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Happy Days is a popular American television sitcom that originally aired between 1974 and 1984 on the ABC television network. The show presented an idealized version of American life in late 1950s and early 1960s America. Happy Days centered on the life of a middle-class family, the Cunninghams of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The family consisted of Howard, a hardware store owner, Marion, his homemaker wife, and the couple's teenage children, Richie (who had 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 would abruptly disappear during the second season). Most of the early episodes revolved 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 focus on 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.
Cast
Cast stats
HistoryHappy 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 stylesThe 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.
SetsThe 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.[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 the Paramount lot on Melrose Avenue. Leon's Frozen Custard in Milwaukee was the inspiration for the original Arnold's Drive-In. The "Fonzie Effect"Image:Fonzie.jpg "Fonzie" displaying his signature thumbs-up gesture. The early Happy Days episodes centered around 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 charactersLater 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 (a.k.a. Jack Baker), 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. (John-Anthony Bailey went on to a career in pornographic movies and later died from cancer). 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 4The 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 Delveccio the new owner of Arnold's after Pat Morita's character of Arnold moved on (after his character got married). Al Molinaro also played Al's twin brother Father Anthony Delveccio, a Catholic priest. Al eventually married Chachi's mother (played by Ellen Travolta) and Father Delveccio served in the wedding of Joanie to Chachi in the series finale. Seasons 8 onwardLynda Goodfriend joined the cast as minor character Lori-Beth Allen, and became a permanent member of the cast between Seasons 8 and 10, after Lori Beth married Richie Cunningham. 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
Image:Fonzie jumps the shark.PNG Fonzie jumps over a shark while on water skis. "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 notorious stunt involving the shark. Theme musicSeasons 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 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 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 releasesParamount Home Entertainment released Season 1 of Happy Days on DVD in 2004. It had been thought that no further seasons would be released due to the high costs of copyright clearances for the songs used in the series and low sales figures. However, Season 2 has been announced for release on April 17, 2007 [2].
Episodes
SpinoffsImage:Happydays02.jpg Laverne, Mork, and Fonzie Happy Days, itself considered a spin-off from Love, American Style, spun off three different sitcoms series: Laverne & Shirley, Mork and Mindy and Joanie Loves Chachi.
TV-Viewer since 1971 16:06, 5 April 2007 (UTC) Legacy
References
Trivia
TV-Viewer since 1971 16:07, 5 April 2007 (UTC) References
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