Happy Days C/D?

Just thinking with the death of Mr. C and all.

CLASSIC

Ralph Malph, Potsie...Fonz.

Watched it for about the first 6 months it aired, grew bored. (American Graffiti turned into pablum.)

I watched this a lot between the ages of 5-10, can't imagine enjoying it now

except for maybe the episodes with Suzi Quatro

Leather Tuscadero certainly made a impression on my 11 year old self, and i did like HD back then. not sure if it's dud-worthy though

Homer: It'll be great to see the old gang again. Potsie, Ralph Malph, the Fonz.

Marge: That wasn't you, that was "Happy Days"!

Homer: No, they weren't all happy days. Like the time Pinky Tuscadero crashed her motorcycle, or the night I lost all my money to those card sharks and my dad Tom Bosley had to get it back.

I remember seeing the first few episodes of Happy Days and The Muppet Show, and thinking "hey is this what America is like?"

I watched this a lot between the ages of 5-10, can't imagine enjoying it now
except for maybe the episodes with Suzi Quatro

^^^ this. Here's a youtube link to the "Richie crashes his motorcycle" episode, which actually made me cry as a kid (Suzi Quatro piano ballad, Fonzie's prayer, and all.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73iheHjvJ3w

omg i remember crying during that too!

I watched this a lot between the ages of 5-10, can't imagine enjoying it now

except for maybe the episodes with Suzi Quatro

Same here. I wanted an office in a bathroom, like Fonzie. Doesn't sound too appealing now.

It got worse and worse as it went along--past about halfway, every character got an ovation just for entering a scene, and Henry Winkler had more or less turned into Mr. Rogers in a leather jacket. But I always liked Malph; he probably got funnier with each successive year. Al was always funny too, the way he'd sigh.

Classic!! I was religious about this show when I was little. I was SO in love with Potsie. My Mum had a double album of 50's rock n roll songs and for a long time I was certain that Potsie sang "Sea Cruise".

Dunno if I could go back to it now. I went back to Scooby Doo a while ago and that was a total bummer (who puts a laugh track on a cartoon? honestly). But overall, love. nothing but love.

I even watched Joanie Loves Chachi ...

No show that had Pat Morita in the cast can be all bad.

Was that double album the american graffiti soundtrack? Where you opened it and it was a roller waitress? I loved that damn soundtrack.

And speaking of Scooby Doo, my two yr old decided he wanted to watch it...the new ones are horseshit.

Scooby Doo is so bad right now, it is banned from my household. I'd even rather watch Dora, and Dora the Explorer makes me contemplate suicide if I watch more than ten minutes of it.

BACKPACK BACKPACK!

Swiper is the only relatable character.

My son says "oh man" constantly.

With Malph there were tears behind the jokes. Heartbreaking.

Dora the Explorer is SO FUCKING AWFUL why why why

kids seem to love it...don't get it.

the first real record store I frequented (Rhino Records in the Claremont Village repraZENT), one of the albums they had way high up on the wall was a Donnie Most solo album. the cover was him standing next to a highway with a jacket slung over his shoulder, wearing the requisite bellbottoms... I have often wondered what this record is actually like...

no wait, there was no jacket - it was the thumbs in the pockets pose:

http://i2.ytimg.com/vi/jCTTmMhpN3Q/0.jpg

aw yeah

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/792251e22fbc4b4c1673f30f8fe41121/309229.jpg

"Sea Cruise" wasn't on the Am. Graffiti sdtk, must have been a different record

thanking you, internet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zim8hVP8-Dw

I got that from my mom : "the fifties weren't like that". She thought it was corny and fake. Shaming aside, it wasn't terrible. It's no "Welcome Back Kotter", though.

With Malph there were tears behind the jokes. Heartbreaking.

― browns zero loss (brownie), Thursday, October 21, 2010 4:19 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

He was a tragic figure. Shakespearean almost.

I forgot that Happy Days was the show that really featured shark jumping!

http://static.tvguide.com/MediaBin/Content/100830/News/Todays_News_Our_Take/5_fri/100903HappyDays1.jpg

it is weird how different the first season was from the rest of this show, it's like the season that never happened

When Richie and Joanie had an older brother who went off to college and was never heard from again!

