Happy Days

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For other uses, see Happy Days (disambiguation).
Happy Days
Image:Happy-days.jpg
Happy Days
Genre Sitcom
Running time approx. 0:22 (per episode)
Creator(s) Garry Marshall
Starring Ron Howard
Henry Winkler
Marion Ross
Anson Williams
Donny Most (2-7)
Gavan O'Herlihy
Erin Moran (3-9, 11)
Al Molinaro
Scott Baio
Cathy Silvers(8-10)
Michael Diamond
Ted McGinley(8-11)
Roz Kelly
Linda Purl
Pat Morita
Lynda Goodfriend
Billy Warlock (10)
Heather O' Rourke (10)
Tom Bosley
Crystal Bernard (10).
Opening theme Bill Haley & His Comets (1-2)
Norman Gimble with Charlie Fox (3-10)
Bobby Avron (11)
Ending theme Pratt and McClain (1-2)
Norman Gimble with Charlie Fox (3-10)
Bobby Avron (11)
Country of origin Flag of United States United States
Original channel ABC
Original run January 15, 1974–September 24, 1984
No. of episodes 255
IMDb profile

Happy Days was a popular American television sitcom that originally aired between 1974 and 1984 on the ABC television network. It presented an idealized version of life in late 1950s and early 1960s America.

Happy Days centered on the life of a middle-class family, the Cunninghams, living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The family consisted of Howard, a hardware store owner and the family patriarch; Marion, a homemaker and the family matriarch; and the couple's teenage children, Richie (who had an optimistic if somewhat naïve outlook on life), Richie's younger sister Joanie, and Richie's older brother Chuck (a character that would abruptly disappear during the second season, with no explanation given until four years later). As the series went on the story focus often shifted to additional characters, notably those of ex-New Yorker Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli, who was originally portrayed as a local thug but soon became a friend to Richie and the Cunningham family, and Fonzie's cousin Chachi, who became a love interest for Joanie Cunningham. The long-running show also resulted in several spinoff shows, many of which were highly successful in their own right.

The second season episode "The Not Making of the President" revolves around the 1956 presidential election, indicating that the action of the series began in 1955 and, after nine seasons, ended in 1965.

Contents

[edit] Cast

  • Cunningham family
  • Howard (Tom Bosley) - Husband and hardware store owner.
  • Marion (Marion Ross) - Wife and homemaker.
  • Richie (Ron Howard) - Son and high school student. The protagonist for the first six years of the series. The character was written out of the show, leaving to join the United States Army, after Ron Howard decided to leave the show to pursue his desired (and ultimately highly successful) career as a director, rather than an actor. (1974-1980)
  • Joanie (Erin Moran) - Daughter.
  • Chuck (Gavan O'Herlihy, Randolph Roberts) - Elder son written out of series with no explanation.
  • Roger Phillips (Ted McGinley) - Marion's nephew. Introduced after Richie left the show (1980-1983)
  • Flip Phillips (Billy Warlock) - Roger's brother. Seen only during 10th season
  • KC (Crystal Bernard) - Howard's niece.
  • Others

[edit] Cast Stats

  • Don Most was originally cast to play the part of Potsie Weber. The Ralph Malph character was added to the show after producers decided to cast Anson Williams as Potsie.
  • Another television dad, Harold Gould (Rhoda) was cast as Howard Cunningham in the Love, American Style episode sub-titled "Love & the Happy Day".

Fox and Gimble wrote the theme song for seasons2-10, but it was sung by a group of studio musicians. Jimmy Haas, lead vocal, Ron Hicklin, Stan Farber, Jerry Whitman and Gary Garrett backing vocals. This is all on file with both AFTRA and SAG and has nothing to do with the record that was released after the show was a hit.

[edit] History

Happy Days originated during a period of 1950s nostalgia in film, television, and music. It began as an unsold pilot called New Family in Town, with Harold Gould in the role of Howard Cunningham, Marion Ross as Marion, Ron Howard as Richie, Anson Williams as Potsie, Ric Carrott as Charles "Chuck" Cunningham, and Susan Neher as Joanie. When Paramount passed on making it into a weekly series, they recycled the pilot with the title "Love and the Happy Day" and presented on the television anthology series Love, American Style. In 1972, George Lucas asked to see a copy of the pilot to see if Ron Howard would be suitable to play a teenager in American Graffiti, then in pre-production. He immediately cast Howard in the film, which became one of the top-grossing films of 1973. Creator Garry Marshall and ABC reshot the unsold pilot and turned Happy Days into a series.

[edit] Production styles

The first two seasons of Happy Days were filmed using a single-camera setup and a laugh track.

