Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy - Season 2 (1 Viewer)

[Joe Karlosi]

I'll definitely get Season 2 of HAPPY DAYS. After that, I think I'll be done. I don't like how silly it got when it became the "SuperFonz Show" and everyone started to look like it was the 1970's.

 

[Firebee]

I'm most thrilled about ``Mork & Mindy'' here, but am glad for the ``Happy Days'' and ``Laverne & Shirley'' crowd that they get their shows (possibly) again. Hooray!

 

[Michael Alden]

Don't worry, as long as Universal is around you don't have to worry about the abandoned shows threads going away.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Joe, exactly the same for me - exact reasons. Interesting how, on this forum, we find TV/DVD'ers that see things the same way

 

[Jonathan Peterson]

I agree as well although I will buy the 3rd season. For me the show went south with the Pinky Tuscadero episode.

 

[marcSo]

Seasons 1 & 2 of happy days are by far the best and there are two reasons why.number one in the beginning of season 3 the show went to a live studio audience which virtually emliinated the outdoor scenes. those first 2 seasons had a lot of outdoors and for that reason the show seemed a lot more real after season 2 the gang at arnolds would look out a window and talk about what was going on but that was it.
The second reason the first 2 seasons were the best is the cunningham house.it had a warm feel to it. with a fireplace and smaller more appealing rooms even the kitchen had that 50's feel to it.at the beginning of season 3 the cunningham house sudeenly was this big open room that the fonz would storm through and make his presence known.Their was no feeling to it.just a big open space.

 

[Jay_B!]

yep, I think season 2 was probably the most expensive of the music rights, the rest of the seasons shouldn't be anywhere as bad, because like you said, it was mostly soundalike music and songs by Potsie (lol).

Season two is the last must-own season to me, but if we have a season 3 announcement, I'll consider that one too, but the first two seasons were by far the best. I will get L&S up until the second-to-last season, and I'm not sure if I'm gonna get more M&M

 

[David*P]

I'm just hoping they finish out M&M because I really want the episodes with Jonathan Winters...I thought he was hysterical!

What we really need now is the Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour cartoon from the early 80s

 

[Sam Favate]

I may get all the Happy Days seasons until the show jumped the shark when Fonzie jumped the shark.

 

[Carlos Garcia]

Sadly, the show jumped the shark even before the Fonz jumped the shark...Think Pinky Tuscadero, which I believe was 1 or 2 seasons before the Fonz jumped the shark.

 

[David Rain]

For me, I'd likely collect most all the L&S seasons. It figures that the show would be re-announced right after I Tivo & DVD the entire series.

Like a lot of L&S fans my loyalty to the show ends at the beginning of the final season when Cindy Williams exited. "Laverne & Friends" just couldn't cut it as series star Penny Marshall admitted. The show did pass it's prime when it moved the entire cast (!) to California and became a showcase for Leslie Easterbrook & Ed Marinaro's chests. Granted they were both impressive, but not enough to save a slowly sinking ship.

Oddly enough, by the time L&S jumped the shark, former guest-star Fonzie was nowhere to be found.

 

[Gregory V]

I havent been as excited about these shows as I have about others, mainly because I dont plan to collect ALL of any of them. Happy Days was only funny to me for about the first four seasons. Once they started hooting whenever anyone made an entrance it REALLY lost my interest. And with ridiculous stories like visiting dude ranches and jumping sharks the whole show just went south. Laverne and Shirley was only funny when they were in Milwaukee. The Hollywood episodes were quite awful, and they should have ended the show altogether when Cindy Williams left. When they went to Hollywood it became just like the Lucy Show, with a different movie star guest every week. The powers that be totally SCREWED Mork and Mindy after the first season, though I must admit some of the ones with Jonathan Winters were quite funny.

 

[Pavan_P]

Well, looks like CBS DVD has struck again.

Happy Days Season 2 does NOT have "Rock Around the Clock" theme, it is replaced by the "Happy Days" theme that starts in Season 3. Also, the back of the box says "Music has been changed for this home entertainment version."

The Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy sets are also altered. For them the back of the box says: "Some music has been changed for this home entertainment version."

We at SitcomsOnline will try to investigate what is missing in our reviews of each.

 

[beatlejam]

Say it ain't so!!!! First WKRP, and now this???!!!! Well, I guess I won't be getting any new TV DVD releases this month. The two I was excited about (WKRP, Happy Days) have let me down tremendously!!!! Yuck!

 

[Jay_B!]

well, with Happy Days, I can handle it tho I'd rather wait till season 3 for the "Happy Days" song, but... this is not Married With Children or something, the replaced theme lasted for nine seasons and was the theme associated with the show in it's most successful seasons, but still... Rock Around The Clock does go better with the single-camera episodes

 

[Pavan_P]

Any Happy Days fans out there know what songs were used in each episode for season two originally? We are trying to compare. They have replaced music inside the episodes, too.

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

I'm not sure. I know that Paramount seems to have removed the title card at the end that mentions "recording artists contributing to the series" (presumably because some of their contributions aren't there any more), but I don't remember enough about which songs they used.

A couple of music-centred episodes -- the one where Fonzie joins the band and another where Richie becomes a DJ -- seem shorter than they probably should be, so I wouldn't be surprised to find that some music-related bits had been edited out.

I did hear "Blueberry Hill" (Fats Domino) in one episode, which is a relief, because if you don't license "Blueberry Hill" you can't release Happy Days (since it's sung approximately 9,000 zillion times in the series).

 

[Jeff*H]

This unfortunately doesn't surprise me as much as WKRP did. The Season 1 sets of Happy Days and the others didn't sell all that great. I think the new management at CBS-Paramount (Viacom was still running it, I believe, when Season 1 was released) decided to revisit these popular shows one more time to see how they would do, but needed to find a way to keep the costs down. Unfortunately, when it comes time to cut costs, cheap packaging, music replacement and even double-sided discs tend to be the default options, although hopefully these Season 2 discs are single-sided.

 

[Jay_B!]

"Since I Don't Have You" was used pretty recurringly in the show, even into the latter seasons.

And like Jaime said, Blueberry Hill. Hell, that song is used in a pivital moment in the final season when Richie and Ralph briefly return and those two plus Fonzie and Potsie all sing it together emotionally at Arnolds like a bunch of 30 year olds reminiscing about the "good old days" when they were young.

There was also quite a bit of Motown used in the latter (as in post-Ron Howard) seasons

For the most part it seemed like music was used much less starting in season 3 when it went live. Personally, we should just bare with this season and the rest should be a breeze

 

[Corey3rd]

The publishers who have the rights to Rock Around the Clock are evil. I met a guy who put togehter a documentary about Bill Haley and the Comets that had full cooperation with surviving members and Haley's estate. The record label was thrilled at the rough cut. But then when it came time to secure publishing on the songs (since you have to get that in addition to the mechanical rights from the label), they discovered that Rock Around the Clock was going to cost them a small fortune. Even with the support of everyone on the project, the publisher told them they don't care about charity cases.

I don't care too much about music replacements if it doesn't turn out like WKRP where they clipped scenes.