Information AboutHappy Days |
''Happy Days'' is an American Television Sitcom that originally aired between 1974 and 1984 on the ABC Television Network . The show presents an idealized version of American life in the 1950s and early 1960s America . ''Happy Days'' centers on the life of a Middle-class Family , the Cunninghams of Milwaukee, Wisconsin . The family consists of Howard, a Hardware Store owner, Marion, his Homemaker wife, and the couple's teenage children, Richie (who has an optimistic if somewhat naïve outlook on life), Richie's sweet but feisty younger sister Joanie, and Richie's older brother Chuck (a character who abruptly disappeared during the second season). Most of the early episodes revolve around Richie; as the series progressed, more and more stories were written to revolve around ex–New Yorker Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli , who was originally portrayed as a local thug but soon befriended Richie and family, and became a huge hit with viewers. The focus would also occasionally shift to other additional characters, such as Fonzie's cousin Chachi , who became a love interest for Joanie Cunningham . The long-running show also spawned several Spinoff shows, many of which were highly successful in their own right, including '' Laverne & Shirley '', '' Mork And Mindy '', and others. The second season episode "The Not Making of the President" revolves around the 1956 Presidential Election , while the sixth season episode "Christmas Time" ends with a photo dated Christmas 1960. Despite some inconsistencies, it is generally indicated that the events of the series begin in 1955 and, after eleven seasons, end in 1965 . CAST
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HISTORY ''Happy Days'' originated during a time of 1950s Nostalgic interest evident in film, television, and music. The show 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. While Paramount passed on making it into a weekly series, the pilot was recycled with the title ''"Love and the Happy Days"'', for presentation on the television Anthology series '' Love, American Style .'' In 1972 , George Lucas asked to view the pilot to determine if Ron Howard would be suitable to play a teenager in '' American Graffiti '', then in preproduction. Lucas immediately cast Howard in the film, which became one of the top-grossing films of 1973. Show creator Garry Marshall and ABC recast the unsold pilot to turn ''Happy Days'' into a series. PRODUCTION STYLES The first two seasons of ''Happy Days'' were filmed using a Single-camera Setup and 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 (with the announcement "''Happy Days'' is filmed before a studio audience" at the start of most episodes), giving these later seasons a markedly different style. 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 rearranged 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 official address is 565 North Clinton Drive, Milwaukee, Wisconsin .Wilcox's Soaps & More TV Character Address and Trivia Book (2004), ( obtained here ) 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 the Paramount lot on Melrose Avenue. It is part of Zillow.com's Famous Homes series and can be seen here . Leon's Frozen Custard in Milwaukee was the inspiration for the original Arnold's Drive-In. The exterior of Arnold's was a 'dressed' area on the Paramount Studios lot, that has since been demolished, very close to the soundstage that the set of the Diner interior, and all other sets were located. The set of the Diner in the first series was a room with the same vague details of the later set, such as the panelling, and the college pennants. When the show was changed to a studio based taping, the set was redesigned and became the Arnold's that is most remembered. The set was largely opened to show the audience the scenes that took place within it. The Diner entrance was hidden, but allowed an upstage, central entrance for cast members. The barely seen kitchen was also upstage and seen only through a pass through window. The diner had orange booths, downstage center for closeup conversation, as well as camera left. There were two bathroom doors camera right, labelled 'Guys' and 'Dolls'. A Seeburg jukebox was positioned camera right, and a pinball machine was positioned far camera right, ( Anachronistically a 1973 'Nip It' machine, contrary to the show's '50s setting). College pennants adorned the walls, along with a blue and white sign reading 'Jefferson High School'. Storylines dictated that the set would be destroyed by fire, and so in later seasons, a different Arnold's Drive-in emerged and lasted through the later years of the show. Differing in design, with wood panelling and stained glass, the set was not popular amongst viewers, and was not how Arnold's was remembered. In 2004, two decades after the first set was destroyed, the Happy Days 30th Anniversary Reunion requested that the reunion take place in Arnold's. The familiar set was rebuilt by Production Designer James Yarnell. Built from the original ground plan, this was the first time that the Happy Days cast had been in this set since the 1970s. THE "FONZIE EFFECT" The early ''Happy Days'' episodes centered on Richie and teenage friends Ralph Malph and Warren "Potsie" Weber, dealing with typical adolescent woes in the 1950s and early/mid 1960s Milwaukee. During the first season, the character Arthur "Fonzie"/"The Fonz" Fonzarelli was becoming a Fan Favorite , though he was originally intended to be a local high school dropout who was only occasionally seen. The Fonz character was given progressively more screen time by the writers, becoming a permanent castmember displayed in the second season opening credits. The Fonz quickly became the show's most popular character, and many episodes came to revolve around him. When the ABC management considered changing the name of the show to "Fonzie's Happy Days", the cast, including Fonzie player Henry Winkler , protested along with producer/creator Garry Marshall, and the show's title remained unchanged. "CHUCK CUNNINGHAM SYNDROME" 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 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. Chuck was written out during the series' second season with no explanation. Chuck was rarely referred to again, and 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."'' The unexplained removal of a character in a TV series has come to be known as " Chuck Cunningham Syndrome ". 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. An officially circulated outtake 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?!" NEW CHARACTERS Later seasons saw the addition of other characters. Roz Kelly was brought in as Pinky Tuscadero, 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; the character was briefly mentioned in two subsequent episodes, one where her sister Leather Tuscadero came to town to start anew out of reform school, and when Fonzie was out of town at a demolition derby with Pinky. Bill "Sticks" Downey, played by John-Anthony Bailey, was 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. 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 going to college and meeting 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 & Shirley '' as owners of many Milwaukee establishments, ie, Chez Pfister, The Hotel Pfister, Pfister Fong's. 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 Spike, mentioned as Fonzie's nephew (who's actually his cousin as he made it clear in one episode) was supposed to be the character who became Chachi. Al Molinaro was added as Al Delvecchio the new owner of Arnold's after Pat Morita 's character of Arnold moved on (after his character got married; Pat Morita left the program to star in a short-lived sitcom of his own, '' Mr. T. And Tina ''). Al Molinaro also played Al's twin brother Father Anthony Delvecchio, a Catholic priest. Al eventually married Chachi's mother (played by Ellen Travolta ) and Father Delvecchio served in the wedding of Joanie to Chachi in the series finale. Seasons 8 onward Lynda Goodfriend joined the cast as semi-regular character Lori-Beth Allen, Richie's steady girlfriend, in season 5, 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 Physical Education teacher at Jefferson High and nephew to Howard and Marion. He took over from the departed Richie Cunningham character, acting as counterpoint to Fonzie. Billy Warlock joined the cast in season 10 as Roger's brother Flip, along with Crystal Bernard as Howard's and Marion's niece K.C. They were intended as replacements for Erin Moran and Scott Baio (who departed for their own show, '' Joanie Loves Chachi ''). Both characters left with the return of Moran and Baio, following the cancellation of ''Joanie Loves Chachi''. Guest stars
Anachronisms
jumps over a shark while on water skis.]] "Jumping the Shark" See Also: 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 as the point where the series had passed its peak of quality and popularity. The phrase '' Jumping The Shark '' was later applied to popular culture phenomena in general. While the Fonz's literal shark jump gave rise to the phrase, some fans consider ''Happy Days'' to have had more than one such moment, 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 happened after the notorious stunt involving the shark. 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 had its initial commercial release in 2005 by the German label Hydra Records . (When ''Happy Days'' entered Syndication in 1979, 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 1976-77 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 Arvon on lead vocals, with several back-up vocalists, this version of the theme song is not as popular with ''Happy Days'' fans as versions from the 3rd-10th seasons (among which there were several slightly different versions and edits). To accompany this new version, new opening credits were filmed, and the flashing "Happy Days" logo was reanimated. PRODUCTION & SCHEDULING
DVD RELEASES CBS DVD has released the first two seasons of ''Happy Days'' on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. The third season is scheduled for release on November 27 , 2007 . EPISODES SPINOFFS ''Happy Days'', itself considered a spin-off from '' Love, American Style '', Spun Off more than four different series; '' Laverne & Shirley '', '' Blansky's Beauties '', '' Mork And Mindy '', and '' Joanie Loves Chachi '' are the most notable.
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