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TV We Love - Season 1 Episode 5 -
Happy Days
Happy Days
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00:01The golden age of television.
00:04I Love Lucy didn't just change American television,
00:06it invented American television.
00:08Back when one screen brought everyone together.
00:11Watching television was a family event.
00:14The shows that shaped us.
00:16The Brady Bunch was part of the American soul.
00:19It's timeless.
00:21The familiar faces.
00:23Ralph Cramden was loved by the honeymooners.
00:27He was a presence.
00:28The unforgettable moments.
00:30Dynasty captured the essence of what the 1980s were about in America.
00:34These are their stories.
00:35Cheers is the pinnacle of how great the sitcom can be.
00:38This is TV We Love.
00:46It's 1974.
00:481974 was a rather fraught time in America's history.
00:54The Vietnam War was still raging.
00:57America is in the grips of the oil crisis.
01:00And that was eventually the year that Richard Nixon would resign the presidency due to the Watergate scandal.
01:07I have never been a quitter.
01:10But a new television series provides some welcome relief.
01:14It was set in a more innocent time.
01:24Let's take a step back and go back to cruising and poodle skirts, fancy hot rods, the drive-in.
01:30Hey!
01:32Happy Days was really one of the masterpieces of 70s TV.
01:37You have all these great, hilarious characters.
01:40Okay, bucko.
01:41I still got it.
01:42I still got it.
01:43Sit on it now.
01:44There were so many catchphrases on the show.
01:47Wah, wah, wah.
01:48The show was fantastically successful.
01:50And they all lost it for Fonzie.
01:53Director Mundo.
01:54He became this bigger-than-life character.
01:57It's amazing to me that the show and the character was so important to so many people.
02:05Here we go, Fonz!
02:06I'm heading for the ramp!
02:07I'm heading for the ramp!
02:08But the show was in danger of being cancelled from the day it went on the air.
02:12The song goes in my happy days.
02:16Doesn't Richard look nice tonight?
02:19He's got stinky stuff on his hair.
02:21Is that what that smell is?
02:23I thought the milk was sour.
02:26The origins of happy days begin circa 1971 with two important TV executives.
02:35Tom Miller and Michael Eisner.
02:39They are snowed in at the Newark airport in Newark, New Jersey.
02:43So I said, Tom, this is ridiculous.
02:45We're wasting our time here.
02:46Let's write a show.
02:48They started talking about the kinds of shows that ABC did not make anymore.
02:53And it was intended to be a throwback.
02:56To be a return to the kind of series that dominated television in the 1950s.
03:04The family situation comedy.
03:07And to make this show a reality, they handed it off to a producer named Gary Marshall.
03:13Gary is just an incredible, talented gentleman.
03:17We had a big hit in our couple.
03:19And Tom Miller came along and said,
03:21You're very good.
03:22I'm a producer.
03:23We'll be great.
03:24And so he and Michael Eisner wanted to do this show of nostalgia.
03:30I said, let's try the 50s.
03:32And they said, okay.
03:34And what he came up with was a pilot called Love and the Happy Days.
03:40And that original pilot does feature three cast members who would go on to be in the regular show.
03:45Ron Howard, Marion Ross, and Anson Williams all playing the characters that we know them for.
03:52I had a chance to do this episode called Love and the Happy Days.
03:56And it came at a time where I wasn't getting any work.
03:58Because I was in that sort of awkward period between 16 and 18.
04:01It was a cool part.
04:02And I thought I should do it.
04:03Do you think maybe there's something wrong with us?
04:06Yeah.
04:07He did a lot of playing on the set.
04:10Richard seems upset about something.
04:12Maybe you should go and talk to him.
04:14As soon as this is over.
04:16The plot of the original pilot revolves around the Cunninghams getting a television set.
04:25Today's a big day.
04:27We are going to be the first family on the block to get a television set.
04:31And neighbors and friends are trying to invite themselves to this unveiling of the television set.
