Happy Days (ABC tv show)

I've watched the whole series on DVD, but it's been a while. Not sure when precisely the "big applause" started/ended.

Would guess it lasted less than a season. It really did seem incongruous at the time!

 

Generally, they told the audience not to applaud when the characters first entered, but they'd do it anyway. The director would shoot the scene again, and this time, the audience only applauded a little bit. Generally, the first part of that take would be what actually got into the show. They also kept the audience applause on separate soundtracks, so it was often possible to drop the level in the mix so that they could greatly reduce the laughter during post.

This is a huge problem on every hugely-successful series shot in front of a live audience. Sometimes, they have to "break" the take, let the actor take a bow, then go back and do his or her entrance again -- while admonishing the audience not to applaud too much.

 

Did they have a comedian do a routine before taping began?

I ask because I saw the 2nd Cosby (don't shoot me) show taped in New York and Politically Incorrect taped in LA. Both times very funny guys did a routine to get the audience going.

 

sit back and enjoy

 

This is a great episode.

 

One of my favorite episodes.

 

Thank you for posting this. I haven't seen it in years! What a wonderful episode.

 

Was she talking about Phil Foster?

 

The atheist Chuck.

 

The local paper had a "TV Answer Man" column back in those days. My brother wrote to ask about Chuck. The Stalinesque reply was: "No such character existed."

 

I will go with the somewhat consensus that I like only the first 3 seasons of the show. As much as I think the Fonz is an iconic character once the show begins to center around him I lose interest. Weirdly enough here in Australia, you can only purchase the first 4 seasons on DVD which is kind of funny

 

Oooh, I hate to speak ill of the dead, but...

 

Arnold.

 

I thought only two actors portrayed Chuck?


PS: I read thru more of the thread, and seen your reply about the third guy being the one from "Love, American Style"/"pilot" episode...

 

Yeah, Spike was a decent enough character-The episodes with him in them were all pretty good...

But you're right about Pinky & Leather and Chachi... Leather with her David Cassidy shag hair-do in 1959 or whatever year they were supposed to be in at that time...

 

Spike was pretty funny and they only used him a few times.

Chachi steadily became more annoying.

 

A phenomena that continues to this very day.

 

I think that they tended to forget what year it was supposed to be after the first few seasons. I remember that the early episodes had many direct references to the 1950s (candidates, an attempt to get color TV, clothing styles), that seemed to fade away as the series progressed.

 

I must second this. I felt the exact same way as a kid. I would know within two seconds of the opening of a syndication re-run if it was going to be good, or if I'd switch the channel.

 

One of TV's first "coming out" episodes...

 

anytime i see a episode of the first two seasons i forget how different the living room and kitchen were

 

Yes. Ralph Malph makes a reference to Jennifer Jones in one of the episodes in Season 1 or 2(the one with the divorcee?). (What-No reference to Grace Kelly?) He also refers to 'Psycho' in a later season. These are two of the few time/cultural references I've noticed.

 

"Ayyyy, flowers are... Whoa..."

(PS: I know that's not Fonzie's exact wording on the subject.)

 

I was the same way with "M*A*S*H"- I knew if it had Wayne Rogers and/or Larry Linville in the opening credits, that it'd be a "good" episode...

 

Lenny and the Squigtones - Wikipedia