Last year, I started a thread to take a nostalgic look back at the 1970s/1980s U.S. sitcom THREE'S COMPANY. In this thread, I'll do the same for another highly successful and memorable sitcom from the same era: HAPPY DAYS.
HAPPY DAYS is one of the iconic sitcoms of all time. The story was set in an idealized version of the 1950s/early 1960s U.S., sort of like GREASE. It followed the life of the Cunningham family of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and their friends, particularly a tough, cool biker named Fonzie.
The show ran successfully for eight seasons between 1976 and 1984, and its characters became iconic. It even became the source for the later phrase, "jumping the shark," in reference to an infamous episode in which Fonzie, on waterskis, performed the stunt of jumping over a live shark.
I grew up watching this show and it was a childhood favorite of mine. Like THREE'S COMPANY, HAPPY DAYS had an uncynical, sincerely feel-good vibe that you don't see on television very much anymore.