04:37And Richie has a decision to make.
04:39My mom didn't like you climbing through there.
04:41Invite his good friend Patsy Webber.
04:43Or a girl that he's trying to impress.
04:46Tell her you got a television and you're in like Flynn.
04:49And Richie chooses the girl.
04:53Round one from Madison Square Garden.
04:55There's the fighters.
04:56For the middleweight championship.
04:57It was a beautiful pilot for a TV show.
05:00I then took her to the program board.
05:03And the head of research was there.
05:06And he convinced the program board that the 50s wouldn't work.
05:10Now all I have to do is stand here all night.
05:12They couldn't sell it because period shows were frowned upon by and large by the networks.
05:19One of the things I think about Happy Days is that it wasn't of its time as opposed to a Norman Lear show like All in the Family.
05:27But they did air it in 1972 as an episode of its anthology series Love American Style on ABC.
05:36And then George Lucas would watch that failed pilot.
05:49And it became the springboard for Ron Howard to appear in American Graffiti.
05:55Happy Days owed its existence to the popularity of American Graffiti.
06:00A hugely popular sleeper hit in the early 1970s.
06:04And then ABC, in looking at how successful American Graffiti was, got more interested in turning Happy Days into a series.
06:14And 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.
06:23And Harold Gould, who played the father in the original pilot, was unavailable.
06:29And this is not going to work.
06:31And so they kind of seduced Tom Bosley.
06:36He was well known. He was the professional actor.
06:41So he was very reluctant to get on board.
06:45When 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.
06:56But they talked him into it, and they added Aaron Moran as Joanie.
07:02Aaron Moran was a sweet kid that you just fell in love with.
07:09Aaron was perfect for that show.
07:13And then Don Most had originally auditioned to play Patsy.
07:18I was auditioning for Patsy.
07:21And 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.
07:31They liked him so much that they decided to create a role for him, and Ralph Malfe was born.
07:36He's a guy that, he's into cars, and he's kind of a wisecracking guy.
07:41You know, we had Richie, and I just had a ball doing it, so...
07:46And they cast Gavin O'Herlihy as Chuck is the very mysterious older brother of Richie and Joanie Cunningham.
07:53But there was still no Fonzie, Arthur the Fonz Fonzarelli.
07:59The character was envisioned to be a big, tall, tough Italian guy from the East Coast.
08:05But instead, this nice young Jewish man, this graduate of Yale Drama School, Henry Winkler, very much unlike Fonzie, got the role.
08:17They were looking for a big Italian kid, you know, and they got a short German Jew.
08:23Tom Miller brought me in and had my eyebrows plucked.
08:27And they cut my hair and they combed it into a ducktail.
08:31They got me a T-shirt and a jacket, and I auditioned in character.
08:35When he put that comb in his hand and slicked his hair back, he became this bigger-than-life character.
08:43But ABC was a little concerned about the look of the Arthur Fonzarelli character.
08:50With his leather jacket and pompadour and motorcycle, he looked like a hoodlum.
08:57I was the showrunner of Happy Days for the first two seasons.
09:01And the network had the idea that Fonzie would be perceived as a bad person.
09:08And so, to make him look less like a hoodlum, they dressed him a little bit more respectably.
09:15They gave him a windbreaker.
09:17Yeah, well, that was kind of dumb.
09:19The network wanted us to deliver one-camera show, which means it's shot like a movie, not in front of an audience.
09:29So, it was a different show than what it became when it became the most popular show on Earth.
09:37There was a hope that the show might succeed.
09:41But nobody thought it would work.
09:44Not at a million years did anybody think it would stay on the air.
09:49Happy Days premiered in 1974, two years after the original pilot for the show aired.
10:02Buttons up!
10:03A lot of them were about growing up and your first drink, your first bachelor party.
10:10Your first car, your first prom, your first tragic breakup.
10:16Good night, Richard Cunningham.
