TV We Love Season 1 Episode 5

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Transcript

00:00The Golden Age of Television.

00:09I Love Lucy didn't just change American television,

00:11it invented American television.

00:13Back when one screen brought everyone together.

00:16Watching television was a family event.

00:19The shows that shaped us.

00:21The Brady Bunch was part of the American soul.

00:25It's timeless.

00:26The familiar faces.

00:27Ralph Cramden was loved.

00:29Under the Honeymooners.

00:30Pow, right to kiss him!

00:32He was a presence.

00:33The unforgettable moments.

00:35Dynasty captured the essence of what the 1980s were about in America.

00:39These are their stories.

00:40Cheers is the pinnacle of how great the sitcom can be.

00:43This is TV We Love.

00:50It's 1974.

00:531974 was a rather fraught time in America's history.

00:58The Vietnam War was still raging.

01:01America is in the grips of the oil crisis.

01:05And that was eventually the year that Richard Nixon would resign the presidency due to the Watergate scandal.

01:12I have never been a quitter.

01:14But a new television series provides some welcome relief.

01:21It was set in a more innocent time.

01:27Let's take a step back and go back to cruising and poodle skirts, fancy hot rods, the drive-in.

01:36Happy Days was really one of the masterpieces of 70s TV.

01:42You have all these great, hilarious characters.

01:45Okay, bucko.

01:46I still got it.

01:47I still got it.

01:48Sit on it, mouth.

01:49There were so many catchphrases on the show.

01:52Wah, wah, wah.

01:53The show was fantastically successful.

01:55And they all lost it for Fonzie.

01:58Director Mando.

01:59He became this bigger-than-life character.

02:02It's amazing to me that the show and the character was so important to so many people.

02:10Here we go, Fonz!

02:11I'm heading for the ramp!

02:13But the show was in danger of being cancelled from the day it went on air.

02:17Doesn't Richard look nice tonight?

02:23He's got stinky stuff on his hair.

02:26Is that what that smell is?

02:27I thought the milk was sour.

02:29The origins of Happy Days begin circa 1971 with two important TV executives, Tom Miller and

02:41Michael Eisner.

02:43They are snowed in at the Newark Airport in Newark, New Jersey.

02:48So I said, Tom, this is ridiculous.

02:50We're wasting our time here.

02:51Let's write a show.

02:52They started talking about the kinds of shows that ABC did not make anymore.

02:57And it was intended to be a throwback, to be a return to the kind of series that dominated

03:06television in the 1950s, the family situation comedy.

03:11And to make this show a reality, they handed it off to a producer named Gary Marshall.

03:18Gary is just an incredible, talented gentleman.

03:22We had a big hit in our couple.

03:24And Tom Miller came along and said, you're very good.

03:26I'm a producer.

03:27We'll be great.

03:28And so he and Michael Eisner wanted to do this show of nostalgia.

03:33I said, let's try the 50s.

03:37And they said, okay.

03:39And what he came up with was a pilot called Love and the Happy Days.

03:44And that original pilot does feature three cast members who would go on to be in the regular

03:49show.

03:50Ron Howard, Marion Ross, and Anson Williams, all playing the characters that we know them

03:56for.

03:57I had a chance to do this episode called Love and the Happy Days.

04:01And it came at a time where I wasn't getting any work because I was in that sort of awkward

04:04period between 16 and 18.

04:06It was a cool part.

04:07And I thought I should do it.

04:08Do you think maybe there's something wrong with us?

04:11Yeah.

04:13He did a lot of playing in the set.

04:15Richard seems upset about something.

04:18Maybe you should go and talk to him.

04:20Soon as this is over.

04:23The plot of the original pilot revolves around the Cunninghams getting a television set.

04:30Today's a big day.

04:32We're going to be the first family on the block to get a television set.

04:35And neighbors and friends are trying to invite themselves to this unveiling of the television

04:41set.

04:42And Richie has a decision to make.

04:44My mom didn't like you climbing through there.

04:46Invite his good friend Patsy Weber or a girl that he's trying to impress.

04:52Tell her you got a television and you're in like Flynn.

04:54And Richie chooses the girl.

