Happy Times centered on the life of the middle-class family named a Cunninghams, world health organization sleep in suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin. a personal consisted of Howard, a devices store creator & the personal patriarch; Marion, a homemaker and the personal matriarch; and a few's teen tykes, Richie (world health organizatiin got an optimistic in case somewhat naïve outlook on life) & Richie's immature sister Joanie. When a series went on the story focus typically shifted to extra characters, notably people of Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli, who was originally portrayed as a local thug but soon became a friend to Richie and the Cunningham family, and Fonzie's cousin Chachi, who became a love interest for Joanie Cunningham. A long-running off indicate likewise resulted around many spinoff shows, several of which were extremely successful in their have best.

Cast
Cunningham family Others History
Happy Times originated in the period of the period of 1950s nostalgia in film, television, and music. It began as an unsold pilot known as "Love and the Happy Days" that was originally presented on the television anthology series Love, American Style, with Harold Gould in the roll of Howard Cunningham, Marion Ross when Marion, Ron Howard when Richie, Anson Williams as Potsie. Inside 1973, George Lucas released American Graffiti (co-starring Ron Howard and Cindy Williams). A pack professional profits of that film stimulated series owner Garry Marshall & ABC to reconsider the unsold pilot and turn Happy Times into the series.

A foremost 2 seasons of Happy Times come markedly different from either the rest of the series, when it was filmed by owning a laugh track, as opposed to existence the three-camera live production.

A early Happy Times episodes centered as much as Richie & his teenaged friends, Ralph Malph & Warren "Potsie" Weber, treating sustaining a troubles of existence teen inside Fifties & early 1960s Milwaukee. In a period of a number 1 year, the character of Arthur "Fonzie" / "the Fonz" Fonzarelli started to become a fan favourite. "The Fonz," when Arthur was ordinarily known as by everyone (except for Marion, world health organization known as him "Arthur"), was originally intended to become the local high school drop out & just now and again seen. Still, the Fonz proved popular by owning viewers, & was presently given other & other screen instance per writers, becoming a lasting member of the cast in the 2nd year credits. A "Fonz" quickly became a indicate's virtually all popular character. Once a ABC brass considered changing a title of the indicate to "Fonzie" a cast including Henry Winkler world health organization played a role of a Fonz protested along by using Producer/Creator Garry Marshall & a brass left the indicate title when is.

Late seasons saw a addition of more characters. Roz Kelly wwhen 1st brought inside as Pinky Tuscadaro slated to exist as Fonzie's yearn term girlfriend. Commercial message for the subsequent year possibly began promoting Kelly's newly character, however whilst discord occurred between her & the cast & producers, her character was dropped; it was sole mentioned briefly around 2 subsequent episodes, 1 in which her sister Leather Tuscadro inherit town to run the new life from either Reformatory, & while Fonzie was away from town at a demolition plug hat by using Pinkie. An additional character, Sticks Downey, was besides supposed to become added to the cast as a freshly member of the gang at Arnold's however a character never caught in & merely stayed for two or three episodes. the actor swimming Sticks Downey went within to a career in full-grown films & late died from either complications due to Helps.

When you took a foremost both seasons two or three actresses were brought around when expected yearn term girlfriends for Richie. Laurette Spang (late of Battlestar Galactica fame) was Richie's girlfriend Arlene in two or three of 1st year episodes. Late around the 2nd year Linda Purl wwhen brought in as Richie's girlfriend Gloria. Neither caught in storywise & Richie did non have the steadily girlfriend until he attend college & met Lori-Beth Allan (Linda Goodfriend), a previous class fellow from either Jefferson High. Coincidentally Linda Purl returned to the Happy Times stack within Year Ten when Fonzi's girlfriend Ashley Fifster.

A virtually all major character changes occurred fallowing year quaternary by having a addition of Scott Baio when Fonzie's first cousin, Chachi. Originally a character of Spike, mentioned when Fonzie's nephew was supposed to become a character that morphed into Chachi.

Al Molinaro wwhen as well added as Al Delvelchio a newly creator of Arnolds fallowing Patrick cooper Morita's character of Arnold pass on (his character had married). Al Molinaro too played Al's twin brother Father Delvelchio.

Lindthe Goodfriend joined a cast as a minor character Lori-Beth Allen & became a permenant member of the cast between seasons 8-10. A character would marry Richie.

Ted McGinley joined a cast when Roger Phillips a freshly Phys Ed teacher at Jefferson High & nephew to Howard & Marion. He became a contrast to Fonzi's character.

Billy Warlock joined a cast for two or three of seasons when Roger's brother Flip. A character didn't really catch in & Warlock left a indicate.

Crystal Bernard joined a cast a equivalent instance when Billy Warlock & when Erin Moran & Scott Baio's departure into their have indicate "Joanie loves Chachi. Bernard's character was K.C. Cunningham, neice to Howard and Marion. When Moran and Baio returned after their series flopped in the ratings, Bernard along with Warlock left the show.

