Top Stupid Things about the 'Happy Days' TV series (1974-1984)

Don't forget, the series also dropped this abomination on the listening public in the spring of 1976. By comparison, Pratt & McClain's Top 10 rendition of the Fox/Gimbel theme song from the same period sounds like musical poetry.



It was included on this various-artists album, a mishmash of authentic 1950's rock and roll, new recordings by the likes of Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids, and one track of a session player reiterating series catchphrases ("Heyyy", "Nerd!" and "Sit on it!" are the three I remember) so the listener could develop just the right intonation. Merchandising!

 

In the case of Green Acres, Oliver was the "voice of reason" but he was also basically the only such character on the show, maybe with the exception of Mr. Drucker who was less loony than the rest of the Hooterville denizens but still had his moments. At the time, I didn't know anyone who watched for Oliver.

 

I would agree here. RH was perfectly serviceable in the role but I don't think he brought all that much to the table acting-wise. Fact is, he peaked as Opie in the first few seasons of Andy Griffith.

 

Ha! I had that record when I was a kid. The back had a "fold out" so you could prop up the record like a photograph. Even as a kid I thought it was pretty lame but I listened to it all the time. It also had a track with Arnold Horshack talking to Fonzie. They weren't even in the same time period.

 

The 'Happy Days' and 'Welcome Back, Kotter' crossover happened in a bizarre song

 

I don't think moving the series into the 60s was such a bad idea. I mean it makes sense to have time moving on as the actors got older. Would you really want Joanie for instance, who was about 12/13 when the series started in roughly the year 1956 or 1957 on the show growing into an 18 year old and still having it be 1956/57 in the show's timeline? And Richie, Potsie, and Ralph were around 16/17 when the series started, I think they were kept in high school a season or two longer than they should have been already-Could you imagine a high school junior who was over 30?

The show had to move forward in time, you couldn't have them stall out at 11:59 pm, December 31, 1959 and keep going in the 50s. If it was kept that way, Joanie would end up catching up with Richie and they'd end up being the same age and both still in high school at the same time, because you couldn't expect Erin Moran to be playing a 13 year old when she was pushing 20 or more.

The older Cunningham brother was named Chuck.

 

Chuck! Yeah I think he was dropped after the first six months.

I hear ya, but none of the guys could pass as high schoolers. I think the worst
age miscasting happened in "Horror of Party Beach" where the lead lady, who's
about 30, talks about a slumber party.

It's been years since I've seen it, apart from the Halloween show from ' 75,
but I'm struggling to remember what historical references made the show.
Sputnik? Ike? I remember Kennedy making it in the later shows. I think
I quit watching just before Ron left.

 

Naturally aging, and moving into the 60's was not my issue, it was the 70s and 80's, hairstyles and clothes that made it a silly watch for me. The whole Fonzie thing was too much anyway, but the kids liked him. I watched the first three or so years, and after that just once in a while.

 

Stretch Cunningham was Archie Bunker's work buddy who was secretly Jewish (Archie didn't find out until after his death).

 

M*A*S*H and the Monkees suffered a similar fate - butchered beyond recognition to jam in more commercials.

 

Season 1, Episode 1 'All The Way'.

It includes probably the funniest exhange in the entire series. When Ritchie is talking to Fonzie with him asking if they went 'All The Way'?

Ritchie: We played Chess
The Fonz mishearing Ritchie: You played with her chest!?

 

Years ago on YT there was the original unaired version of the first episode (which was later edited down quite drastically, and called 'All The Way'.

It was interesting to note that the unaired pilot version not only ran a lot longer (I think close to 40 minutes) but included scenes with the character with the short hair you see in the Season 1 opening titles (the hair combing scene).

It was also unique that it used original recordings, all the Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Everly Brothers tunes in the background were the original 50's hits. When it became a series, it changed to re-recordings or sound-alikes, with the only original 50's track ever played being Les and Mary's 'How High The Moon' in two episode in Season 1.

 

I remember that line well. Made me laugh. Henry Winkler's delivery of the line is a masterpiece of comic timing.

 

Channel 7 actually got into trouble for hacking episodes of Monty Python to pieces. One of the team was in Australia filming a chocolate commercial and took it all the way to the CEO.

 

It seems to be Channel 7 who did all this editing, the two 'lost' episodes of It Ain't Half Hot Mum only survive as edited broadcasts from Channel 7, and the only available copies of the first Series of Not The Nine O'Clock News are from, you guessed it, Channel 7, and they run about 18 minutes, that's almost 12 minutes lost from each edition.

AFAIK the other stations didn't seem to do this.

 

Another crazy thing Channel 7 did was cut two unrelated episodes of The Muppet Show together so they could fill an hour of program time. Most of the episodes were thematic so it jumped around like an old episode of Blankety Blanks.

 

It's eye-opening to see the length of hour and half-hour series on network television dwindle over time. Lucy's vitameatavegamin episode ran 25 minutes and that was pretty much the standard for other shows throughout first half of the 80s. Today, you get 19 to 20 minutes tops.

 

Add Bewitched, I Dream Of Jeannie and Get Smart to the list of shows hacked to pieces by the Seven Network.

 

The Heyettes made an album:
The Heyettes - Fonzie, Fonzie He's Our Man

 

That's gruesome.

 

I guess we were lucky in NZ, we got a comp, sans those awful tracks:

Various - Fonzie Favourites - 22 Original Rock 'n' Roll Greats

Though of course being on Music World, the sound quality would most likely make K-Tel releases sound like 180g 45rpm Audiophile releases.

 

I think Barney Miller and The Bob Newhart Show did the same thing (quit while ahead): one in 1982, the other in 1978.

 

I think Chuck Cunningham was on for the first and second seasons, phased out in the second season for sure.

As for the guys playing high school students-Ron Howard was 19/going on 20, Donnie Most was 20/going on 21, and Anson Williams was 24/going on 25 when the show debuted in 1974, so that's not too uncommon of an age range for actors to be playing high schoolers, and certainly not unheard of before "Happy Days"... For example, on "Dobie Gillis", Dwayne Hickman was 25, and Bob Denver was 24 when that show debuted and they were playing high school students, and by the end of the series, Dwayne Hickman was 29 playing about a junior or senior in college, someone who's normally around 21ish, give or take a year. And the guys playing Kotter's Sweathogs on "Welcome Back Kotter", I think Travolta was the youngest at 21/22 when the show debuted, and Ron Pallilo (Horshack) was like 27 when the show debuted. And Stockard Channing was 33 years old playing a 17/18 year old high school senior in "Grease". And of course, that type of thing went on all over the place in movies and TV series, still does too. But yeah, the "Happy Days" guys aged out of being believable high schoolers pretty early on.

Yes, Ike was mentioned, I think you're right about Sputnik too, and Presley's induction into the Army was part of an episode. I know James Dean was mentioned, Howdy Doody was actually on the show, Chuck Berry's famous "duck-walk" was mentioned, The Lone Ranger (well, John Hart, the second guy to play the LR) was on an episode, but I don't know if those are so much historical references as just pop culture references. There probably are some more actual historical references, but I can't think of any right offhand.

 

Precisely who I was thinking of! Did you see the pic of Jean Stapleton
in the "Interesting Photos from Rock History" thread? Edith partying
with Alice Cooper? Too funny. Even funnier is if she drank him under
the table. Judging by her "deer in headlights" glance, I kinda doubt it.

 

All this yap makes me wanna go back and see a couple of the early eps ...
it was an addiction of mine growing up. I'd like to see the ones before
Fonzi is introduced. It was Ron's show, but Henry came along and upset
the balance, in a good way.