04:58Round one for a Madison swear guard.

05:00There's the fighters.

05:01For the middleweight championship.

05:02It was a beautiful pilot for a TV show.

05:05I then took it to the program board and the head of research was there.

05:11And he convinced the program board that the 50s wouldn't work.

05:15Now all I have to do is stand here all night.

05:17They couldn't sell it because period shows were frowned upon by and large by the networks.

05:24One of the things I think about Happy Days is that it wasn't of its time as opposed to

05:30a Norman Lear show like All in the Family.

05:32But they did air it in 1972 as an episode of its anthology series Love American Style on ABC.

05:41And then George Lucas would watch that failed pilot and it became the springboard for Ron Howard to appear in American Graffiti.

06:01Happy Days owed its existence to the popularity of American Graffiti.

06:05A hugely popular sleeper hit in the early 1970s.

06:11And then ABC, in looking at how successful American Graffiti was, got more interested in turning Happy Days into a series.

06:19And there was a new Happy Days pilot written by Gary Marshall along with Rob Reiner, who was his then brother-in-law, married to Penny Marshall.

06:29And Harold Gould, who played the father in the original pilot, was unavailable.

06:35And so they kind of seduced Tom Bosley.

06:40He was well known. He was the professional actor.

06:45So he was very reluctant to get on board.

06:49When an actor is waiting for the new TV season and he's hoping for a series, he's somewhat reluctant to take the first one that comes along.

07:01But they talked him into it and they added Aaron Moran as Joni.

07:07Aaron Moran was a sweet kid that you just fell in love with.

07:12Aaron Moran was perfect for that show.

07:18And then Don Most had originally auditioned to play Patsy.

07:23I was auditioning for Patsy.

07:26And then my agent called me a few days later, said that you didn't get the role of Patsy, but the producers, they really loved your screen test.

07:36They liked him so much that they decided to create a role for him and Ralph Malfe was born.

07:41Well, he's a guy that, he's into cars and he's kind of a wisecracking guy.

07:47You know, we had Richie and I just had a ball doing it, so.

07:51And they cast Gavin O'Herlihy as Chuck is the very mysterious older brother of Richie and Joni Cunningham.

07:58But there was still no Fonzie, Arthur the Fonz Fonzarelli.

08:04The character was envisioned to be a big, tall, tough Italian guy from the East Coast.

08:10But instead, this nice young Jewish man, this graduate of Yale drama school, Henry Winkler, very much unlike Fonzie, got the role.

08:23They were looking for a big Italian kid, you know, and they got a short German Jew.

08:27Tom Miller brought me in and had my eyebrows plucked.

08:33And they cut my hair and they combed it into a ducktail.

08:36They got me a t-shirt and a jacket and I auditioned in character.

08:41When he put that comb in his hand and slicked his hair back, he became this bigger than life character.

08:47But ABC was a little concerned about the look of the Arthur Fonzarelli character.

08:55With his leather jacket and pompadour and motorcycle, he looked like a hoodlum.

09:03I was the showrunner of Happy Days for the first two seasons.

09:06And the network had the idea that Fonzie would be perceived as a bad person.

09:13And so, to make him look less like a hoodlum, they dressed him a little bit more respectably.

09:20They gave him a windbreaker.

09:22Yeah, well, that was kind of dumb.

09:26The network wanted us to deliver one camera show, which means it's shot like a movie, not in front of an audience.

09:34So it was a different show than what it became when it became the most popular show on earth.

09:42There was a hope that the show might succeed.

09:46But nobody thought it would work.

09:49Not at a million years did anybody think it would stay on air.

09:59Happy Days premiered in 1974, two years after the original pilot for the show aired.

10:06A lot of them were about growing up in your first drink, your first bachelor party.

10:14Your first car, your first prom, your first tragic breakup.

10:21Good night, Richard Cunningham.

10:22But not so much about Fonzie.

10:25Fonzie started out as very much a supporting character.

10:28He was this cool but mysterious guy that Ritchie sort of knew.

10:37And the first episode they did, he doesn't speak for the first 22 minutes.

10:43Hey, Fonzie.

10:45Can I talk to you for a minute?