The show also took more and more liberties with both the time era it took place in (fashions and hairstyles contemporary to the show's 1970s and 1980s production years started to show up on the show's characters) and with the tone of the episodes, as Happy Days' latter seasons started to feature more and more outlandish plots. The most famous of these plots, and of the show's entire run, is a storyline involving the Fonz performing a water ski jump over a pool containing a shark. In later years, this has often been cited by critics as the point where it became obvious that the series had already passed its peak of quality and popularity; the phrase jumping the shark was eventually coined to express such criticisms about popular culture phenomena in general.

Seasons 1-2 of the series used an edited version of "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets as the opening theme song. This edited 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 Times," became a major hit in its own right and replaced "Rock As much as a Clock" at the beginning of the show. The song "Happy Times" itself going through some small edits in subsequent seasons.

Episodes
An episode guide to the series can be found at List of Happy Days episodes.

Spinoffs

Happy Days spun off four different live-action series: Laverne and Shirley, ''Blansky's Beauties, Mork and Mindy, and Joanie Loves Chachi. The most successful of these spinoffs, Laverne and Shirley'' (co-starring Cindy Williams and Penny Marshall), also took place in 1950s and early/mid 1960s, though the two starring characters eventually moved to Los Angeles, California in the show's latter years. Joanie Loves Chachi was a short-lived show about Richie's younger sister Joanie and Fonzie's younger cousin Chachi's relationship. Robin Williams made his first appearance as "Mork" on Happy Days. Out of the Blue, a short-lived series about an angel who lives with a 1970s family, was an indirect spin-off, as the lead character of that series originated on Mork & Mindy. There was also an animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera entitled Fonz and the Happy Days Gang which ran from 1980-1982. Animated spin-offs of Laverne and Shirley and Mork and Mindy soon followed.

Trivia

The first two seasons of the series also featured an older brother of Richie named Chuck in a supporting role. This character was written out of the series, with no real explanation. Originally he was a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on a basketball scholarship. However in subsequent seasons the character would not be referred to again and later scripts suggested the Cunninghams had only two, not three children. Although in a Christmas episode from Season Four Fonzie mentions to Chachi when talking about his first Christmas with the Cunninghams that Chuck was away at College. In a Happy Days Reunion Show the cast mentioned that Chuck had won a scholarship to the University of Outer Mongolia to play basketball. Sort of an in joke to the cast and writers. Such a situation of a character disappearing with little or no explanation, and then subsequent scripts continuing as if the character had never existed has become known as the Chuck Cunningham syndrome.

Creative differences between Happy Days' producers and ABC helped boost the Fonz's popularity. ABC executives did not want a sympathetic character such as the Fonz to appear in a leather jacket, which they thought would make him appear to be a thug (The Fonz can be seen wearing a white jacket in early episodes). The compromise reached with the producers was to decree that Fonzie could only wear it if his motorcycle was in the scene, as a leather jacket is legitimate safety apparel for someone riding a motorcycle. The show's producers responded by placing the motorcycle in all of his scenes, even indoor ones. Although some first season episodes do show Henry Winkler wearing the leather jacket in interior scenes with no motorcycle in sight. The leather jacket soon became trademark attire for Fonzie, leading to ABC ultimately allowing the producers to let the Fonz wear his jacket permanently, even without the Fonz's motorcycle being present. The jacket is now on display at The Smithsonian Institution.

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 (a common practice up until the 1980s for syndicated episodes of a show still in production to carry a different name).

In 1995, the band Weezer recorded a music video for their song Buddy Holly, which featured the band playing on the original Arnold's Drive-In set mixed with footage from the series. The video begins with the band being introduced by Al Molinaro as Al Delvecchio, who announces: "Arnold's is majestic to present Kenosha, Wisconsin's own Weezer!". The video featured footage from Happy Days episode #53 ("It Call for It Potsie Love") as well as several other episodes. This video was included on the Microsoft Windows 95 installation CD-ROM as a demonstration of the new OS's multimedia capabilities.

Ron Howard guest starred on an episode of M*A*S*H. Both Happy Days and M*A*S*H are 1970s sitcoms set in the 1950s.

The first season of the series was released on DVD in August 2004.

Arthur Fonzarelli was affiliated with a motorcycle gang "A Falcons" although in a Season One Episode it was mentioned that Fonzie was a former member of The Demons.

The show demonstrated the powerful influence of television. In an episode filmed in the late 1970s, Fonzie (as part of his ongoing rehabilitation, so to speak) obtains a library card and declares, "Reading is cool." The following day, libraries around America were deluged with schoolchildren requesting library cards.

The first two seasons used a laugh track and a single camera. One episode of the second season where Fonzi got engaged was filmed in front of a studio audience with three cameras as a test run for the third season. From the third season on, "Happy Times" was filmed in front of an audience with multiple cameras.