I forgot about that! I never saw the shark either, for some reason Fonz in shorts was really un-cool.

and Ralph had a different family

xp

I am watching the "Richie Dies" episode on YouTube, I forgot how much I liked the mom, Marion Ross.

xposts, no it wasn't the American Graffiti album. It was some kind of compilation, had a cheerleader on the cover (on the back cover she was lifting her over her head O_O)...had Sea Cruise, Little Egypt, Hot Rod Lincoln, Ahab The Arab (lol), Sheila, Rock Around the Clock, all kinds of stuff..pretty cool imo. We always listened to the record after watching Happy Days bc we liked the music so much. Hence the Potsie connection, haha

I don't remember this episode at all

in fact I don't remember anybody black appearing on the show, ever

"Happy Days had attempted a token early on, Sticks the drummer in the band, and that went nowhere."

maybe this was back in the Season That Never Happened...

that picture of Donny Most bears an amusing similarity to Madonna's Don't Tell Me video.

He looks far more attractive though.

Anyone remember Richie's older brother (Chuck?) from the first episode or two? I'm not sure they even ever bothered to explain what happened to him; he just disappeared, like he'd been abducted by the KGB or something.

he got stabbed by pony boy.

By the time floppy-haired Scott Baio appeared as a regular it was impossible to believe the show had anything to do with the 1950s. Or even the early '60s or whenever it was supposed to be. (Laverne & Shirley went into the mid-1960s, I believe...)

by the time Laverne and Shirley moved to LA it seemed like the 80s

I distinctly remember an episode in which Howard and Richie had a spat over the latter supporting Stevenson over Eisenhower, but I don't know if it was supposed to be 1952 or 1956. I assume the latter.

ah laverne and shirley....the big ragu. Worcesterite.

So, when it finished, it was set in the mid sixties or thereabouts.

Did "The Beatles" ever get mentioned?

when L&S moved to LA they had a lifesize cardboard cutout of the Beatles that they kissed in the opening credit sequence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymtxO3n_JcM

Didn't L&S actually show the year in the opening credits? I remember "1967" showing for some reason and I sort of remember that changing each season.

hmm i dont think so.

Actually yeah in that post above mine it shows 1966.

wow, i dont think i ever noticed.

It's in Swedish, but it doesn't matter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyEdcyRaRHM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opnxvvM3A9c

I don't remember this episode at all

in fact I don't remember anybody black appearing on the show, ever

there was an ep in the first season where howard's old african-american army buddy came round to visit, and mario went slightly mental trying to Do The Right Thing and afraid to offend them, and then the neighbours freaked and so they had the army buddy and his fiancee marry at the cunningham house to show all the bigoted neighbours.

this show just reminds me of being a kid tbh, i remember watching it at my grandparents' house all the time. its aged really badly, but i think a lot of the performances are still very charming - howard and marion were pretty delightful, and ron howard did a good job with a dull character. i wouldn't say its in any way 'good', but it delivers happy/sad nostalgia to me almost instantly.

my gf, on the other hand, thinks it is the single most depressing show ever.

wasn't there a series where Ritchie went.. to the army? then he came back home one epsiode and.. he and Fonz had a fight? it's been years since this show was on in the UK. it seemed to go *mental* towards the end. was Ritchie even the main character in the last few series?

some of the last series' episode summaries on IMDB tell me all i need to know about how and indeed why it ended:

Season 11, Episode 21: Good News, Bad News
Original Air Date—19 July 1984
Chachi thinks his life is over when he is diagnosed with diabetes on the eve of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tour with the Beach Boys.

Season 11, Episode 16: Passages: Part 1
Original Air Date—8 May 1984
Joanie says "yes" when Chachi pops the question and Fonzie finds that being single is a major snag when he decides to adopt Danny, his little brother from the Big Brother program.

yeah, ritchie went to the army,when ron howard left the show. then he moved to california to become a screenwriter (i think?) but came home and had a big fight with fonzie, i think because he was leaving milwaukee.

i remember watching the final episode aged like 8 or something and crying when howard breaks the fourth wall and thanks the camera for sharing in their happy days. i was a downy lad, and twee.

Poor Fonzie, such a likeable dude but, embarrassingly, still wearing leather in 1962!! Didn't we all feel for that in 1980!