10:47Well, remember the other day I was telling you about me and Mary Lou Milligan?

10:51He speaks in one little scene at the end.

10:54The fact is, I play chess.

10:59You play with her chest?

11:01But we're starting to see, oh, maybe there's more to this guy who rides around on a motorcycle.

11:06Maybe there's something more to him.

11:07But the windbreaker kind of made him look like a dork.

11:10So, reluctantly, the network allowed Fonzie to wear the leather jacket.

11:17That's his superhero costume.

11:19And you can instantly see why this character at this time resonated with so many people

11:25and why that character still resonates today.

11:28In my opinion, the very first year of Happy Days was the best year.

11:34I thought it was fantastic.

11:37Oh, brother.

11:38The episode where Richie has to dress up as a girl with Patsy for the fraternity, it was so funny.

11:48That's an excellent one where Fonzie plucks Richie by the hand, pulls him onto the dance floor,

11:54going, hey, wallflower.

11:57Wallflower, let's dance.

11:59I could look at that scene and laugh every time.

12:03And then Osa and Fonzie starts blowing into Richie's ear.

12:08And then Richie finally can't take it.

12:14He says, it's me, Richie.

12:17See, this is all part of the demon's initiation.

12:20I knew that.

12:21And then Richie's walking around looking for Patsy and he looks over and Ralph is dancing with Patsy.

12:27It was a classic.

12:29That was a classic.

12:29Happy Days did very well in its first season.

12:36It came in 16th for ABC third place network.

12:40A blessing at that time.

12:42And we were picked up before the wrap party at the end of the first season for the next season.

12:49But Gary Marshall wanted to change the theme song.

12:52Well, originally, the theme song was Rock Around the Clock.

12:55And so Happy Days, the song, became the theme song for the entire sitcom, which is really what we remember now.

13:03Sunday, Monday, happy days.

13:06Tuesday, Wednesday, happy days.

13:08And it was a hit record.

13:09Happy days.

13:10But what really changed, especially as the series progresses, some of the more involving episodes actually happened to revolve around Fonzie.

13:24Guess Who's Coming to Christmas is one of the most classic Christmas episodes of not just Happy Days, but of any American television series.

13:32What does it look like, Marion?

13:34It's like you're being mugged by Santa Claus.

13:35Richie is the only one that can see that when Fonzie says he doesn't need to go share Christmas with any family, well, he's lying.

13:45He has no place.

13:46He has no one.

13:48And Richie is the only one that can perceive that.

13:51And then it's about Fonzie being able to accept the help from the Cunninghams because he's a proud person.

13:59Hey, God.

14:03Thanks.

14:05Henry made Fonzie come alive in such a powerful way that, well, you've got to do stories about that character.

14:18And Linda Pearl had a recurring role as Richie's girlfriend in a few episodes.

14:24Donnie Most was a dear friend.

14:26And he called and said, I'm doing this show called Happy Days.

14:30And there's a role that you might be right for.

14:32I introduced her to the casting director.

14:36And I said, you know, she'd be great on the show.

14:39So she got the part.

14:41And it was for Gloria.

14:43She was Ron Howard's girlfriend.

14:46Is this your new car?

14:48Yeah.

14:49This is it.

14:49Do you like it?

14:50Oh, I love it.

14:51And I remember Jerry Paris, who was the director, who was so wonderful.

14:58He had me chewing gum all the time.

15:00And when I would go to kiss Richie, I would have to take the gum out, kiss, and then put the gum back.

15:05Well, okay.

15:09And any time he even got close to getting a kiss.

15:12Do you want something, Richie?

15:14Something terrible would happen.

15:15And she played it brilliantly.

15:19No, Mom.

15:23Unfortunately, the second season of Happy Days, the ratings crashed.

15:27The nostalgia angle is really what sold the show at the beginning.

15:32But the novelty appeal of Happy Days started to wear off.

15:37And we were in danger of not getting picked up.

15:39So, Gary Marshall tried a last-ditch effort to save the show.

15:44He turned it into a three-camera show in front of an audience.

15:48Gary felt that that would give it the boost it needed.

15:51But I had never done a multi-camera show in front of the audience.

