Vote for why you think it jumped
Exit...Stage Left (Richie)
Fonzie-mania
70's style in the 50's
Live (Studio Audience)
Theme Song Change (Rock Around The Clock to Happy Days)
Shark Bytes
Jim,
You have a point. And it's not clear to me that anyone has ever done a better job representing "the past" on an American television show (especially a sitcom-except maybe Wonder Years). I did generally enjoy the Rock Around the Clock era. I heard that Ron Howard and Anson Williams were hired because of their resemblance to Archie Andrews and Reggie Mantle from Archie Comics. I thought that was pretty cool, actually. I did buy the first season DVD. It was decent but no bonuses. I would have liked to see the pilot. I got the second season DVD out of the library. They butchered it so much it was a joke.
I must say though, the Fonzie character never quite fit. Even in the early years, it seemed strange that he would hang around Richie, Potsie, and Ralph, although he didn't do that too often (and he lived in his own apartment). I don't know what the deal was with him dating high school girls was though? He looked like he was in his 30s in the first episode.
Then you had the "live audience" suddenly "the Fonz" is living above some high school kids house and his 3rd best friend is Potsie, "the nerdiest guy on Earth. What gives? Basically any episode starring Fonzie after the live audience was introduced was lame, although there were some that didn't and some of those were pretty good. "They Call it Potsie Love" was pretty good, Fonzie was barely in that one even though it was the third season.
You have a point. And it's not clear to me that anyone has ever done a better job representing "the past" on an American television show (especially a sitcom-except maybe Wonder Years). I did generally enjoy the Rock Around the Clock era. I heard that Ron Howard and Anson Williams were hired because of their resemblance to Archie Andrews and Reggie Mantle from Archie Comics. I thought that was pretty cool, actually. I did buy the first season DVD. It was decent but no bonuses. I would have liked to see the pilot. I got the second season DVD out of the library. They butchered it so much it was a joke.
I must say though, the Fonzie character never quite fit. Even in the early years, it seemed strange that he would hang around Richie, Potsie, and Ralph, although he didn't do that too often (and he lived in his own apartment). I don't know what the deal was with him dating high school girls was though? He looked like he was in his 30s in the first episode.
Then you had the "live audience" suddenly "the Fonz" is living above some high school kids house and his 3rd best friend is Potsie, "the nerdiest guy on Earth. What gives? Basically any episode starring Fonzie after the live audience was introduced was lame, although there were some that didn't and some of those were pretty good. "They Call it Potsie Love" was pretty good, Fonzie was barely in that one even though it was the third season.
Aaron,
My mother and father grew up in the '50s and during the first couple of seasons of Happy Days (the seasons I was referring to), they said it was, indeed, pretty authentic for the most part. You can pick anything apart if you scrutinize and disseminate it closely enough. After the first couple of seasons, the show did definitely become an anachronism, but it started out as a pretty good representation of a certain segment of life in the 1950s.
You may not agree with that, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Peace.
My mother and father grew up in the '50s and during the first couple of seasons of Happy Days (the seasons I was referring to), they said it was, indeed, pretty authentic for the most part. You can pick anything apart if you scrutinize and disseminate it closely enough. After the first couple of seasons, the show did definitely become an anachronism, but it started out as a pretty good representation of a certain segment of life in the 1950s.
You may not agree with that, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Peace.
I find it very interesting. I would like to discuss something that has been rarely (if ever) mentioned on this page.
