I fear for Happy Days (2 Viewers)

[Randy A Salas]

I've already noted that I thought the transfer is better than the original broadcasts. It's certainly not demo material--and I've viewed it just on a 32-inch TV in the bedroom, not my front DP--but those who have seen the show many times should be pleased.

 

[Randy Gray]

There were some hilarious shows during this period. I think that some people have forgotten just how funny they were that's all. A couple of my favs were when Fonzie had to sneak in to a dorm room in the middle of a panty raid, remember that one? Or how about when Fonzie takes Richie to the supermarket to meet girls? It was also during this period that the Jenny Piccolo character became more prominent and I thought there were some very funny episodes with her. There were some low points for sure but there was a time in the '80's when a local station reran the entire series and I taped and watched every one and liked the majority of them. I didn't really care for the Ted McGinley character and I thought that having Fonzie adopt a child wasn't the greatest idea in the world, but I would buy all 11 seasons.

Randy

 

[Dave Farley]

I'm glad to hear the original music is here, along with the original broadcast cuts. Count me in.

I liked the first two seasons best because they were closer to what the show was intended to be and it was still pretty realistic for a sitcom.

It started to morph into the Fonzie Show in Season 3 and had a different look and feel due to the factors already mentioned in this thread. I thought Seasons 3 and 4 were pretty entertaining, but very different from the enjoyable first two seasons. I still liked it pretty well for those two seasons and watched until Ron Howard left, but I liked it less and less from Season 5 on. Season 5 was the beginning of the big down slide to me. That season started off with the infamous "jumping the shark" episodes and the show got farther out from there. Season 6 got more over the top and corny and by Ron Howard's final season(7), the show had gotten quite lame. I found it unwatchable after Ron Howard left and the only thing that would make me purchase those seasons is the completist in me.

 

[Britton]

I hope these sell well so we can get the complete "Joanie Loves Chachi" on DVD, heh heh...

 

[Chris:L]

I've never seen an episode of Joanie loves Chachi. That would be interesting. It would be a big sell up in Canada. Because in Canada Chachi means... the private part of a man....... well, I'm being as indirect as I can!!! :b

 

[Dan Rudolph]

You're thinking of Korea, not Canada.

http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/joanie.htm

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Which season had the episode where Fonzie tries to teach Cunningham how to be tough after some thugs force him to act like a pinball machine?

 

[Cathy Suzan]

Where can I start? The fact that the Cunninghams had two sons, and then he dissapeared with no metion of him ever; A short semi tough looking caricature of a character who claims a fithy toilet as his office; A 70's feel and look, even though the show takes place in the 50's; The Mork episode??? All of these and more equals a show I hated, but one that perhaps will sell enough toget all the DVD season sets released in a timely manner.

 

[Britton]

Yeah, they covered the meaning of Chachi in Korea on I Love the 80s.

 

[SteveKNJ]

I parallel Happy Days to another 70s fav MASH. With MASH, I loved the first 3 years with Trapper and Henry, and I really enjoyed the first 2 years with Potter and BJ (until they introduced Margaret getting married as the segue to Burns leaving). Then the show became preachy and sappy with very bad time inconsitancies (the original first episode says "Korea 1952" in it's opening, but in one of the last episodes, they relive the whole 1951 with Potter, Chahhles and BJ as part of the episode), and it became hard to watch.

With Happy Days, the first 2 years of the show really dug into the whole 1950s lifestyle, with all the secret necking (going "all the way" was REALLY a big deal), old Studebakers, Ms. C being the happy 50s housewife, Joannie being the bratty, Howdy Doody loving kid, and Fonzie being the "hood" that the kids knew, but kind of were scared of. Then in the 3rd season Chuck magically disappeared without a mention (sidenote: I thought they were going to do the same thing with Laurie in "That 70s Show" which is this generation's Happy Days, but after not being mentioned for most of last year, they wrote her back in, albeit as a weaker wisecracking character), and Fonzie moved upstairs, but the show was still funny for a couple of years until they gradually moved away from the 50s theme and more into character development (one of my favorite episodes was when Fonzie was trying to teach Richie how to get a girl in bed in Phases!! I tried to use that approach myself after hearing it as I was about Richie's age!!). Then it became just like any teenage oriented family sitcom in the Partridge Family, Brady Bunch ilk. I always thought I had just outgrown it by that time, but I think you guys are right, it just wasn't the same...

 

[Chris:L]

If Happy Days later turned into the same type of comedy the Brady Bunch did then we won't hve to worry about it not selling well. Because the Brady Bunch will sell well.

The profits from The Brady Bunch alone will outsell The Simpsons.

 

[Albert_M]

I am not a big fan of Happy Days, but anyone that grew up in the 70s or 80s saw it enough and I certainly will stop on an episode and watch... but I think many people take shows too seriously... I mean, we're talking about sitcoms, so there's some inconsistencies... ok some really stupid ones. It's a sitcom, there a relative amount of cheesiness to it and what's wrong with that?

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

Chuck disappeared long before the third season; in fact, I believe he disappeared somewhere during the first season. There was no point to the character, and no real reason for him to be around, so they just stopped having him around, and they never bothered to explain what had become of him because few people noticed he was there in the first place. Doesn't bother me, really. Shows in those days were less beset by concerns about consistency, continuity, etc. (An example is that many shows today are reluctant to have the same actor appear in multiple guest parts, which is really silly, since it assumes that the audience won't be able to suspend disbelief and pretend he's someone else this time around. In the '60s and '70s, many sitcoms had the same actor playing different guest parts just about every other week, e.g. Johnny Silver on The Dick Van Dyke Show or Phil Leeds on Barney Miller.)

 

[Rob Gardiner]

Or Jeffrey Combs & JG Hertzler (and many others) on newer Star Trek.

Both Jerry Orbach and S. Epatha Merkerson appeared on LAW & ORDER in guest starring roles before joinin the main cast.

 

[Chris:L]

Burt Mutsin is one of the most acknowledged tv guest stars... and he plays people from Beave's friend to the runaway from Edith Bunker's Nursing Home.

 

[Jay Pennington]

When the finale aired I was a bit dissappointed that they didn't have Chuck stop by, just to acknowledge that he'd just been away all that time and hadn't fallen through a hole in the space-time continuum.

 

[Chris:L]

Yeah....

Howard: Oh, hi, Chuck... we forgot to post missing flyers all over the trees in town.

Chuck: Oh, that's okay.

Richie: Yeah, we didn't even notice that you left.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

Speaking of "That 70s Show", didn't Donna have a younger sister that only appeared in one episode?

 

[Britton]

That is correct. My friends and I found this out while playing team trivia one night.

 

[Rob P S]

That's OK - Potsie didn't stop by for the finale either.