Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Diagonaldi Very well executed

Executscan Expected more

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

powermandan Happy Days is such a warm show that always makes people feel good and is such a pleasure to watch. Like most family sitcoms, serious issues are tackled, but it is able to find the balance between cop-out (Full House) and very explicit (Diff'rent Strokes). But there are two things that make the show great: its characters and its time period setting in the 1950s.Happy Days is a spin off of Love American Style that was about a teenager growing up in 1950s Milwaukee. Richie Cunningham is the star of the show played by Ron Howard from the Andy Griffith Show. Richie has an older brother, Chuck, little sister Joanie (Erin Moran), his father Howard (Tom Bosley) owns a hardware store and his mother Marion (Marion Ross) is a housewife. The first season dealt with Richie's home life and his high school days with best friend Warren "Potsie" Webber. As the first season progressed, jokester Ralph Malph (Donny Most) and greaser Arthur "The Fonz/Fonzie" Fonzerelli (Henry Winkler) grew from being briefly seen to reoccurring. Although being filmed in the 70s, the show perfectly captures the look and feel of the 50s. You could swear it was filmed in the 50s.The first two seasons were done as single-cams, but was changed to a regular-sitcom setting by season 3. Fonzie's greaser look and superhuman gimmick immediately made him a fan favourite, giving him second billing after Ron Howard. Both him and Ralph grew to main characters, so there was really no point in Richie having an older brother who was rare seen. So Chuck was written out. In shows, when a character suddenly vanishes and seems like they never existed, it is known as the "Chuck Cunningham Syndrome." But whatever. The multi-cam switch gave the show more energy and all the characters were at their heights. While the show still revolved around the Cunninghams, Fonzie soon became the most popular character on TV. Personally, I find Fonzie to be the best character ever. He becomes a tenant for the family, and his relationship with them was one to savour. Potsie and Ralph eventually became the same in terms of importance and were often paired up in the backdrop of Fonzie and Richie. But the show took a dark turn in season 8. Ron Howard's movie-directing career was growing and he decided to pursue it full time and leave Happy Days. Don Most also decided to leave to pursue other interests. The show lost its edge, with many people not liking it. It was written in that Richie and Ralph join the army and get stationed to Greenland. To replace Richie was his cousin Roger Phillips (Ted McGinley) who moved to Milwaukee to be an educator. It took a long time for Roger to grow in me, I mean seasons! Fonzie becomes an auto mechanics teacher and own the new Arnold's. The hangout was changed to reflect the 60s that the show was going into, with it being the 50s before.Almost the remainder of the show focused on Joanie's relationship with Fonzie cousin Chachi (Scott Baio). I always liked this. They eventually went on to their own short-lived spin off "Joanie Loves Chachi." Season 10 was their absence. I consider that season to be "Happy Days: The Next Generation." The worst thing was it gave up on capturing the 60s style. Luckily, the new array of characters were cool. Joanie's best friend Jenny Piccolo (Cathy Silvers) became more prominent, some new high school students were seen more regularly, Fonzie settles down with divorced Ashley Pfister (Linda Purl) and her daughter Heather (Heather O'Rourke), Roger's rebellious younger brother Flip (Billy Warlock) moves to town, and Howard's goody-goody niece KC (Crystal Bernard) moves in from Houston. The only one I did not like was KC. Heather was adorable, Flip was awesome, Jenny ruled, and Fonzie's growing endeavours were compelling. Season 11 was the final season, with Joanie and Chachi moving back home after the cancellation of their show. Many of these new characters did not return. Flip and Jenny should have stayed regulars. But there were some good things to come out. Richie and Ralph return for a few episodes to pursue their dreams, Joanie and Chachi get married, and Fonzie adopts a child. It also started to push boundaries and do edgier episodes. The show could have gone on longer.This show was nearly flawless. It had some bad episodes, but what show doesn't? The time period should have been more consistent and Potsie should not have been dwindled down the last three seasons. But these flaws are forgivable. There was so many great things and people to come out of this show. The Richie era was the best, but post-Richie was fine too.

imdb-clem I grew up watching Happy Days when it first aired. Yes I was there when the Fonz moved into the apartment over the Cunningham's garage, when Fonzie jumped his motorcycle in the parking lot of Arnold's, and even when Fonzie jumped the shark. I was there almost to the bitter end.However, it's really the first two seasons of this show that I remember most fondly, when it was a single-camera closed-set mid-season replacement production, and 'the Fonz' was merely a secondary character, a somewhat menacing hoodlum too cool to hang out with Richie and his friends, but who occasionally interacted with them to show that they weren't total 'nerds'.The decision to make Fonzie the star and to do the show before a live audience starting in season 3 changed the show entirely. It was a business decision to save a watchable show which was, however, faltering in the ratings. And perhaps it was because of that decision that we are even talking about this show today. So I can't completely hate that decision, but I will always be most nostalgic for the first two seasons .. and Chuck.But seasons 3-5 are probably the 'classic' seasons of this show for most viewers. That's when it got the highest ratings and when the Fonz became a cultural icon whose thumbs-up pose adorned the lunch boxes of half the kids in my school. Ayeeeeeeeeeeeee! Starting in the fifth season, during which the Fonz jumped the shark, the show began to run out of steam, but was still far too popular for its own good and for its creators and the network to stop milking it. So the usual expedients crept in. Authenticity was abandoned and the cast was allowed to stop looking like the time period and started sporting 70s MOR haircuts, in order to keep them happy now that they were 'stars'. A string of new regular characters were introduced to bolster sagging ratings - Chachi, Jenny Picolo, Lorrie Beth, Ted McGinley's character Roger. And can anyone forget that Happy Days actually launched the series Mork & Mindy and the career of Robin Williams? Well it did. Happy Days might hold the record for the number of (bad) spin offs it spawned. (Interestingly enough, it also launched Laverne & Shirley, but they were actually good characters introduced in season 3 when the show still had creative energy.) So if you've never really seen this show and are tempted, get seasons 1 and 2 to see the show at its nostalgic best. Get 3-5 to see the show at its peak of popularity and cultural relevance (and to see it jump the shark). Get the rest if you feel you have to for some reason.