10:18But not so much about Fonzie.
10:20Fonzie started out as very much a supporting character.
10:24He was this cool but mysterious guy that Richie sort of knew.
10:32And the first episode they did, he doesn't speak for the first 22 minutes.
10:38Hey, Fonzie. Can I talk to you for a minute?
10:41Well, remember the other day I was telling you about me and Mary Lou Milligan?
10:47He speaks in one little scene at the end.
10:49The fact is, I play chess.
10:54You play with her chest?
10:56But we're standing to see, oh, maybe there's more to this guy who rides around on a motorcycle.
11:01Maybe there's something more to him.
11:03But the windbreaker kind of made him look like a dork.
11:06So, reluctantly, the network allowed Fonzie to wear the leather jacket.
11:12That's his superhero costume.
11:14And you can instantly see why this character at this time resonated with so many people
11:20and why that character still resonates today.
11:23In my opinion, the very first year of Happy Days was the best year.
11:29I thought it was fantastic.
11:32My brother.
11:34The episode where Richie has to dress up as a girl with Patsy for the fraternity.
11:41It was so funny.
11:43That's an excellent one where Fonzie plucks Richie by the hand,
11:48pulls him onto the dance floor and goes, hey, wallflower.
11:51Wallflower, let's dance.
11:54I could look at that scene and laugh every time.
11:58And then all of a sudden, Fonzie starts blowing into Richie's ear.
12:06And then Richie finally can't take it.
12:09He says, it's me, Richie.
12:11See, this is all part of the demon's initiation.
12:14I knew that.
12:16And then Richie's walking around looking for Patsy and he looks over
12:20and Ralph is dancing with Patsy.
12:23It was a classic.
12:24That was a classic.
12:29Happy Days did very well in its first season.
12:31It came in 16th for ABC Third Place Network.
12:35A blessing at that time.
12:37And we were picked up before the wrap party at the end of the first season for the next season.
12:44But Gary Marshall wanted to change the theme song.
12:47Well, originally the theme song was Rock Around the Clock.
12:50And so Happy Days, the song, became the theme song for the entire sitcom.
12:56Which is really what we remember now.
12:58Sunday, Monday, happy days.
13:00Tuesday, Wednesday, happy days.
13:03And it was a hit record.
13:05Happy days.
13:06The weekend comes.
13:07My cycle hums.
13:08Ready to race for you.
13:10But what really changed, especially as the series progresses, some of the more involving episodes actually happen to revolve around Fonzie.
13:19Guess Who's Coming to Christmas is one of the most classic Christmas episodes of not just Happy Days, but of any American television series.
13:27What does it look like, Marian?
13:28It's like you're being mugged by Santa Claus.
13:30Oh.
13:31Richie 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.
13:40He has no place.
13:41He has no one.
13:42And Richie is the only one that can perceive that.
13:46And then it's about Fonzie being able to accept the help from the Cunninghams because he's a proud person.
13:54Hey, God.
13:55Thanks.
14:02Henry made Fonzie come alive in such a powerful way that, well, you've got to do stories about that character.
14:14And Linda Pearl had a recurring role as Richie's girlfriend in a few episodes.
14:19Donnie Most was a dear friend and he called and said, I'm doing this show called Happy Days and there's a role that you might be right for.
14:28I introduced her to the casting director and I said, you know, she'd be great on the show. So she got the part.
14:36And it was for Gloria. She was Ron Howard's girlfriend.
14:40Is this your new car?
14:43Yeah, this is it. Do you like it?
14:45Oh, I love it.
14:46And I remember Jerry Paris, who was the director, who was so wonderful. He had me chewing gum all the time. And when I would go to kiss Richie, I would have to take the gum out, kiss and then put the gum back.
14:59Well, okay.
15:00And any time he even got close to getting a kiss.
15:06Do you want something, Richard?
15:08Something terrible would happen.
15:09And she played it brilliantly.
15:12No, Mom.