The people who claim that this show was originally "an authentic representation of the 1950s" must been watching the show muted. Yes, the show in the first 2 seasons looked 1950s bar a few minor points (a 50 star flag in one episode, 1970s Chuck Taylor sneakers, some minor characters like a divorcee wearing obviously 1970s clothing-plus the rather large error of having a 1970s pinball machine at Arnold's), but the dialogue and even the plots had little to do with the 1950s. Typical American teenagers were not trying to "get laid" in the 1950s. That was basically the plot of the first episode (there was also a reference to safety belts). That mentality screamed 1970s. Also people have mentioned say the election episode. People here should remember that in 1956 (when that episode was supposed to take place) the voting age was 21 and high school kids didn't pay much attention to politics. Again, a 1970s plot. There was a first season episode where Howard has an African-American friend from the military (even though in reality the troops were probably still segregated then and Joanie would have been born in World War 2. I remember a line about how in Richie's lifetime blacks could live in his neighborhood. That's not something a Howard Cunningham would have said in the 1950s, but does sound like the 1970s. There was the episode where 3 college girls spend the night at Richie's house. Again, that's not something a Richie Cunningham would have done in 1950 anything. I recall a rather sickening analogy in the previously mentioned divorcee episode where Potsie refers to sex by analogy of "chocolate sodas" (perhaps ABC wouldn't let him use the word sex?). That bore no relation to what "a Potsie" would have said circa 1957. But it looked 1950s, so clearly people here ate it up.
Meanwhile after the switch to the live audience (although the earliest of these episodes don't necessarily reflect this), cast members started to dress like the era the show was actually filmed rather than when it was supposed to take place. This is completely true and no one has ever attempted to refute it. However, I would say that although the clothing and hairstyles screamed 1970s/1980s, the plots were actually more representative of the time period. People have complained of Potsie's "nerdiness" (sometimes using other inappropriate words) but things like "getting pinned" and "making out" was as far as the typical teenagers of the 1950s would go. Richie and Ralph were also toned down, and again this was more representative of that era, as were Chachi and Joanie's squeaky clean antics. But you folks saw those modern clothes and hair styles and the first thing that came to your mind was "fake." Clearly clothing and hairstyles mean more than dialogue and plots.
No doubt this idea of sight over dialogue has not gone unnoticed in the TV industry. Indeed many older television shows are not shown in syndication beccause they were filmed in black&white film immediately screams out to the audience that the show is "old" because American TV switched to full color in 1966. Also some shows that started in black and white but had most of their episodes filmed in color, have the b&w episodes pulled from syndication, such as "Bewitched" "My Three Sons" and Petticoat Junction." It's ironic too, because many of the black and white shows are far less dated looking than the color shows, particularly the Norman Lear shows, and even things like "Facts of Life" and "Family Ties" but they are re-run considerably less because it is assumed by many people that these very dated shows "look" modern because they are in "color." Just some food for thought.
(P.S., the "Fonzie-mania" stuff, of course was ridiculous and lame in any era whether 1950s or 1970s).
The people who claim that this show was originally "an authentic representation of the 1950s" must been watching the show muted. Yes, the show in the first 2 seasons looked 1950s bar a few minor points (a 50 star flag in one episode, 1970s Chuck Taylor sneakers, some minor characters like a divorcee wearing obviously 1970s clothing-plus the rather large error of having a 1970s pinball machine at Arnold's), but the dialogue and even the plots had little to do with the 1950s. Typical American teenagers were not trying to "get laid" in the 1950s. That was basically the plot of the first episode (there was also a reference to safety belts). That mentality screamed 1970s. Also people have mentioned say the election episode. People here should remember that in 1956 (when that episode was supposed to take place) the voting age was 21 and high school kids didn't pay much attention to politics. Again, a 1970s plot. There was a first season episode where Howard has an African-American friend from the military (even though in reality the troops were probably still segregated then and Joanie would have been born in World War 2. I remember a line about how in Richie's lifetime blacks could live in his neighborhood. That's not something a Howard Cunningham would have said in the 1950s, but does sound like the 1970s. There was the episode where 3 college girls spend the night at Richie's house. Again, that's not something a Richie Cunningham would have done in 1950 anything. I recall a rather sickening analogy in the previously mentioned divorcee episode where Potsie refers to sex by analogy of "chocolate sodas" (perhaps ABC wouldn't let him use the word sex?). That bore no relation to what "a Potsie" would have said circa 1957. But it looked 1950s, so clearly people here ate it up.
