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.

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...