15:14Unfortunately, the second season of Happy Days, the ratings crashed.
15:23The nostalgia angle is really what sold the show at the beginning. But the novelty appeal of Happy Days started to wear off.
15:32And we were in danger of not getting picked up.
15:35So Gary Marshall tried a last ditch effort to save the show. He turned it into a three camera show in front of an audience.
15:43Gary felt that that would give it the boost it needed. But I had never done a multi-camera show in front of an audience. I had no experience in that.
15:51We were pretty experienced in that format. So we were supposed to help Gary transition the show from the single camera format to the live audience format.
16:03So we did that experimental episode at the end of season two in front of an audience.
16:09Tonight's Happy Days was filmed before a live audience.
16:14Everybody quiet!
16:16That was an episode called Fonzie's Getting Married.
16:19He met a librarian, so he thought, who was really a stripper.
16:23The one and only lone stripper!
16:27So Fonzie had his heart broken.
16:35It was a great emotional ride and it gave a new dimension to Fonzie's character.
16:41The audience told everybody that Fonzie was the, quote, breakout character.
16:53We could see how the character Fonzie was really catching on.
16:58He was very sexy and funny. And I think that's what people hooked into in his character.
17:07So for the next season, it changed to a multi-camera in front of an audience, which was when Lowell took over the show.
17:15And when the big transition from it being a show about Richie to a show about Fonzie began.
17:23But 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.
17:35And they approached Ron Howard, who was still the nominal star of the show.
17:41And he said, I just can't do it.
17:52Henry's popularity had been growing massively.
17:55On the boys' first publicity tour, they discovered 25,000 people waiting for them to see Henry, not so much the other guys.
18:04And it was a little bit like we were a boy band.
18:08Henry was the lead singer.
18:11But it was that kind of NSYNC, sort of Edelmania kind of thing.
18:15It was kind of wild.
18:17There was a point where you almost left the show, right?
18:19They 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.
18:27And I said, well, I don't think I want to be in that show.
18:32The one producer who wasn't there was Gary Marshall.
18:35And he said, it's not going to happen then.
18:38And that was that.
18:40Gary, I think he just felt he wasn't going to disrespect Ron.
18:45One of the stipulations for renewing the show was that it be filmed in front of a live studio audience.
18:51This required the main sets, like the Cunningham's living room, to be totally redesigned.
18:58The other big thing that they did at ABC was having Fonzie move into the guest apartment that was above the Cunningham's garage.
19:06That was logical that I moved in with the Cunninghams and I lived over the garage and, you know, then I could be closer to the action.
19:15Okay, I'll tell you what. I'll stay here for a week. And if I don't like it, I'll leave.
19:20I'll leave.
19:22And Chuck was written out.
19:24In season two, they tried recasting the role with an actor named Randolph Roberts, and it just didn't take.
19:32We started doing the show, but we didn't write Chuck into the first few episodes.
19:37And nobody said anything.
19:41Nobody called us on it.
19:43And from there on out, Chuck is never mentioned again.
19:47Poor Chuck.
19:49But that season of Happy Days was the most exciting work season of my life.
19:56It was exciting. It was fresh.
19:59And the audience discovered the show in a whole new way.
20:04Fearless Fonzarelli was a two-part episode in season three.
20:08And in it, Fonzie appeared on a TV show, and he was to break the record by jumping over 14 garbage cans with his motorcycle.
20:27And he smashed into a chicken stand.
20:30Am I dead?
20:31But my personal favorite episode is called A Date with Fonzie.
20:37It's about Fonzie and Richie going on a double date with a couple of working-class girls named Laverne and Shirley.
20:47And they would become played by Gary Marshall's sister, Penny, and Ron Howard's castmate from American Graffiti, Cindy Williams.
20:55Cindy Williams.
20:57Hey, Fonzie!
20:59Hey, the Fonzie-o! They're here!
21:01I remember having a lot of fun in that show because they were so great.