Meanwhile after the switch to the live audience (although the earliest of these episodes don't necessarily reflect this), cast members started to dress like the era the show was actually filmed rather than when it was supposed to take place. This is completely true and no one has ever attempted to refute it. However, I would say that although the clothing and hairstyles screamed 1970s/1980s, the plots were actually more representative of the time period. People have complained of Potsie's "nerdiness" (sometimes using other inappropriate words) but things like "getting pinned" and "making out" was as far as the typical teenagers of the 1950s would go. Richie and Ralph were also toned down, and again this was more representative of that era, as were Chachi and Joanie's squeaky clean antics. But you folks saw those modern clothes and hair styles and the first thing that came to your mind was "fake." Clearly clothing and hairstyles mean more than dialogue and plots.
No doubt this idea of sight over dialogue has not gone unnoticed in the TV industry. Indeed many older television shows are not shown in syndication beccause they were filmed in black&white film immediately screams out to the audience that the show is "old" because American TV switched to full color in 1966. Also some shows that started in black and white but had most of their episodes filmed in color, have the b&w episodes pulled from syndication, such as "Bewitched" "My Three Sons" and Petticoat Junction." It's ironic too, because many of the black and white shows are far less dated looking than the color shows, particularly the Norman Lear shows, and even things like "Facts of Life" and "Family Ties" but they are re-run considerably less because it is assumed by many people that these very dated shows "look" modern because they are in "color." Just some food for thought.
(P.S., the "Fonzie-mania" stuff, of course was ridiculous and lame in any era whether 1950s or 1970s).
JustaguynamedJon,
I, for one, am glad Happy days didn't become another show that preached 'social consciousness' at me. I never got any of the issues you mentioned out of this show, even from the get-go. Oh, there may have been a glimpse or two into some sort of social issue, but it never hit us over the head with it, for which I am thankful. Those types of issues are what ruined M*A*S*H* for many people (see the M*A*S*H* page). What I saw when I watched Happy Days was a fun, nostalgic look at life in the '50s. If I wanted social consciousness, I'd have watched Good Times or something similar.
Peace.
I, for one, am glad Happy days didn't become another show that preached 'social consciousness' at me. I never got any of the issues you mentioned out of this show, even from the get-go. Oh, there may have been a glimpse or two into some sort of social issue, but it never hit us over the head with it, for which I am thankful. Those types of issues are what ruined M*A*S*H* for many people (see the M*A*S*H* page). What I saw when I watched Happy Days was a fun, nostalgic look at life in the '50s. If I wanted social consciousness, I'd have watched Good Times or something similar.
Peace.
I agree that the show jumped the shark when they went to a live audience that applauded every time any actor appeared on camera, and they made Fonzie a regular. He was a facet of the life Richie lived, and should not have been made a main character.
The show originally worked because when it first came out, it gave a glimpse both into the nostalgia, and into the uncomfortable comformity and hypocrisy the white culture lived in, trying to insulate itself from real issues that encroachd anyway. Some of the early episode were relevant in that respect, and they should have pushed that; the racial tensions, the injustice, the antiseptic and suffocating conformity that any adolescent could relate to. They lost all that relevancy when they turned it into a "sitcom". The sad part is, fans like me would tune in hoping for a return to something that made some kind of a statement, and it was a disappointment every time, until I (and many others) stopped watching.
Then we had "Joanie Loves Chachi" (I can hear you gagging now); a distillation of the worst elements of what the show became. Too bad... the show and the fans deserved better
The show originally worked because when it first came out, it gave a glimpse both into the nostalgia, and into the uncomfortable comformity and hypocrisy the white culture lived in, trying to insulate itself from real issues that encroachd anyway. Some of the early episode were relevant in that respect, and they should have pushed that; the racial tensions, the injustice, the antiseptic and suffocating conformity that any adolescent could relate to. They lost all that relevancy when they turned it into a "sitcom". The sad part is, fans like me would tune in hoping for a return to something that made some kind of a statement, and it was a disappointment every time, until I (and many others) stopped watching.