Then again what real Italian would be caught dead not changing their clothing year after year, I knew a lot of Italians who change at least twice a day!

mid-70s nostalgia for the 50s looks so weird from 2010. i was in highschool during the "happy days" and hated this show. oddly some guy standing next to me at a public urinal on the NJ turnpike last weekend randomly invoked "the fonze" (don't ask) and now I'm wondering if that FORESHADOWED tom bosley's death

Hard to hate Sha Na Na, you feel mean, but if you really liked oldies what the hell would you need Sha Na Na for? And poodle skirts, like everyone wore them!

happy days makes me feel nostalgic for the 70s more than the 50s - indeed, the later episodes the actors are virtually wearnig flares and sideburns

No shit, look at the Cunningham's living room, very warm and nubby, not the sterile fifties model.

Didn't the episode with Howard's black army friend have one of Mrs. Cunningham's best lines ever? I don't remember it exactly, but they were lying in bed and, very forlornly, she said something like this: "Oh, Howard: I don't know anybody black, I don't such-and-such, and I don't such-and-such--I've got to get out of the house more."

marion always had the best lines.

the first season was great. shot on film by the looks of it, Fonz in a windbreaker, no leather.

Sticks the drummer was Jack Baker, porn star.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Baker_(actor)

The Civic Involvement section on Fonzie's Wikipedia page is fascinating. I don't remember any of this.

Fonzie is involved with community projects. He endorses Republican Dwight Eisenhower's 1956 presidential campaign. At a rally Fonzie declares, "I like Ike. My bike likes Ike." Eisenhower carried Wisconsin with 62% of the vote easily defeating Adlai Stevenson (supported by Richie Cunningham's more-researched speech). In that election, Eisenhower got 457 electoral votes to 73 for Stevenson.[5]

The Fonz becomes involved with other issues. Highlighting actor Henry Winkler's off-camera work, several episodes dealt with civil rights of people with disabilities. Concerned that students with epilepsy were denied their chance to attend public school and play sports, he intervenes to resolve the issue. Such advocacy builds on the previous season's episode where Fonzie hired wheelchair-bound Don King to work in his garage, promising to provide workplace accommodation for his employee,[6][7]

And concerned about other equal opportunity issues, Fonz wants Milwaukee racially integrated. Personally friends with African Americans, he becomes upset when a party in which Richie will welcome Hawaii into the Union gets boycotted. People have grown anxious because it will be racially integrated. Initially wanting to force people to attend, Fonzie learns from Mr. Cunningham that people cannot change their minds overnight.[8] He volunteers to go south with Al and Freedom Riders to help integrate a segregated diner. Normally flirtatious with women, Fonzie is instead disgusted that the waitress does not serve Black customers. At one point he tells her that he cannot date her because of her compliance with the diner policy.[4]

Hmm, is the wikipedia page accurate? hmm..

From Sitcoms Online:

#202- Southern Crossing (1/12/82)

Al and Fonzie visit the south as members of the Freedom Riders.

Directed by: Jerry Paris
Teleplay by: Richard Gurman
Story by: Brian Levant
Guest stars: David Hubbard as Charles, Ketty Lester as Annie, Al Fann as Henry, Gary Grubbs as Jack, Gene B. Collins as Ned, Brenda Hillhouse as Mae, Tom Rayhall as Lamar, and James O'Connell as Mel.

I'd assume a whole bunch of the latter series didn't make it over here.

I totally remember "My bike likes Ike." Had no idea the show was even still going in '82!

Weird, Ketty Lester played in that Freedom Riders ep, and her song "River Of Salt" was covered by Bryan Ferry on this album, where he looks a lot like The Fonz. It's all coming together for me now!

http://www.coverdude.com/covers/bryan-ferry-these-foolish-things-1973-front-cover-47811.jpg

Sadly, I doubt that Ferry was aiming for Fonz emualtion on that sleeve

If anything Fonz wanted to be him. As it were.

Potsierama

Al-A-Zona

Dance the Chachi through 'til sunrise...

Ralph Malph was on "Men of A Certain Age"....