21:05I just remembered laughing a lot.
21:07So, Cheryl, what do you think of this kid? You been with worse?
21:10Oh, he's nice. And a tie, too.
21:12And a hanky. Is that for showing or for blowing?
21:19Well, it's been quite an evening. What do you say we go to Richie's house?
21:21Richie's seduction could not have gone worse with Shirley Feeney.
21:26So she curled up her chubby little hand and...
21:29And they start effectively making out on the floor.
21:35Oh, Richie, I'm so sorry. Oh, dear. Oh, here, let me kiss a poo-poo.
21:42Richie, we're home!
21:44And his mother, father, and sister come in.
21:46Oh, no, nothing. There's nothing going on.
21:48And the audience went crazy.
21:51I missed it!
21:52And 114 days after A Date with Fonzie filmed,
21:57Laverne and Shirley debuted as the number one show in television.
22:01And eventually, Happy Days became the number one series in television.
22:07And the show became an international sensation.
22:11They all lost it for Fonzie.
22:13It's amazing to me that the show and the character was so important to so many people.
22:21One of the things that made Happy Days truly unique as an international powerhouse was they marketed it to the Hilt.
22:29There are over 2,000 licensed products from Happy Days.
22:32When I was going to first grade, I think everyone had that Happy Days lunchbox.
22:37It's almost unheard of, but it just showed how the show kept growing in popularity.
22:45And then, as the show matured, they added new characters that gave a new spark and purpose to the series.
22:52There's Pat Morita, who would find fame during the Karate Kid.
22:57You write this stuff?
22:59I always thought the kids did it.
23:01Oh, the kids not funny. I write the good stuff.
23:04And Al Molinero.
23:05You know, my first date with Rosa Coletti was a picnic.
23:14And Scott Baio came on as Chachi.
23:17I had done a movie called Bugsy Malone.
23:19And when the film was done, they screened it for all the executives of Paramount Studios.
23:24And one of the people in that room was Gary Marshall.
23:27And Gary said he looks like somebody that girls might like.
23:30So they brought me on to attract girls to the show.
23:33Well, I guess it worked.
23:37And he, of course, becomes a huge heartthrob.
23:40Now you all know my cousin Chachi.
23:42There's your little boyfriend.
23:43How you doing, blue eyes?
23:45What are you selling today, shrimp?
23:47Seeing those scenes with Erin, they were always a kick.
23:50It was always so much fun to watch the two of them together.
23:52And Richie would meet a woman who would eventually become his wife in the series.
24:06Linda Goodfriend.
24:08I got cast as Lori Beth.
24:10The doors are locked. She's stuck in here until five tomorrow.
24:13Oh, nuts.
24:15I think they wanted to give Ron more of a life outside of just his family now that he was growing up.
24:21I loved working with Ron. He called me sweet knees.
24:24You love it when I call you sweet knees.
24:25And that became a catchphrase for the rest of the series.
24:30There were so many catchphrases on the show.
24:33I created sit on it.
24:35Sit on it definitely became part of the vernacular in my elementary school.
24:39Sit on it, Mal.
24:41Sit on it, Potts.
24:43Sit on it, Fonzie. Hey!
24:44Once they took a bite of that sit on it, Apple, they were trying every kind of catchphrase they could think of.
24:50Correctamundo.
24:52You're stupid, bucko.
24:54Wah, wah, wah.
24:56Wah, wah, wah. I have no idea where it came from.
24:58Some of those originated from the actor, so I came up with, I still got it.
25:04I still got it.
25:06That became a big catchphrase.
25:09I still got it.
25:10But as the show progressed, one of the common complaints is that the writing gradually became more cartoonish.
25:21Fonzie got more and more powerful.
25:23The episode where it really started was when Richie, Pottsie, and Ralph go to a cabin.
25:30Excuse us?
25:32And they meet some girls.
25:34And it ends with one of the classic moments in Happy Days history.