15:54I had no experience in that.

15:56We were pretty experienced in that format.

15:59So, we were supposed to help Gary transition the show from the single-camera format to the live audience format.

16:06So, we did that experimental episode at the end of season two in front of an audience.

16:16Tonight's Happy Days was filmed before a live audience.

16:20Everybody quiet!

16:21That was an episode called Fonzie's Getting Married.

16:24He met a librarian, so he thought, who was really a stripper.

16:28The one and only lone stripper!

16:33So, Fonzie had his heart broken.

16:35It was a great emotional ride, and it gave a new dimension to Fonzie's character.

16:49The audience told everybody that Fonzie was the, quote, breakout character.

16:57We could see how the character, Fonzie, was really catching on.

17:03He was very sexy and funny, and I think that's what people hooked into in his character.

17:11So, for the next season, it changed to a multi-camera in front of an audience, which was when Lowell took over the show.

17:21And when the big transition from it being a show about Richie to a show about Fonzie began.

17:28But when it became clear that Fonzie was the most popular aspect of the show, ABC wanted to change the name of the show to Fonzie's Happy Days.

17:39And they approached Ron Howard, who was still the nominal star of the show, and he said, I just can't do it.

17:49Henry's popularity had been growing massively.

17:59On the boys' first publicity tour, they discovered 25,000 people waiting for them to see Henry, not so much the other guys.

18:08And it was a little bit like we were a boy band.

18:13Henry was the lead singer.

18:16But it was that kind of in sync, sort of Beatlemania kind of thing.

18:20It was kind of wild.

18:22There was a point where you almost left the show, right?

18:24They did come to me and say, well, the network would kind of like to change the name of the show to Fonzie's Happy Days.

18:32And I said, well, I don't think I want to be in that show.

18:36The one producer who wasn't there was Gary Marshall.

18:40And he said, it's not going to happen then.

18:42And that was that.

18:44Gary, I think he just felt he wasn't going to disrespect Ron.

18:50One of the stipulations for renewing the show was that it be filmed in front of a live studio audience.

18:56This required the main sets, like the Cunningham's Living Room, to be totally redesigned.

19:02The other big thing that they did at ABC was having Fonzie move into the guest apartment that was above the Cunningham's garage.

19:11That was logical that I moved in with the Cunningham's and I lived over the garage.

19:16And, you know, then I could be closer to the action.

19:20Okay, I'll tell you what.

19:22I'll stay here for a week.

19:23And if I don't like it, I'll leave.

19:25And Chuck was written out.

19:28In season two, they tried recasting the role with an actor named Randolph Roberts.

19:35And it just didn't take.

19:36We started doing the show, but we didn't write Chuck into the first few episodes.

19:42And nobody said anything.

19:45Nobody called us on it.

19:47And from there on out, Chuck is never mentioned again.

19:52Poor Chuck.

19:54But that season of Happy Days was the most exciting work season of my life.

20:01It was exciting.

20:02It was fresh.

20:04And the audience discovered the show in a whole new way.

20:08Fearless Fonzarelli was a two-part episode in season three.

20:14And in it, Fonzie appeared on a TV show.

20:17And he was to break the record by jumping over 14 garbage cans with his motorcycle.

20:31And he smashed into a chicken stand.

20:34Am I dead?

20:35But my personal favorite episode is called A Date with Fonzie.

20:42It's about Fonzie and Richie going on a double date with a couple of working class girls named Laverne Shirley.

20:52And they would become played by Gary Marshall's sister, Penny,

20:56and Ron Howard's castmate from American Graffiti, Cindy Williams.

21:01Hey, Fonzie!

21:03Hey, DeFazio!

21:04They're here!

21:05I remember having a lot of fun in that show because they were so great.

21:09I just remembered laughing a lot.

21:11So, Cheryl, what do you think of this kid?

21:13You've been with worse.

21:14Oh, he's nice.

21:15And a tie, too.

21:17And a hanky.

21:18Is that for showing or for blowing?

21:24Well, it's been quite an evening.

21:25What do you say we go to Richie's house?

21:26Richie's seduction could not have gone worse with Shirley Feeney.