Personally friends with African Americans, he becomes upset when a party in which Richie will welcome Hawaii into the Union gets boycotted. People have grown anxious because it will be racially integrated. Initially wanting to force people to attend, Fonzie learns from Mr. Cunningham that people cannot change their minds overnight.

I just saw this episode recently! It involves the (black) drummer for Richie/Ralph/Potsie's band, "Sticks". It's pretty dire.

there was a strike involving telly people of some kind in the late 80s here and instead of TV-AM they showed early Series 1/ Series 2 episodes of Happy Days! it was really bizzare, no-one had seen it for the best part of a decade.

yeah, and as a result the ratings for TVAM soared.

was sticks played by the guy who later became a porn star and died a pretty miserable early death?

love this show

Jack Baker ...
Bill 'Sticks' Downey (as John-Anthony Bailey)

thats him, sticks the dick.

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GUN????

I like how Fonzie goes from Ike voter to Freedom Rider in just a few years. If the show had made it to 1969 the plan was for Fonzie to join the Weather Underground so Mr Cunningham has to talk him out of bombing a post office.

Then a couple of years after they could all sit down together and talk about this retro movie about graduation and high school and cruising they just saw, and...

I like how Fonzie goes from Ike voter to Freedom Rider in just a few years.

^right, im sure no Eisenhower voters were pro-civil rights. I mean all the guy did was send in the National Guard to de-segregate Central High in Little Rock, de-segregated the military and also signed the 1957 Civil Rights Act. But goddamit, people that voted for him were racist.

pretty sure most people reading this thread have now thought about fonzie's political opinion continuity for more time than the show's writers did

Wonder who if Mr. Cunningham ever voted for Joe McCarthy.

I just saw this episode recently! It involves the (black) drummer for Richie/Ralph/Potsie's band, "Sticks". It's pretty dire.

Yeah I saw that one when it first aired - there was even a fried chicken joke for chrissakes. Which I didn't understand the implications of until years later (didn't know shit about racial stereotypes as a 7-year old from northern Ontario)

and it ends on a super-bummer note when NO ONE comes to the party! even tho Fonzie told everybody too!

If the show had made it to 1969 the plan was for Fonzie to join the Weather Underground

i think that's what actually happened to chuck cunningham

http://ca.omg.yahoo.com/blogs/the-juice-celeb-news/erin-moran-joanie-happy-days-living-trailer-park-144610977.html

Eating a steady diet of government cheese, they don't say. I'm sure she'll bounce back fine once this story starts to circulate.

consider previous recent stories i'd read about her i think that actually might qualify as 'bouncing back'.

surfer on american dream slips off crest of american dream shocker

Didn't Erin Moran start subscribing to some weirdo hyper-religious beliefs a while back? Her acting options were already limited as is, but that certainly didn't help matters.

To answer the C/D?

This show was escapist nonsense having no known relationship to any reality outside of television fantasyland. Of course, this is true of many wonderful and entertaining television series. But, based on my recall of the couple of dozen times I watched this in rerun, I'd say it was pretty damn mediocre, and the fantasist element was used mainly in the service of puerile idiocy.

"American Grafitti turned to pablum"? Yes, indeed. That nails it.

As for "jumping the shark", in spite of its literal genesis in this show's crappiest episode, I always thought a show must have some sort of distinction due to a kind of high quality at some point to qualify for that metaphoric distinction.

what a bunch of joyless fuckers you all are

Scott writes about his first sexual experience, with 'Happy Days' co-star Erin Moran: 'I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to say after we got naked. So for the first five minutes, maybe less-hell, it might have been the first twenty seconds-I'm doing it and thinking, man, this is really uncomfortable. What happened was, my thing was between the cushions on the couch and I didn't even know it. Instead of being inside Erin, I was humping a corduroy sofa!'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eOasaTbjQA

what a bunch of joyless fuckers

Let me guess. You first watched this show when you were aged twelve or under, amirite. Children are a lot more likely to enjoy mediocrity, because the cliches are still novel to them and cartoonish characters and plots are pitched at their level of understanding. There is nothing to be ashamed of in this. We all experience that.

Now, go back and watch three seasons worth of this show and tell us about the joy you felt doing so. I dare you.