25:40Where Fonzie, sleeping outside, can't get to sleep because the owls, the birds, the squirrels, everybody's making noise.
25:51And then Fonzie, his eyes kind of open up slowly, he's looking around, and he sits up, and then he goes.
25:58Do it!
25:59Do it!
26:01And the forest goes quiet.
26:02A great step in his expanding powers.
26:08Let's see Tarzan do that.
26:11And because he seems to have, especially as the series progresses, more and more magic powers, he can romance women by snapping his finger.
26:20He could pop a jukebox in a certain way that would bring it to life.
26:28He seems to be able to do anything.
26:30And then it just got, you know, it just started getting crazy.
26:37Like, all of a sudden, now Fonzie's like Superman.
26:40And 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.
26:49The fact that we're still talking about jumping the shark 45 years later is unbelievable to me.
27:05The catchphrase, jumping the shark, is the point at which something in popular culture is less good than it used to be.
27:12This is the breaking point where the show starts to go downhill.
27:16Happy Days did a three-parter called Hollywood's Parts 1, 2, and 3.
27:21Pozzarelli.
27:22Here.
27:23Now, here's the script for your screen test now.
27:24In which the Cunninghams and Fonzie travel out to Hollywood so that Fonzie can do a screen test to be in the movie.
27:32I ended up writing that episode.
27:34And all of us tease Fred Fox mercilessly about his involvement with it.
27:40So they go out to Hollywood for a screen test for Fonzie, and the family goes with them.
27:46And there was this very cocky California kid on the beach.
27:50He and Fonzie are at odds. They don't like one another at all.
27:54You up for a real challenge?
27:56Fonz never ignores a challenge.
27:59We both make one jump.
28:00Well, let's make it something big.
28:03Oh, it's big all right.
28:05And the California kid taunts him into performing a risky stunt.
28:10Water skiing over a shark.
28:13Henry was really a pretty good water skier.
28:20And now jumping the shark has become its own thing.
28:24It's a great metaphor. Supposedly that's when the show started going downhill.
28:28We were number one for like six years after that, so nobody else thought we jumped the shark.
28:33Talk about jumping the shark.
28:35There was an episode where an alien comes and meets Richie and what?
28:40Up in the sky, it was fantastic. It's a flying saucer. Come on, you gotta see it.
28:44When we read that script, we were like, we would think this is like the worst script that we've had.
28:50This is like, what the hell is going on here?
28:54Fonz, I just saw a flying saucer.
28:56Hey, what are you, Musso?
28:57But that episode became the launch pad for Robin Williams' career playing Mork from Ork.
29:04Wait a minute, who are you?
29:08I am Mork from Ork.
29:10I didn't know who he was.
29:15I went to the set and I saw Robin Williams.
29:19And you went, oh man, what is going on here?
29:24You know, this is remarkable.
29:26It's Robin Williams.
29:29He made it a hell of a lot better than what it was.
29:32He was just coming up with all the stuff that wasn't in the script, improvising, and it started becoming really funny.
29:38Look, would you mind if I just ask you a few questions?
29:40Quiet away, buckle.
29:42That's great. Okay, would you just mind having a seat?
29:44Seat?
29:45Yes.
29:47The episode is so popular that it spins off onto its own show, Mork and Mindy, which made it star of Robin Williams.
29:58I got choked up thinking about Robin, who was an absolute genius and a really lovely human being.
30:09But the cast was expressing some level of dissatisfaction with the show.
30:17At a certain point, the show just became, and I'm sorry, the show became silly.
30:21It started getting a little too, you know, I thought far-fetched, ridiculous, whatever you want to call it.
30:27And I think that hurt the show.
30:30Not only do you get Westward Ho, which is a three-part Western episode.
30:35Help!
30:37With Joanie having to be rescued from a runaway stagecoach and Fonzie riding a bull.
30:43What's this rope for?
30:44You hold on to that!
