Happy Days is an American television sitcom that originally aired from 1974 to 1984 on ABC. The show presents an idealized vision of American life in the 1950s and early 1960s America.

Happy Days centers on the life of a middle-clbum family, the Cunninghams of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The family consists of Howard, a hardware store owner, Marion, his homemaker wife, and the couple’s teenage children, Richie (who has an optimistic if somewhat naïve outlook on life), Richie’s sweet and beautiful but feisty and clumsy younger sister Joanie, and Richie’s older brother Chuck (a character who abruptly disappeared during the second season). Most of the early episodes revolve around Richie (often with his best friend Potsie); as the series progressed, more and more stories were written to revolve around Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli, who was originally portrayed as a local dropout but soon befriended Richie and family, and became a huge hit with viewers. The focus would also occasionally shift to other additional characters, such as Fonzie’s cousin Chachi, who became a love interest for Joanie Cunningham. The long-running show also spawned several spinoff shows, some of which were highly successful in their own right, including Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy, and Joanie Loves Chachi.

The second season episode “The Not Making of the President” revolves around the 1956 presidential election, while the sixth season episode “Christmas Time” ends with a photo dated Christmas 1960. Despite some inconsistencies, it is generally indicated that the events of the series begin in 1955 and, after eleven seasons, end in 1966.

Contents [hide]

1 Cast

2 Cast stats

3 History

4 Production styles

5 Sets

6 The “Fonzie Effect”

7 “Chuck Cunningham Syndrome”

8 New characters

8.1 Season 4

8.2 Seasons 8 onward

8.3 Guest stars

8.4 Anachronisms

9 Series popularity slippage and retooling

9.1 “Jumping the Shark”

10 Theme music

11 Production & scheduling

12 Ratings

13 Episodes

14 DVD releases

15 Spin-offs

15.1 Animated spin-offs

16 Legacy

16.1 Pop Culture References

16.2 Trivia

17 References

18 External links