21:31So, she curled up her chubby little hand and built off.

21:35And they start effectively making out on the floor.

21:39Oh, Richie, I'm so sorry.

21:41Oh, dear.

21:42Oh, here, let me kiss a poo-poo.

21:46Richie, we're home.

21:47And his mother, father, and sister come in.

21:51Oh, no, let me hear something going on.

21:53And the audience went crazy.

21:55Oh, I missed it!

21:57And 114 days after A Date with Fonzie filmed, Laverne and Shirley debuted as the number one show in television.

22:06And eventually, Happy Days became the number one series in television.

22:12And the show became an international sensation.

22:16They all lost it for Fonzie.

22:18It's amazing to me that the show and the character was so important to so many people.

22:25One of the things that made Happy Days truly unique as an international powerhouse was they marketed it to the Hilt.

22:33There are over 2,000 licensed products from Happy Days.

22:38When I was going into first grade, I think everyone had that Happy Days lunchbox.

22:42It's almost unheard of, but it just showed how the show kept growing in popularity.

22:50And then, as the show matured, they added new characters that gave a new spark and purpose to the series.

22:58There's Pat Morita, who would find fame doing the Karate Kid.

23:02You write this stuff?

23:04Huh?

23:04I always thought the kids did it.

23:06Oh, the kids not funny.

23:08I write the good stuff.

23:09And Al Molinaro.

23:10You know, my first date with Rosa Coletti was a picnic.

23:15Yeah!

23:19And Scott Baio came on as Chachi.

23:21I had done a movie called Bugsy Malone.

23:24And when the film was done, they screened it for all the executives of Paramount Studios.

23:29And one of the people in that room was Gary Marshall.

23:31And Gary said he looks like somebody that girls might like.

23:34So they brought me on to attract girls to the show.

23:39Well, I guess it worked.

23:42And he, of course, becomes a huge heartthrob.

23:44Now you all know my cousin Chachi.

23:47There's your little boyfriend.

23:48How you doing, blue eyes?

23:50What do you sound today, shrimp?

23:52Seeing those scenes with Aaron, they were always a kick.

23:55It was always so much fun to watch the two of them together.

23:57And Richie would meet a woman who would eventually become his wife in the series.

24:11Linda Goodfriend.

24:12I got cast as Lori Beth.

24:14The doors are locked.

24:15She's stuck in here until five tomorrow.

24:18Oh, nuts.

24:19I think they wanted to give Ron more of a life outside of just his family now that he was growing up.

24:26I loved working with Ron.

24:27He called me Sweet Knees.

24:29You love it when I call you Sweet Knees.

24:31And that became a catchphrase for the rest of the series.

24:35There were so many catchphrases on the show.

24:37I created Sit On It.

24:39Sit On It definitely became part of the vernacular in my elementary school.

24:44Sit on it, Mal.

24:46Sit on it, Potts.

24:47Sit on it, Ponzi.

24:48Hey!

24:49Once they took a bite of that Sit On It apple, they were trying every kind of catchphrase they could think of.

24:55Correct-a-maneu.

24:56You're stupid, bucko.

24:58Eat.

24:58Wah, wah, wah.

24:59Wah, wah, wah.

25:00I have no idea where it came from.

25:02Some of those originated from the actor.

25:06So I came up with, I still got it.

25:09I still got it.

25:10That became a big catchphrase.

25:13I still got it.

25:15But as the show progressed, one of the common complaints is that the writing gradually became more cartoonish.

25:25Ponzi got more and more powerful.

25:28The episode where it really started was when Richie, Pottsy, and Ralph go to a cabin.

25:34Excuse us?

25:36And they meet some girls.

25:38We'll take it.

25:39And it ends with one of the classic moments in Happy Days history where Fonzi, sleeping outside, can't get to sleep because the owls, the birds, the squirrels, everybody's making noise.

25:53And then Fonzi, his eyes kind of open up slowly, he's looking around, and he sits up, and then he goes.

26:04Quiet!

26:04And the forest goes quiet.

26:05And the forest goes quiet.

26:07A great step in his expanding powers.

26:12Let's see Tarzan do that.

