ROMANCE, the Loot way!

In the end, Henry Winkler, his bare beach bod, his experienced humor, and his contagious energy were just what Loot needed to pull off the perfect Season 3 premiere. But Winkler didn’t just delight viewers. He made quite an impact on the cast, too…

“He loves comedy. We’re friends now, and if I post like some standup clips of mine, one of the first people to comment is Henry Winkler telling me how funny I am,” Funches told Decider. “It just fills me with so much joy and makes me feel that I can succeed in this business.” BRB, crying, craving hummus, and praying we haven’t seen the last of Gerald Canning on Loot.

New episodes of Loot Season 3 premiere Wednesdays on Apple TV+.