30:45I knew that, I knew that.
30:46You get episodes like The Claw Meets the Fonz, in which gangsters are moving in on Arnold's territory.
30:55One of whom has a mechanical claw hand like a James Bond villain.
31:01Was...
31:04Weird.
31:06It was, it was dumb.
31:08So Ronnie Howard came out to my house and he felt like he had lost the show that he had had.
31:14It was pushing too hard.
31:17He understood why it was happening, but he just felt bad that it was.
31:22And Donnie always felt that it was also restricting what he could do.
31:27And I think that's why when both his and Ron Howard's initial contract was up, Ron and Don chose to leave the show.
31:35At the end of season seven, Ron Howard and Don Most decided not to go on with the show.
31:51We kind of knew that Ron Howard was going to leave. Ron always wanted to direct.
31:55My contract was up and I wanted to become a director and it was very hard.
31:58How did that work out?
32:00You're still working on it. You're still working on it.
32:03You might make it.
32:05Don leaving the show was a bit of a shock.
32:10I'd done seven seasons and I felt like it was changing and it wasn't to me growing anymore.
32:16It was, so I wasn't real happy.
32:18And so it is explained that Richie and Ralph joined the army.
32:25And they are stationed in Greenland.
32:29And we only get occasional updates about what they are doing up in Greenland.
32:34I want you to perk up your ears because you're going to have an audio party here.
32:39Richie wrote me a letter.
32:40I wasn't worried about the show failing after Don and Ron left at all.
32:45Because at that point I was about as big as you could get on television.
32:49I don't want to say I was carrying the show, but Henry and I were the show.
32:53Henry and I and Aaron. That was the show.
32:56Happy Days got very lucky because they brought in a young man to play Marion's nephew, Roger.
33:05He was played by Ted McGinley, who fit in really well.
33:10Tony!
33:12It's good to see you! It's been so long!
33:13Boy, have you grown!
33:15But not even he is the greatest addition to the show.
33:19That title goes to Kathy Silver's daughter of legendary comedian Phil Silver's who plays Jenny Piccolo,
33:27the boy-crazy, wild-acting friend of Joni Cunningham.
33:32I'll be right outside the door if you want to get married or anything.
33:35And I'm talking anything.
33:37And then we looked at Fonzie's life and said that he's never had a serious relationship.
33:43And so, when they're looking for a regular girlfriend for Fonzie, they think, we need a Linda Pearl type.
33:51My agent called and said they're looking for a Linda Pearl type.
33:56So, we called and said, well, can Linda audition for a Linda Pearl type?
34:02So, 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.
34:11Look, 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.
34:15That's going to be a little difficult to do because I am the owner.
34:20And we really did get to see a different part of Fonzie.
34:24Call me Fonzie.
34:26Fonzie?
34:27Yeah.
34:28There is an episode guest starring a young man named Mr. Tom Hanks called A Little Case of Revenge.
34:40He has hated the Fonz for decades and it all comes to a head with a spectacular martial arts battle.
34:48Are you ready to face oblivion?
34:49Between Henry Winkler.
34:50I'm ready for you and him.
34:53And Tom Hanks at Arnold's.
34:56Tom Hanks was fantastic.
34:59Gary Marshall was very good at finding people that became very popular.
35:05And Gary Marshall wanted to continue to capitalize on that.
35:10So, Aaron Moran and Scott Baio were moved over to their own show.
35:17Joanie Loves Chachi.
35:20We went on to do Joanie Loves Chachi, which was a mistake because she and I didn't like each other.
35:27We started dating and I don't recommend anybody to ever do that on a TV show.
35:32Ever.
35:34Because it always ends up badly.
35:39And it did.
35:41And the premise was no good.
35:44It just wasn't a good idea.
35:45And it just, it just fizzled.
35:48So, Joanie and Chachi did not get picked up and they returned to the show.
35:53And we were fortunate that Ron Howard and Don Most wanted to come home for a visit.