26:15And because he seems to have, especially as the series progresses, more and more magic powers, he can romance women by snapping his finger.

26:24He could pop a jukebox in a certain way that would bring it to life.

26:31He seems to be able to do anything.

26:35And then it just got, you know, it just started getting crazy.

26:42Like, all of a sudden, now Fonzi's like Superman.

26:44And, of course, the most infamous example of that is a three-parter from the beginning of season five called Hollywood, leading to the catchphrase that will not die.

27:03The fact that we're still talking about jumping the shark 45 years later is unbelievable to me.

27:10The catchphrase, jumping the shark, is the point at which something in popular culture is less good than it used to be.

27:17This is the breaking point where the show starts to go downhill.

27:21Happy Days did a three-parter called Hollywood's Parts 1, 2, and 3.

27:25Pozzarelli.

27:26Good.

27:27Now, here's the script for your screen test now.

27:28In which the Cunninghams and Fonzie travel out to Hollywood so that Fonzie can do a screen test to be in the movie.

27:36I ended up writing that episode.

27:38And all of us tease Fred Fox mercilessly about his involvement with it.

27:45So they go out to Hollywood for a screen test for Fonzie, and the family goes with them.

27:51And there was this very cocky California kid on the beach.

27:55He and Fonzie are at odds.

27:57They don't like one another at all.

27:59You up for a real challenge?

28:01Barnes never ignores a challenge.

28:03We both make one jump.

28:06Well, let's make it something big.

28:08Oh, it's big, all right.

28:09And the California kid taunts him into performing a risky stunt.

28:15Water skiing over a shark.

28:18Henry was really a pretty good water skier.

28:24And now jumping the shark has become its own thing.

28:28It's a great metaphor.

28:30Supposedly, that's when the show started going downhill.

28:32We were number one for like six years after that.

28:35So nobody else thought we jumped the shark.

28:38Talk about jumping the shark.

28:40There was an episode where an alien comes and meets Richie.

28:43What?

28:44Up in the sky.

28:45It was fantastic.

28:46It's a flying saucer.

28:47Come on, you gotta see it.

28:49When we read that script, we were like, we would think, this is like the worst script that we've had.

28:56This is like, what the hell is going on here?

28:59Fonz, I just saw a flying saucer.

29:01Hey, what are you, Musso?

29:02But that episode became the launch pad for Robin Williams' career playing Mork from Ork.

29:12Wait a minute, who are you?

29:13I am Mork from Ork.

29:15I didn't know who he was.

29:21And went to the set and I saw Robin Williams.

29:24And you went, oh man, what is going on here?

29:28You know, this is remarkable.

29:31It's Robin Williams.

29:33He made it a lot, hell of a lot better than what it was.

29:37He was just coming up with all the stuff that wasn't in the script, improvising, and it started becoming really funny.

29:43Look, would you mind if I just ask you a few questions?

29:45Find away, buckle.

29:48That's great.

29:48Okay, would you just mind having a seat?

29:50Seat?

29:50Yes.

29:50How's it?

29:51Come on.

29:51How's it?

29:53How's it?

29:54How's it?

29:55How's it?

29:56The episode is so popular that it spins off onto its own show, Mork

30:00and Mindy, which made it star of Robin Williams.

30:04I get choked up thinking about Robin, who was an absolute genius and a really lovely human being.

30:13But the cast was expressing some level of dissatisfaction with the show.

30:21At a certain point, the show just became, and I'm sorry, the show became silly.

30:26It started getting a little too, you know, I thought far-fetched, ridiculous.

30:30Whatever you want to call it.

30:32And I think that hurt the show.

30:34Not only do you get Westward Ho, which is a three-part Western episode.

30:40Help!

30:40With Joni having to be rescued from a runaway stagecoach and Fonzie riding a bull.

30:48What's this rope for?

30:49You hold on to that!

30:50I knew that, I knew that.

30:51You get episodes like The Claw Meets the Fonz, in which gangsters are moving in on Arnold's territory.

30:59One of whom has a mechanical claw hand, like a James Bond villain.

31:05It was weird.

31:10It was, it was dumb.

31:12So Ronnie Howard came out to my house and he felt like he had lost the show that he had had.