One episode of season 2 ("Fonzie Gets Married") was filmed in front of a studio audience with three cameras as a test run.

From the third season on, the show was a three-camera production in front of a live audience, giving these later seasons a markedly different style.

[edit] Sets

The show had two main sets: the Cunningham home, and Arnold's Drive-In.

In season 1 & 2, the Cunningham house was arranged with the front door on the left and the kitchen on the right, in a sort of triangle. Beginning with season 3, the house was radically re-arranged to accommodate multiple cameras and a studio audience. However, the second season episode mentioned above in which Fonzie gets engaged was shot on the old set, but with multiple cameras.

The Cunningham's address is 565 North Clinton Drive, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.[1] The address, although ficticious, suggests that the Cunninghams lived on the city's east side.

The house that served as the exterior of the Cunningham residence is actually located at 565 North Cahuenga Avenue (south of Melrose Avenue) in Los Angeles, just a few blocks from Paramount's lot on Melrose Avenue.

The Happy Days kitchen set was used for a scene in Paramount Picture's Mommie Dearest.

Leon's Frozen Custard in Milwaukee was the inspiration for the original Arnold's Drive-In.

[edit] The "Fonzie Effect"

The early Happy Days episodes centered around Richie and his teenage friends, Ralph Malph and Warren "Potsie" Weber, dealing with the troubles of being teenagers in 1950s and early/mid 1960s Milwaukee. During the first season, the character of Arthur "Fonzie"/"The Fonz" Fonzarelli started to become a fan favorite. He was originally meant to be a local high school drop out and only occasionally seen. However, the Fonz proved popular with viewers and was soon given more and more screen time by the writers, becoming a permanent member of the cast in the second season credits. The "Fonz" quickly became the show's most popular character. When the ABC management considered changing the name of the show to "Fonzie's Happy Days," the cast, including Henry Winkler who played the role of Fonzie, protested along with Producer/Creator Garry Marshall, and the show's title remained unchanged.

[edit] New characters

Later seasons saw the addition of other characters. Roz Kelly was first brought in as Pinky Tuscadero slated to be Fonzie's long-term girlfriend. Commercials for the subsequent season even began promoting Kelly's new character, but when discord occurred between her and the cast and producers, her character was dropped; it was only mentioned briefly in two subsequent episodes, one where her sister Leather Tuscadero came into town to start a fresh life from reform school, and when Fonzie was out of town at a demolition derby with Pinky.

Bill "Sticks" Downey, played by John-Anthony Bailey (a.k.a. Jack Baker), was also supposed to be added to the cast as a new member of Richie's band, on drums, and the gang at Arnold's but the character never caught on and only stayed for a few episodes. (John-Anthony Bailey went on to a career in pornographic movies and later died from complications due to HIV.)

During the first two seasons a few actresses were brought in as potential long term girlfriends for Richie. Laurette Spang was Richie's girlfriend Arlene in a couple of first season episodes. Later in the second season Linda Purl was brought in as Richie's girlfriend Gloria. Neither caught on storywise and Richie did not have a steady girlfriend until he went to college and met Lori-Beth Allan (Lynda Goodfriend), a former classmate from Jefferson High. Linda Purl returned to the Happy Days fold in Season 10 as Fonzie's girlfriend Ashley Pfister (a divorced socialite of the wealthy Milwaukee Pfister family). The Pfisters were often also referenced on Laverne and Shirley as the owners of many Milwaukee establishments, ie: Chez Pfister, The Hotel Pfister, Pfister Fong's.

[edit] Season 4

The most major character changes occurred after Season 4 with the addition of Scott Baio as Fonzie's cousin, Chachi Arcola. Originally the character of Spike, mentioned as Fonzie's nephew was supposed to be the character that morphed into Chachi.

Al Molinaro was also added as Al Delvelcchio the new owner of Arnold's after Pat Morita's character of Arnold moved on (his character got married). Al Molinaro also played Al's twin brother Father Francis Delvelcchio, a Catholic priest. Al eventually married Chachi's mother (played by Ellen Travolta) and Father Frank served in the wedding of Joanie to Chachi in the series' final episode.

[edit] Seasons 8 onward

Lynda Goodfriend joined the cast as a minor character, Lori-Beth Allen, and became a permanent member of the cast between Seasons 8 and 10, after Lori Beth married Richie.

After Ron Howard (Richie) left the series, Ted McGinley joined the cast as Roger Phillips the new Phys Ed teacher at Jefferson High and nephew to Howard and Marion. He took over the role of acting as counterpoint to Fonzie, from Richie.