35:58Joanie?
36:00Wow!
36:02Wow!
36:04Give me a break. I just got out of the army.
36:06It had been four years since we had done the show.
36:08And it was really great coming back and reuniting with everybody.
36:13And they came back for probably one of the most impactful shows we ever did.
36:19The scene where Richie and Fonzie say goodbye to one another just blows me away every time.
36:26Tears! Tears!
36:29I just want to tell you that I love you.
36:33Very much.
36:35But, unfortunately, the ratings were down.
36:39The A-Team with Mr. T became the biggest thing on TV since Fonzie.
36:46The powers that be certainly thought that this was going to be the end.
36:50Happy Days was in definite peril at the end of its 11th season.
37:03The ratings were down and Gary Marshall was fearful that the show would be cancelled.
37:10And, unfortunately, Happy Days is cancelled in the summer of 1984.
37:16And there were some people on the show who felt that it was kind of time.
37:21That this engine that had brought so much to so many for so long had kind of run out of gas.
37:29But some of the cast was absolutely stricken that the show was not going to continue.
37:37But there was nothing, ultimately, really to be sad about because what a ride.
37:42Very few shows actually need to do a final episode.
37:47But I thought the audience was owed that.
37:50I thought it was really the kind of thing to show that meant that much to that many people for that long needed to do.
37:58Happy Days, the final two-parter, was titled Passages, which ends with Joni and Chachi getting married.
38:03We are gathered here to join together Joni Louise Cunningham and Charles Chachi Chachi Chachi Chachi.
38:14We wanted to do something really special.
38:17And we were fortunate to have Ron back in Passages, our hour-long finale.
38:22At the end when Tom Bosley breaks the fourth wall, talks to the audience and thanks everyone and we kind of lost it.
38:30So thank you all for being part of our family.
38:35To Happy Days.
38:37I don't think anybody up until that moment realized what was happening.
38:40I 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.
38:55It was very hard, very tough to say goodbye. It had been my life for eight years.
39:01Working on the show was the most exciting time of my life still to this day. It was a tremendous experience.
39:08That cast was probably the single best cast overall I've ever worked with.
39:15It was just an amazing, amazing time.
39:19For me, it was sad because I felt like that was a big chunk of my life.
39:25It was tough, but it was great because I had another show to go to.
39:29I got offered Charles in charge right in the last season of Happy Days. I was like, okay, see ya. I got this gig to go to.
39:36I had mixed feelings because I had such an unbelievably wonderful experience doing the show.
39:43I wouldn't have traded it for anything. I 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.
39:57You know, wonderful, wonderful experiences.
40:01And people are still watching it. People are talking about it.
40:05We get references to Happy Days turning up in movies and television shows all the time.
40:11We're all gonna be like three little Fonzies here. And what's Fonzie like?
40:16Come on, Yolanda, what's Fonzie like?
40:18It's cool.
40:19What?
40:20Cool.
40:21Correctamundo.
40:22There's so many references in shows like The Simpsons.
40:27It'll be great to see the old gang again.
40:30Hudson, Ralph Mouth, the Fonz.
40:34Family Guy.
40:35Please rise. Now sit on it.
40:38And 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.
40:53You look at the 200 films and television shows that Ron Howard has produced and directed.
40:59You look at Henry Winkler's career and Anson's directed over 150 episodes of television.
41:08We recently had a reunion. The four guys back together again for the first time.
41:13The Happy Days core four, Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Anson Williams, and Donny Mose came together for Steel City Con in Pittsburgh over the weekend.
41:22My gosh, it was a little surreal, but at the same time it was like we had just gone back in time and all those years hadn't passed.
41:30And 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.
41:39It was incredibly rewarding, fulfilling to hear people say that and so surprising, you know, really surprising.
41:46It was quite amazing.
41:48It just shows you the, the power of, of that show. It's powerful.
41:53Hey!
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