31:18It was pushing too hard.

31:22He understood why it was happening, but he just felt bad that it was.

31:27And Donnie always felt that it was also restricting what he could do.

31:31And I think that's why when both his and Ron Howard's initial contract was up, Ron and Don chose to leave the show.

31:39At the end of season seven, Ron Howard and Don Most decided not to go on with the show.

31:56We kind of knew that Ron Howard was going to leave.

31:58Ron always wanted to direct.

32:00My contract was up and I wanted to become a director and I, and I, it was very hard.

32:03How did that work out?

32:05You're still working on it.

32:06You're still working on it.

32:07You might make it.

32:08Don leaving the show was a bit of a shock.

32:14I'd done seven seasons and I felt like it was changing and it wasn't to me growing anymore.

32:20It was, so I wasn't real happy.

32:23And so it is explained that Richie and Ralph joined the army and they are stationed in Greenland.

32:34And we only get occasional updates about what they are doing up in Greenland.

32:39I want you to perk up your ears because you're going to have an audio party here.

32:44Richie wrote me a letter.

32:45I wasn't worried about the show failing after Don and, and, uh, and Ron left at all.

32:50Because at that point I was about as big as you could get on television.

32:54I don't want to say I was carrying the show, but Henry and I were, were the show.

32:58Henry and I and Aaron.

32:59That was the show.

33:01Happy Days got very lucky because they brought in a young man to play Marion's nephew, Roger.

33:10He was played by Ted McGinley, who fit in really well.

33:16It's such a thing.

33:17It's been so long.

33:18Boy, how you've grown.

33:19But not even he is the greatest addition to the show.

33:24That title goes to Kathy Silver's daughter of legendary comedian Phil Silver's,

33:29who plays Jenny Piccolo, the boy crazy, wild acting friend of Joni Cunningham.

33:36I'll be right outside the door if you want to get married or anything.

33:39And I'm talking anything.

33:42And then we looked at Fonzie's life and said that he's never had a serious relationship.

33:47And so, when they're looking for a regular girlfriend for Fonzie, they think, we need a Linda Pearl type.

33:56My agent called and said they're looking for a Linda Pearl type.

34:01So, we called and said, well, can Linda audition for a Linda Pearl type?

34:06So, it was so much fun to come back to that show because it allowed me to come back in as a different character, entirely different character.

34:16Look, I don't know who you are or why you are following me, but if you don't stop, I will have the owner throw you out.

34:21It's going to be a little difficult to do because I am the owner.

34:24And we really did get to see a different part of Fonzie.

34:29Call me Fonzie.

34:30Fonzie?

34:31Yeah.

34:32Let go of my hand.

34:34There is an episode guest starring a young man named Mr. Tom Hanks called A Little Case of Revenge.

34:45He has hated the Fonz for decades, and it all comes to a head with a spectacular martial arts battle.

34:52Are you ready to face oblivion?

34:54Between Henry Winkler.

34:56I'm ready for you and him.

34:58And Tom Hanks at Arnold's.

35:01Tom Hanks was fantastic.

35:04Gary Marshall was very good at finding people that became very popular.

35:10And Gary Marshall wanted to continue to capitalize on that.

35:14So Aaron Moran and Scott Baio were moved over to their own show, Joanie Loves Chachi.

35:24We went on to do Joanie Loves Chachi, which was a mistake because she and I didn't like each other.

35:30We started dating, and I don't recommend anybody to ever do that on a TV show.

35:37Ever.

35:39Because it always ends up badly.

35:43And it did.

35:46And the premise was no good.

35:49It just wasn't a good idea.

35:51And it just fizzled.

35:52So Joanie and Chachi did not get picked up, and they returned to the show.

35:58And we were fortunate that Ron Howard and Don Most wanted to come home for a visit.

36:04Joanie?

36:05Wow!

36:07Wow!

36:08Give me a break.

36:09I just got out of the army.

36:11It had been four years since we had done the show.

36:14And it was really great coming back and reuniting with everybody.

36:18And it came back for probably one of the most impactful shows we ever did.

36:25The scene where Richie and Fonz, they say goodbye to one another, just blows me away.

