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Happy Days was a popular United States television sitcom that originally aired between 1974 and 1984 on the ABC television network. It showed an idealized window on life in 1950s and early-mid 1960s America. It revolved around the lives of its principal characters: high school student Richie Cunningham (played by Ron Howard) and his parents ( Tom Bosley and Marion Ross), Arthur "Fonzie" / "the Fonz" FonzarelliArthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli (played by Henry Winkler) was a character in the American sitcom Happy Days ( 1974- 1984). He is a leather-jacketed biker and mechanic. Although he is a high school dropout, he seems to be almost superhuman in his skills, wisd ( Henry WinklerHenry Winkler (born October 30, 1945) is an actor, director and producer who is most famous for his role as Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli on the popular sitcom Happy Days ( 1974 1984). Winkler gained national fame for his auto mechanic-greaser role as "The F), Ralph Malph ( Don Most ), Warren "Potsie" Weber ( Anson Williams ), Al the diner cook ( Al Molinaro , who succeeded Pat MoritaNoriyuki "Pat" Morita (born June 28, 1932 in Isleton, California) is a Japanese-American actor best known for the roles of Arnold on the TV show Happy Days and Mr. Miyagi in the movie The Karate Kid for which he was nominated for Academy Award for Best Su as Arnold), and as time went by, various other relations and their girlfriends, including, most notably, a recurring role for Suzi QuatroSusan Kay "Suzi" Quatro (born June 3, 1950 in Detroit, Michigan) is a bassist and singer. She began her career in the States with The Pleasure Seekers and Cradle, then moved to England in 1971. She achieved several number one popular Heavy Rock Music hits as Leather Tuscadero.
The show underwent several changes over the years. There was originally an older Cunningham brother, Chuck, who went away to college and disappeared from the show. Fonzie, perhaps best described as a hood with a heart of gold, was originally a minor character, but the show focused increasingly on him over time, culminating in an episode that spawned the term " Jumping the sharkJumping the shark is a slang term used by television critics since the 1990s. The phrase, popularized at the web site , is used to describe the moment when a long-running television show or similar episodic media is generally judged to have passed its "pe".
Happy Days was entertaining for not being totally comedic. It often developed storylines from timeless human conditions such as friendship, courage, sacrifice, love, loyalty, etc. Its characters not only dreamed of growth but succeeded despite their limitations. They also knew failure and loss. Many viewers found the characters easy to relate to.
The show originated during a period of 1950s nostalgiaNostalgia currently describes a longing for the past: Often an idealized and unrealistic past The term was originally coined in 1678 by Johannes Hoffer ( 1669- 1752) from Latin roots, to refer to "the pain a sick person feels because he is not in his nati in film, television, and music. It began as an unsold pilot called "Love and the Happy Days" on the TV anthology series Love, American StyleLove, American Style is an hour-long television anthology which originally aired between September 1969 and January 1974. For the 1971 and 1972 seasons it was a part of an ABC Friday prime-time lineup that included Brady Bunch The Partridge Family Room 22. Then, in 1973, George LucasGeorge Walton Lucas Jr (born May 14, 1944) is an American film director famous for his epic Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies. Star Wars in 1977 is considered by some to be the first " high concept" film, although others feel the first was Steven Spie released a film with a similar theme, American Graffiti (co-starring, in a twist of irony, Ron Howard and Cindy Williams). The success of the film caused series creator Garry Marshall and ABC to reconsider the unsold pilot and make Happy Days as a series.
Happy Days also spun off five different live-action series ( Laverne and Shirley, Blansky's Beauties, Mork & Mindy, Out of the Blue, Joanie Loves Chachi), and two animated series (Fonz and the Happy Days Gang and Laverne and Shirley in the Army). The most successful of these, Laverne and Shirley, co-starring Cindy Williams and Penny Marshall, also took place in 1950s Milwaukee. The show later spawned a short-lived show about Richie's younger sister Joanie ( Erin Moran ) and Fonzie's younger cousin Chachi ( Scott Baio), called (predictably enough) Joanie Loves Chachi. Robin Williams made his first appearance as " Mork" on Happy Days.
Ron Howard, who had starred as a child actor in The Andy Griffith Show, went on to direct several critically acclaimed films, including Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind. Tom Bosley (Richie's father) continued acting and appeared in other sitcoms.
Early seasons of the series used a specially recorded version of " Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets as the opening theme song. This recording, as of summer 2004, has never been commercially released, although the original 1954 recording returned to the American Billboard charts in 1974 as a result of its use on the show. Eventually, the show's closing theme song, "Happy Days", became a major hit in its own right and replaced "Rock Around the Clock" at the beginning of the show.
Happy Days became one of the first series to have earlier seasons syndicated while the series itself was still producing new episodes (a common practice with long-running shows today). For a time, the syndicated version carried the title Happy Days Again.
The first season of the series was released on DVD in August 2004.
ABC network shows Sitcoms 1970s TV shows in the United States| Politics | Business | Finance |
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