DKosty123 It doesn't seem possible but this series became the number 1 show in the late 1970's but it started modestly without the Fonz as a pilot episode on Love American Style in 1972. It took Gary Marshall 2 years after that to get it on ABC. Once ABC got it on, this became part of the late 1970's ABC rise in the overall ratings. Richie, Potsie, Ralph Mouth, & the Fonz rode the top of the sitcom landscape for several years. Howard Cunnigham's Hardware Store was the most talked about and never seen business in the history of TV. This show literally gave a lot or performers a place to start then. Amzaingly, most of the main cast members are still around even though it's been over 30 years since this show started. Henry Winkler became so type cast as the Fonz, that try as he did, he really never got another role folks remember him more for than this one. Ronny Howard went on to become a great director of films. One of the few folks no longer around, Pat Morita (original Arnold of Arnolds Drive-In Restaurant) went on to a lot of roles, most famous of which was Mr. Miyagi, the Karate Kids Teacher. This show spun off Laverne & Shirley which had great success and produced another good movie director in Penny Marshall. It also spun out Joanie Loves Chachi whose success was limited to a very short run.What was most successful about this show was it played on 1950's Nostalgia after the Vietnam War. As people wanted to forget that era, this show was the answer. Going back to the 1950's was really in and Gary Marshall really hit the right formula with this show inspired by George Lucas famous 1973 classic film American Graffatti. Of course Marshall had already aired everything but the Fonz on Love American Style. The original theme (Rock Around The Clock) for this by Bill Haley & the Comets was a great theme. Later on, Richie & the Cast did a second theme song which was pretty good too. The Fonz became a cultural icon.Then there was always Arnold, who installed the dime thing on his bathroom stall doors, and then uttered the now nostalgic line to someone needing to get in the stall, "Why don't you do like the other kids do & crawl under?"

happipuppi13 It's been 30 years (only saw "laughtrack" shows in reruns) since I started watching Happy Days at age 7 & 1/2. I still have the photo my mother took of me in my Fonzie T-Shirt,giving the double thumbs-up. From beginning to end i had no bigger (mortal) hero than Arthur Fonzarelli.If ever a kid wanted to have a role model,there was none better. I took every lesson he and the cast portrayed to heart. I'm proud to say it made me who I am today. Henry Winkler played him so well I almost blurred the lines of fantasy & reality. Can't say how many times i tried to start a juke-box(or anything else) with my fist.Favorite episodes? Well being a boy then,naturally,it was any episode where Fonzie got to take on the bad guys. Be they gang members,Chicago mob-men,the Milacchi Brothers in the demolition derby or whatever time he showed up to fight for what was right. Definitely though the show where he becomes a part-time "daddy" to a boy,whose mother he's dating. The father returns and Fonzie does the right thing by taking a "dive" in front of the boy who calls him "champ" and letting him reconcile with his father.I did,also,like the show where Marion tells off a bossy Howard in the kitchen and she storms out the door! Howard realizes he's been taking advantage of his wife and he works it out with her. That's how marriage should be.The Cunninghams then:Richie,Joanie and parents Howard & Marion (sorry chuck!)were a family we all wish we had. Getting along great,arguing sometimes but working it all out in a reasonable way in the end. Howard & Marion were much like my Mom's parents,they owned a hardware store and were truly in love (no sons though).Richie,Fonzie,Ralph and Potsie at first were not a foursome of friends but after the show went "live",a cool biker guy actually became friends with "a nice guy","a joker" and "a real nerd". Only on TV.Joanie was Richie's younger sister who imploded the myth that girls of the 1950's were all "goody-two shoes". She wasn't bad,just going through growing pains. Jaonie had to put up with two of Fonzies nephews ( from "what?" brother?' ) trying to make moves on her. Spike was a pre-teen imitaton of Fonzie but Chachi was nicer and more sensitive and pretty much fell for Joanie at first sight. Despite Howard & Most leaving in 1980,the show carried on with different characters,but it didn't hurt the show as far as i was concerned. Happy Days was "my" show and nothing could stop me from watching it.I literally cried the night of the farewell show in May of 1984. A great big piece of my life was saying good-bye. It was like The Cuninghams & all were moving away. Still in reruns but I missed seeing their new adventures together.Thanks to everyone who starred in Happy Days,you were all the greatest and unlike some TV stars who have disappointed fans in later years ,you never have. You are heroes all and for that I thank you twice. (END)