‘Happy Days’ Turns 40: Five Things to Know About That ‘70s Show About the ‘50s

Happy Anniversary to "Happy Days!” The classic comedy kicked off its decade-long run on January 15, 1974, and 40 years later it’s still remembered as one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time. Think you know everything there is to know about Richie, the Fonz and Arnold’s? Check out these tidbits about “Happy Days.”

“Happy Days” started out as a segment on the ABC comedy anthology, “Love American Style”

The 1972 “Love American Style” episode, titled “Love and the Happy Days,” featured Ron Howard as Richie, Anson Williams as Potsie and Marion Ross as Richie's mother, Marion Cunningham. But can you imagine anyone other than Tom Bosley playing the Cunningham patriarch, hardware store owner Howard? In the original teleplay, Howard was played by character actor Harold Gould (you may remember him as Betty White’s beau, Miles, on “The Golden Girls”), who once said he turned down the role of Howard on the TV series because he didn’t want to shave his beard.

You have to watch the first two seasons of the show to see long lost Cunningham kid, Chuck 

The basketball lovin’ older bro of Richie and Joanie (Eric Moran) was alive and well during the first two seasons of the show, only to go off to college never to be seen again. Chuck was played by two actors, Gavan O'Herlihy (Season 1) and Randolph Roberts (Season 2), and at least one of them has no regrets from walking away from one of TV’s most iconic sitcoms. In an interview with OnMilawakee.com, O’Herlihy said, "I hung around for the first half-season, then asked out of the contract. It wasn't my cup of tea. It raised some eyebrows, but I'm glad I did." 

The “Jump the Shark” episode didn’t hurt the show

The Season 5 “Happy Days” episode "Hollywood Part 3" has long been cited as the inspiration for the phrase “jumping the shark,” a term coined by webmaster Jon Hein as “the defining moment when your favorite TV show has reached its peak.” But the farfetched episode -- which had Fonzie (Henry Winkler) water skiing over a shark while clad in his trademark leather jacket --  didn’t exactly mark the show’s demise. In an interview with Archive of American television, Winkler revealed: “My father suggested the episode… [He said] Why don’t you water ski? You’re a good water skiier. So I water skied and jumped the shark and that became ‘jump the shark.’  That was the episode. Now you have to understand, we were number one for like six years after that, so nobody else thought we jumped the shark.”

Fonzie inspired a nation of readers … or not

In a 1998 op/ed for the Los Angeles Times, Winkler recounted the after effects of a 1977 “Happy Days” episode titled “Hard Cover,” in which Fonzie and Richie went to the local library to meet girls: “During the episode, the Fonz took out a library card. As a result of that simple gesture, registration for library cards went up 500% around the country,” the actor announced.  But according to American Library Association, a surge in library card registrations was never verified and there is no report in ALA's press periodicals documenting the increase in signups in the months following the episode. Still, if just one kid signed up for a library card after watching Fonzie do it, it was worth it.

The show spawned four new series, but not all of the spinoffs were hits

 “Happy Days” boasted a bevy of famous guest stars— everyone from Tom Hanks to “Brady Bunch” alum Maureen McCormick turned up on the show -- and some of the guests even went on to star in spinoffs of the series. The popular 1970s sitcoms “Laverne & Shirley” and “Mork & Mindy” were both “Happy Days” spinoffs (yes, Robin Williams’ Mork once landed his egg-shaped spaceship in Milwaukee!), but two lesser known shows came from the “Happy Days” mold as well. “Joanie Loves Chachi”  starred “Happy Days” alums Erin Moran and Scott Baio as a newlywed singing duo, and the short-lived “Blansky’s Beauties” starred TV veteran Nancy Walker as Howard Cunningham’s cousin.

As for the 40^th anniversary of “Happy Days,” Henry Winkler told the Huffington Post  he has an idea of what Fonzie would be up to in his sixties. “You know, the 60-year-old Fonzie right now would probably be the owner of several Mr. Goodwrench  franchises,” Winkler said.  

Sure, but does he take Triple Aaaaay?