36:30Tears!

36:31Tears!

36:33I just want to tell you that I love you.

36:38Very much.

36:40But unfortunately, the ratings were down.

36:43Even the A-team with Mr. T became the biggest thing on TV since Fonzie.

36:51The powers that be certainly thought that this was going to be the end.

37:04Happy Days was in definite peril at the end of its 11th season.

37:07The ratings were down, and Gary Marshall was fearful that the show would be cancelled.

37:14And unfortunately, Happy Days is cancelled in the summer of 1984.

37:21And there were some people on the show who felt that it was kind of time.

37:26That this engine that had brought so much to so many for so long had kind of run out of gas.

37:33But some of the cast was absolutely stricken that the show was not going to continue.

37:42But there was nothing ultimately really to be sad about, because what a ride.

37:48Very few shows actually need to do a final episode.

37:52But I thought the audience was owed that.

37:55I thought it was really the kind of thing a show that meant that much to that many people for that long needed to do.

38:03Happy Days, the final two-parter, was titled Passages, which ends with Joni and Chachi getting married.

38:09We are gathered here to join together.

38:12Joni, Louise Cunningham, and Charles.

38:16Chachi, Chachi, Chachi.

38:18We wanted to do something really special, and we were fortunate to have Ron back.

38:25And Passages, our hour-long finale.

38:28At the end, when Tom Bosley breaks the fourth wall, talks to the audience and thanks everyone, we kind of lost it.

38:35So thank you all for being part of our family.

38:40To Happy Days.

38:42I don't think anybody up until that moment realized what was happening.

38:45I watched the final episode at home, just sitting there with my wife, and the end credits ended, and the instant it went to black, I broke out in tears, the likes of which I had never shed.

38:59It was very hard, very tough to say goodbye.

39:03It had been my life for eight years.

39:06Working on the show was the most exciting time of my life still to this day.

39:12It was a tremendous experience.

39:13That cast was probably the single best cast overall I've ever worked with.

39:20It was just an amazing, amazing time.

39:24For me, it was sad, because I felt like that was a big chunk of my life.

39:30It was tough, but it was great, because I had another show to go to.

39:33I got offered Charles in charge right in the last season of Happy Days.

39:37I was like, okay, see ya.

39:40I got this gig to go to.

39:42I had mixed feelings because I had such an unbelievably wonderful experience doing the show.

39:48I wouldn't have traded it for anything.

39:51I mean, working with these people behind the scenes and in front of the camera, working with Jerry Paris and Gary Marshall and Bill Bickley and Lowell Gans and Brian and Freddie.

40:03You know, wonderful, wonderful experiences.

40:05And people are still watching it.

40:09People are talking about it.

40:10We get references to Happy Days turning up in movies and television shows all the time.

40:16We're all going to be like three little Fonzies here.

40:19And what's Fonzie like?

40:21Come on, Yolanda, what's Fonzie like?

40:23It's cool.

40:24What?

40:24Cool.

40:25Correctamundo.

40:27There's so many references in shows like The Simpsons.

40:32It'll be great to see the old gang again.

40:35Hudson, Ralph Mouth, the Fonz.

40:38Family Guy.

40:40Please rise.

40:42Now sit on it.

40:43And if you look at television and film history, you'll see how it's dominated by the people who worked on and acted in and directed Happy Days.

40:57You look at the 200 films and television shows that Ron Howard has produced and directed.

41:04You look at Henry Winkler's career and Anson's directed over 150 episodes of television.

41:12We recently had a reunion.

41:15The four guys back together again for the first time.

41:18The Happy Days Core Four, Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Anson Williams, and Donnie Most came together for Steel City Con in Pittsburgh over the weekend.

41:27My gosh, it was a little surreal.

41:29But at the same time, it was like we had just gone back in time and all those years hadn't passed.

41:35And I was so surprised at so many people coming up to me, getting emotional and telling, you have no idea how much that, what that show meant to me.

41:44It was incredibly rewarding, fulfilling to hear people say that, and so surprising, you know, really surprising.

41:51It was quite amazing.

41:53It just shows you the power of that show.

41:58It's powerful.

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