Happy Days Was the Feel-Good Sitcom Loved By Boomers and GenXers

Goodbye gray skies, hello blue

If you caught the Emmy Awards last week, you probably witnessed the moment Henry Winkler and Ron Howard paid homage to their iconic roles as Arthur Fonzarelli and Ritchie Cunningham on Happy Days. Stepping out onto a stage replica of Arnold’s diner in honor of Happy Days’ 50th anniversary, Winkler, harnessing the effortlessly cool Fonzie, whacked the Jukebox and it began playing the show’s memorable theme song.

And now you can have the theme song stuck in your head, too. Sorry, but them’s the rules.

My mother loves to tell people that when I was around 3 or 4 years old, I’d stand in front of the TV when Happy Days was playing, stick out my thumb, and say “Ayyyyy!” Everyone in the family thought that was hilarious, she says, but all I want to know is why nobody thought to get me a mini leather jacket, white t-shirt, and slick back my hair so I could be Fonzie for Halloween. Now THAT would’ve been hilarious.

This could’ve been me saying “trick or treat!” at your door in 1979

Created in 1974 by Garry Marshall, Penny Marshall’s brother, Happy Days was inspired by the box office success of American Graffiti. Nostalgia for the 1950s was in full swing in the ‘70s, led by Boomers reminiscing about poodle skirts, greasers, and the birth of rock ‘n’ roll. Happy Days lasted 11 seasons and spawned several spin-offs, including the 2 hugely successful shows Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy. As much as I loved those spin-offs, I remember being super excited for the debut of Joanie Loves Chachi in ‘82, but I must’ve been one of the only ones because that show got canceled after only 2 seasons. Maybe audiences tuned out in protest of the title implying Chachi didn’t love Joanie.

I had a massive crush on Potsy. Not the actor who played him, Anson Williams, but Potsy, the lovable doofus with the singing skills. Then when Chachi was introduced in the 5th season, played by Scott Baio, he became my next celebrity crush. It was like I got bored with plain mashed potatoes and discovered the most delicious gravy known to humanity. It’s unfortunate that the gravy in real life turned out later to be more like hot dog water, but whatevs.

There’s a lot about the show I remember. The pointless older brother Chuck Cunningham, who was usually off playing basketball. How the original owner of Arnold’s, played by Pat Morita, was suddenly replaced by Al, who was often expressing his exasperation by shaking his head and saying “Yeah yeah yeah yeah”. I remember asking my older brother what “Sit on it” meant and all he said was “It’s an insult from the olden days.” Okay bro but WHAT ARE THEY TELLING PEOPLE TO SIT ON?

The ‘70s and ‘80s had to be sneaky with their double entendres

Remember all the zany side characters? There was Pinky Tuscadero, Fonzie’s girlfriend, Leather Tuscadero, Pinky’s little sister, Jenny Piccolo, whom I can’t remember anything about, and the zaniest character Mork from Ork. How did a sitcom about a 1950s middle class family in Milwaukee end up with a dude from outer space? It’s fuckin’ weird, man. But it was good weird, not bad weird.

Plenty of other chicks probably would’ve loved being in a Fonzie and Mork sandwich, maybe Laverne secretly preferred Lenny and Squiggy

Some people have accused Happy Days of being one of the shows that perpetuated the false idea that the 1950s was the ideal decade, a syrupy sentimental homage to when America was “great”. I disagree. They’ve clearly forgotten about the episodes that tackled racism and segregation. In the episode titled “Southern Crossing”, Fonzie and Al travel to a southern state to sit alongside a Black friend at a “Whites Only” diner in protest. In “Fonzie’s New Friend”, Ritchie needs a drummer for his band and Fonzie hooks him up with a guy he knows who’s an excellent drummer. The drummer turns out to be Black, causing all sorts of discomfort among the other band members. When Ritchie complains to The Fonz, he tells him to get the fuck over it. And he does.

When I saw the episode where Fonzie jumps over a shark waterskiing, I remember feeling a vague sense of the show’s desperation. It just seemed off, like the writers were losing steam and went too far trying to maintain our interest in the show. So when I first came across “jumped the shark” as a reference decades later, I instinctually understood what it meant.

I mean, they had Fonzie skiing on water only wearing his knickers and trademark leather jacket for Pete’s sake

Now it’s time for fun Happy Days trivia! Dig it:

Donny Most auditioned for the role of Potsy, but after they cast Williams instead, they told Most that they liked him so much they wanted to create a role for him on the show. Thus, Ralph Malph, Ritchie’s other bestie, was born.

Anson Williams’ real last name is Heimlich. His cousin (he called “uncle” for some reason) was the doctor who invented the Heimlich maneuver, and being a famous TV show star meant he got Dr. Heimlich on Merv Griffin and Johnny Carson to demonstrate how the maneuver saves lives.

John Travolta’s sister Ellen played Fonzie’s aunt and Chachi’s mom, Louisa.

Bill Haley and The Comets recorded a shorter version of their hit “Rock Around the Clock” for the opening credits of seasons 1 and 2. The signature Happy Days theme song was used for the remaining seasons.

They used the same actress to play Ritchie’s girlfriend in season 2 and then Fonzie’s girlfriend in seasons 10 and 11. I wonder how many viewers were like, “Wait a minute…isn’t that…she’s familiar…”

Anson Williams was also a singer, so when the show couldn’t use original pop songs from the 1950s, they just had Williams sing the songs as Potsy.

Henry Winkler said fans who ran into him in public during the ‘70s and ‘80s would sometimes beg him to bang on the hood of a car to start the engine or bop other items to flip them on, as if he could manifest Fonzie’s magic in real life. Some people really are this gullible; the producers of Gilligan’s Island said the Coast Guard received letters from people begging them to save Gilligan and the rest of the castaways back in the ‘60s.

Pretty much everyone already knows Ron Howard played Opie on The Andy Griffith Show as a wee lad in the ‘60s, but did you know he’s been married to his high school sweetie Cheryl since 1975? That’s a long-ass time for 2 people who met before their frontal lobes finished developing.

Happy Days was happy escapism, a sitcom about a fun-loving, average, American family and the bevy of interesting people around them.

Marion Ross might’ve played a stay-at-home wife but Mrs. C was no Edith Bunker. I remember the episode when she triumphantly told someone to “sit on it” and I was like “would someone FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TELL ME WHAT THEY’RE SITTING ON”