This, along with Laverne & Shirley, is something I'm perfectly fine with leaving as a positive memory. There's NO WAY I'd go back and watch it through any sort of critical lens, because I have every reason to believe it would all fall apart.

Three's Company, otoh, is still fantastic!

There's NO WAY I'd go back and watch it through any sort of critical lens, because I have every reason to believe it would all fall apart.

Wise words. I have a whole bunch of music that falls into this category. And not necessarily stuff I loved at the age of 12, a lot of which holds up amazingly well--with me it's more the stuff I listened to in my early 20s that can get pretty iffy. Husker Du (speaking of everything falling apart), still love them; Fear, I think I'll just leave them to history.

wow aimless really going to bat for his whole 'happy days actually not a great show' theory, making me reevaluate stuff

Did you cast your vote in this poll?

Garry Marshall: Movie Mensch

aimless otm this show sucks hard

Aimless otm, this show was crap from day one. Or maybe day two -- I remember Richie getting drunk in the pilot or some early episode, but they sanitized it soon enough.

in the pilot Richie cold-shook a handful of black beauties and listened to blue cheer, it was revolutionary but it couldn't last

The only thing that ever made me laugh related to this show was the bizarre SNL sketch about the Japanese version of Laverne and Shirley.

Early script, never produced -- Marion Cunningham helps out her pals Irving and Paula Klaw.

On related note, I can never forget the episode of the Love Boat where Mrs. Cunningham was afraid her suburban family would find out she was a Warhol movie star.

guys aimless might be right, i went back and watched the first two seasons of this show and it turns out happy days wasn't a great show. still have the third season to rescreen so there's still hope.

beginning to wonder if manimal holds up

remember watching a lot of happy days, but never enjoying it much. it was on. had a few laughs. "sit on it, potsie." laverne and shirley was better.

Joanie Pegs Chachi

someone (chuck klosterman? for the times?) should write an essay about how joanie's on welfare and chaci's a tea party evangelist who rants on twitter about paying taxes to support freeloaders. and then someone should write about how happy days might not really deserve its place in the pantheon alongside lubitsch, kaufman, etc. - obv slate pitch?

^^rob sheffield's next book

Plot Summary for
"Happy Days" Southern Crossing (1982)

Angered by a television broadcast showing a black man being beaten at a lunch counter for just wanting a meal, Al convinces Fonzie to head south to march in a week-end civil rights demonstration and it's not long before they both find out, firsthand, what's at stake for the black community.

http://www.salon.com/2013/12/18/bbc_interviews_random_man_on_the_street_who_turns_out_to_be_the_fonz/

omg i remember crying during that too!

― Str8 Drapin It (chrisv2010), Thursday, October 21, 2010

Breaking News: Scott Baio is still an asshole

Baio was among the first to pay heartfelt tribute to Moran shortly after her death was announced, tweeting, “May people remember Erin for her contagious smile, warm heart, and animal loving soul. I always hoped she could find peace in her life. God has you now, Erin.” Yet as Variety reports, he struck a more pointed note during a radio interview with WABC’s The Bernie & Sid Show this morning:

I’m OK, a little shocked but not completely shocked that this happened. My thing is, I feel bad because her whole life, she was troubled, could never find what made her happy and content. For me, you do drugs or drink, you’re gonna die. I’m sorry if that’s cold, but God gave you a brain, gave you the will to live and thrive and you gotta take care of yourself.

In addition to being cold, Chachi’s speculation was premature: Today the Harrison Country Sheriff’s Department announced that an autopsy revealed Moran had stage-four cancer. It also said that, while the results of toxicology tests are still pending, “no illegal narcotics were found at the residence.”

what a douche

Weren't there allegations of him sexually harassing her back in the day, too?

Scott writes about his first sexual experience, with 'Happy Days' co-star Erin Moran: 'I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to say after we got naked. So for the first five minutes, maybe less-hell, it might have been the first twenty seconds-I'm doing it and thinking, man, this is really uncomfortable. What happened was, my thing was between the cushions on the couch and I didn't even know it. Instead of being inside Erin, I was humping a corduroy sofa!'.

― buzza, Saturday, June 9, 2012 10:57 PM (four years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

When she didn't appear in some 90s Happy Days reunion I wondered if it was Chachi who was to blame. Chachi, Chachi, Chachi...