The character didn't really catch on and Warlock left the show.

Billy Warlock joined the cast in season 10 as Roger's brother Flip, along with Crystal Bernard as Howard and Marion's niece K.C. They were meant as replacements for Erin Moran and Scott Baio (who had departed into their own show Joanie Loves Chachi). Both characters left when Moran and Baio returned, following the cancellation of Joanie Loves Chachi.

[edit] Liberties

The show took more and more liberties with both the time era it took place in (fashions and hairstyles contemporary to the show's 1970s and 1980s production years started to show up on the show's characters) and with the tone of the episodes, as Happy Days' later seasons started to feature more and more outlandish plots.

Fonzie jumps over a shark while on water skis.
Enlarge
Fonzie jumps over a shark while on water skis.

[edit] "Jumping the Shark"

Main article: jumping the shark

The most famous of these plots involved Fonzie performing a water ski jump over a shark in an episode aired on September 20, 1977, during the show's fifth season. In later years, this episode has often been cited by critics as the point where it became obvious that the series had already passed its peak of quality and popularity. The phrase jumping the shark was later coined to express such criticisms about popular culture phenomena in general. While the Fonz's literal shark jump gave rise to the phrase, many fans consider Happy Days to have endured multiple turning points, occurring both before and after the stunt in question. Of particular note are the fire that destroyed the original Arnold's Drive-In and the departure of leading man Ron Howard, both of which occurred after the notorious stunt involving the shark.

[edit] Theme music

Seasons 1 and 2 of the series used a newly recorded version of "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets (recorded in the fall of 1973) as the opening theme song. This recording was not commercially released at the time, although the original 1954 recording returned to the American Billboard charts in 1974 as a result of its use on the show. The Happy Days recording was released commercially for the first time by the German label Hydra Records in 2005. (When Happy Days entered syndication in the late 1970s, the series was retitled Happy Days Again and used an edited version of the 1954 recording instead of the new version.)

The show's closing theme song in season 1 & 2 was "Happy Days," written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel. According to SAG, this version was performed by Jimmy Haas (lead vocal), Ron Hicklin, Stan Farber, Jerry Whitman and Gary Garrett (backing vocals), plus studio musicians.

From seasons 3-10, this replaced "Rock Around the Clock" at the beginning of the show. Released as a single in 1976 by Pratt & McClain, "Happy Days" cracked the Top 5. The show itself finished the 1975-76 television season #1, ending the five-year Nielsen reign of All in the Family.

For the show's 11th and final season (1983-84), the theme was redone in a more modern style. Featuring Bobby Avron on lead vocals, with several back-up vocalists, this version of the theme song is not as popular with Happy Days fans as the versions used from the 3rd-10th seasons. To accompany this, new opening credits were filmed, and the flashing "Happy Days" logo was digitally re-drawn.

Before the 1997 re-release of the 1994 Paramount movie Andre, a Paramount Family Favorites promo played with a 1997 version of the Happy Days theme-incidentally, Happy Days was a production of Paramount Television, now called CBS Paramount Television.

In "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "White & Nerdy," the character mentions that the Happy Days theme song is his favorite theme song.

In 2005, the Happy Days theme tune and main characters were used in UK Citroën car advertisements.

[edit] DVD releases

DVD Name Release Date Ep # Additional Information
The Complete First Season August 17, 2004 16 No Extras Included
The Complete Second Season April 17, 2007 23
The Complete Third Season TBA 23
The Complete Fourth Season TBA 24
The Complete Fifth Season TBA 26
The Complete Sixth Season TBA 26
The Complete Seventh Season TBA 25
The Complete Eighth Season TBA 22
The Complete Ninth Season TBA 21
The Complete Tenth Season TBA 22
The Complete Eleventh Season TBA 22

Paramount Home Entertainment released Season 1 of Happy Days on DVD in 2004. It has been thought that no further Seasons would be released due to the high costs of copyright clearances for the songs used during the series, and due to sluggish sales. However Season 2 has been announced for April 17, 2007 [1].

[edit] Episodes

Further information: List of Happy Days episodes

[edit] Spinoffs

Laverne, Mork, and Fonzie
Enlarge
Laverne, Mork, and Fonzie

Happy Days spun off five different live-action series: Laverne and Shirley, Mork and Mindy, Joanie Loves Chachi, Blansky's Beauties, and Out of the Blue.