Then we had "Joanie Loves Chachi" (I can hear you gagging now); a distillation of the worst elements of what the show became. Too bad... the show and the fans deserved better
HAPPY DAYS jumped the shark after the "Love American Style" episode aired. It was an atrocious show from the get-go. That's the irony of naming this site for an episode that obstensibly signaled a decline in quality of the show...because the show was ALWAYS BAD!
Every couple of weeks it seems people ask about why there is no 'Fonzie jumps the shark' option in the voting. And every couple of weeks there are answers to that question that make sense. I was wondering this too but as I have read many posts, I understand why. Maybe those of you who actually care about this ought to go back and do some reading. This tired argument gets recycled so often it makes my head spin.
Moderator: Maybe you should just add a 'Fonzie Jumps the Shark' option, just so we don't have to keep reading this same, worn out post every other week. Isn't there a way someone can just add it themselves, come to think of it? Below the options it says, "Don't see your reason? Submit it here." Maybe someone should just add it themselves instead of beating a dead horse.
Moderator: Maybe you should just add a 'Fonzie Jumps the Shark' option, just so we don't have to keep reading this same, worn out post every other week. Isn't there a way someone can just add it themselves, come to think of it? Below the options it says, "Don't see your reason? Submit it here." Maybe someone should just add it themselves instead of beating a dead horse.
i agree with lisa! who names this website about the fonz jumpimg the shark as a pit fall for a show and doesn't even use it as an option?! obiously we are dealing with a new kind of idiot!
This website jumped the shark when it failed to offer me the episode where the fonz jumps the shark as a voting option. Really? It coined the phrase.
Good post, Mack. I would also add for consideration a couple of other Supreme Court decisions made in the early 60s that have only brought darkness on our land.
I am currently watching HD late at night on cable, and they are jumbling the show order up, leading me to ask "when DID it all go downhill?" I mean, I saw most of the episodes the first time they ran, but with the benefit of hindsight... It's still going to take some time to do the research! Tonight's episodes were obviously early in the run, and they were good. Hadn't jumped yet, and Joanie was still cute.
BUT STILL: I think someone needs reading glasses here. The "guest" was making a comparison to post WWII life in the USA during the 50's which by most accounts was much the same social conformist vision as Germany was in the 40's. Everything's white. clean, and neat.
It's interesting to note that there hasn't been a show about the swinging 20's, which was when things were really interesting in the USA - before the great depression, before the government started really truly fucking things up, before the solidification of the two-party system that passes as democracty here.
Before all the commercialization started ruining personal expression. Think of all the indie pop and candy manufacturers in the US that were around up until even the 70's, now we got BOTH KINDS: Coke, and Pepsi!
BUT STILL: I think someone needs reading glasses here. The "guest" was making a comparison to post WWII life in the USA during the 50's which by most accounts was much the same social conformist vision as Germany was in the 40's. Everything's white. clean, and neat.
It's interesting to note that there hasn't been a show about the swinging 20's, which was when things were really interesting in the USA - before the great depression, before the government started really truly fucking things up, before the solidification of the two-party system that passes as democracty here.
Before all the commercialization started ruining personal expression. Think of all the indie pop and candy manufacturers in the US that were around up until even the 70's, now we got BOTH KINDS: Coke, and Pepsi!
I saw the original pilot "Love & the Happy Days" on Love American Style way back in the early '70's. The first two seasons were great, but then they changed to a live studio audience, changed the theme song, changed the house, got rid of Chuck Cunnigham and made Fonzie a regular. In my opinion, that's when it jumped.
Last year the show appeared daily and I tried to watch what I believe was season 4 or 5 and found it extremely cringe-worthy.
Last year the show appeared daily and I tried to watch what I believe was season 4 or 5 and found it extremely cringe-worthy.
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