  • The most successful of these spinoffs, Laverne and Shirley (starring Cindy Williams and Penny Marshall), also took place in early/mid 1960s Milwaukee, though the two starring characters eventually moved to Los Angeles in the show's latter years. Penny Marshall is the sister of producer Garry Marshall.
  • Robin Williams made his first appearance as "Mork" on Happy Days. In his own sitcom, Mork and Mindy, Mork the alien from planet Ork landed in 1970s Boulder, Colorado to study humans.
  • Joanie Loves Chachi was a short-lived show about Richie's younger sister Joanie and Fonzie's younger cousin Chachi's relationship during their years as musicians in Chicago. Two myths have sprung up around the series in recent years. The first involves the show's popularity in Korea, as "Chachi" is slang for "penis." More information can be found on the show's page. The other rumor suggests that the show was cancelled due to low ratings. Actually, the program finished in the Top 20 its first season, but ABC determined that the show was losing too much of its lead-in, suggesting low appeal if the show were moved. This sort of cancellation seemed strange in the early 1980s, but soon became a commonplace part of TV audience research.
  • Blansky's Beauties (Feb-May 1977) was also a rather weak spinoff, as Nancy Walker had played Howard Cunnigham's cousin Nancy Blansky from Las Vegas on a 2/4/77 Happy Days episode, and Blansky's Beauties then premiered on 2/12/77. In her own sitcom, Nancy Blansky was a 1970s casino choreographer and den mother to chorus girls. The Blanksy's Beauties cast included Happy Days/Laverne & Shirley actors: Scott Baio, Lynda Goodfriend, Eddie Mekka and Pat Morita (who joined the show after his failed series Mr. T and Tina).
  • Out of the Blue (Sep-Dec 1979) was a short-lived series about an angel who lives with a 1970s family, is sometimes thought to be a spin-off of Mork & Mindy, but actually was a planned spin-off from Happy Days. The appearance of "Random the Angel" on Happy Days (in the episode where Chachi sells his soul to the devil's nephew) actually aired after the first episode of Out of the Blue because of pre-emption, but it was supposed to serve as the pilot. This show lasted for seven episodes (eight counting the pilot on Happy Days). Mork appeared on the first episode of Out of the Blue.

There was also an animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera entitled Fonz and the Happy Days Gang which ran from 1980-1982. Animated spin-offs of Laverne and Shirley and Mork and Mindy soon followed.

[edit] Trivia

  • Jerry Paris, who co-starred on The Dick Van Dyke Show and directed several episodes of that series, directed every episode of Happy Days from the third season on.
  • The first two seasons of the series also featured Chuck, the Cunninghams' eldest child and Richie's older brother. The character was little more than a superfluous one, as he was usually used in scenes where he was "on his way to basketball practice." In fact, Chuck was originally a student at Marquette University on a basketball scholarship.
The character of Chuck Cunningham was written out during the series' second season, and no explanation was ever given. Chuck was never referred to; scripts from later seasons suggested the Cunninghams had two, not three children. However, in the fourth-season recap version of the Christmas episode, "Guess Who's Coming To Christmas", Fonzie – recalling his first Christmas with the Cunninghams – tells Al that Chuck was "away at college."
In a Happy Days reunion show from 2005, the cast mentioned that Chuck had won a scholarship to the "University of Outer Mongolia" to play basketball, as a sort of an inside joke to the cast and writers.
An officially circulated blooper from the final episode has Mr. Cunningham raising a glass to the entire cast and saying "to Happy Days." After taking a sip, he blurts out in mock surprise "wait, where's Chuck?!"
  • Creative differences between Happy Days' producers and ABC helped boost the Fonz's popularity. ABC executives did not want a sympathetic character such as the Fonz to appear in a leather jacket, which they thought would make him appear to be a thug (The Fonz can be seen wearing a white jacket in early episodes). The compromise reached with the producers was to decree that Fonzie could only wear it if his motorcycle was in the scene, as a leather jacket is legitimate safety apparel for someone riding a motorcycle. The show's producers responded by placing the motorcycle in all of his scenes, even indoor ones. The leather jacket soon became trademark attire for Fonzie, leading to ABC to relax the Fonz's dress code. The jacket is now on display at The Smithsonian Institution.
  • Happy Days became one of the first series to have early seasons in syndication while the series itself was still producing new episodes (a common practice with long-running shows today). Until the show went out of production, most syndicated versions carried the title Happy Days Again.
  • Happy Days is one of four successful sitcoms that carry the tradition of being produced two decades later than the setting in which the show takes place. Happy Days takes place in the 1950's and was produced in the 1970's. Others shows include The Wonder Years which was produced in the 1980s and depict the 1960's, That 70's Show began production in the 1990's and depicts the 1970's and Everybody Hates Chris which began production in the 2000's and depicts the 1980's.
  • Ron Howard guest starred on an episode of M*A*S*H. Both Happy Days and M*A*S*H are 1970s sitcoms set in the 1950s. Although Howard wanted to concentrate on films, and was wary of working on another television show, this appearance changed his mind and led to his accepting the role of Richie in the Happy Days pilot.
  • Arthur Fonzarelli was affiliated with a motorcycle gang "The Falcons" although in a Season 1 episode it was mentioned that Fonzie was a former member of The Demons.
  • The show demonstrated the powerful influence of television. In an episode filmed in the late 1970s, Fonzie (as part of his ongoing rehabilitation, so to speak) obtains a library card and declares, "Reading is cool." In the Happy Days 30th Anniversary Reunion, Henry Winkler suggested that there was an immediate surge in library card registration by school children. The American Library Association's FAQ states that there is no way to prove or disprove Winkler's assertion, since records of that sort are not consistently collected.
  • CBS programming head Fred Silverman scheduled Good Times directly against Happy Days during their respective second seasons in an attempt to kill the ABC show's growing popularity. However, he was named president of ABC in 1975, and so was given the task of saving Happy Days during its third season (which saw a rapid increase in ratings). This explains Happy Days appearing in the Top 20 for the 1973-74 and 1975-76 seasons, but being completely absent from the Top 30 in 1974-75.
  • Tom Hanks appeared in an episode in which he played a character looking for revenge on Fonzie for pushing him off a swing when the two of them were in the 3rd grade. When Tom Hanks states his challenge, "The Fonz" was about to be given a community leader award. This is another example of Fonzie's change from rebel to someone you could look up to.
  • The Fonz was a big fan of his "veggies" when he ate dinner at the Cunningham house. Many said this was an attempt by the show's producers to get kids to eat their vegetables by having The Fonz as a big advocate of that type of food.
  • Most of the characters referred to Howard and Marion Cunningham as "Mr and Mrs. C". The one exception was Ralph Malph frequently would call Howard, "Howie." The Fonz also referred to Joanie as "Shortcake."
  • When Ralph Malph would tell a joke, he would always say "I still got it!"
  • Happy Days still remains one of ABC's longest-running sitcoms (11 seasons), and one of the longest-running prime time programs in the network's history.
  • For the majority of the series, Mr. Cunningham drives an old 1946 DeSoto, but in the 1982 season he sells it in favor of a "sportier" 1962 Studebaker Lark. The Lark was used in the show opener for the remainder of the show's episodes.
  • Milwaukee Brewers' home-run king Hank Aaron appeared in one episode.
  • The cast was well known for playing practical jokes on one another. In one famous outtake, Fonzie is with Richie in Al's Diner. The script called for him to turn around, snap his fingers, and all the women in the Diner are supposed to get up and follow him out. Instead, in a joke on Henry Winkler, when he turns around and snaps his fingers, all the MEN in the Diner get up and follow him out.
  • Various pinball machines manufactured in the early 1970s were seen in Arnold's, including a 1972 Bally produced machine called Nip-It. It is possible that the show's producers may have overlooked this, as pinball machines from the 1950s commonly known as "woodrails", have a more wooden look, compared to the machines used in the show.
  • Happy Days also proved to be quite popular in daytime reruns; they joined the ABC daytime schedule in 1975, airing reruns at 11:30 a.m. (EST), being moved to 11 a.m. in 1977, paired with Family Feud following at 11:30 a.m. It was replaced on the daytime schedule by reruns of its spin-off, Laverne & Shirley, in April 1979.

[edit] References

  • In 1995, the band Weezer recorded a music video for their song Buddy Holly, which featured the band playing on the original Arnold's Drive-In set mixed with footage from the series. The video begins with the band being introduced by Al Molinaro as Al Delvecchio, who announces: "Arnold's is proud to present Kenosha, Wisconsin's own Weezer!" The video featured footage from Happy Days episode #53 ("They Call It Potsie Love") as well as several other episodes. This video was included on the Microsoft Windows 95 installation CD-ROM as a demonstration of the new OS's multimedia capabilities. It also boosted the career of highly-acclaimed academy award nominated director Spike Jonze.
  • The animated sitcom Family Guy makes frequent references to Happy Days. In one episode of the show, pudgy patriarch Peter Griffin disguises himself as a high school student, then punches a jukebox in the hopes of turning it on and impressing the other students. Instead, he shatters the jukebox's glass display case and badly injures himself. Other episodes call Richie Cunningham's sexuality into question and portray the Fonz as the messiah of a religion devoted to Happy Days.


[edit] External links

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