HEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYY “Classic Shows December” is a tradition that’s rich in an entire year of history and we’re going to start it with “Happy Days”. Couldn’t we all use some happy days? Not that I’m in a bad mood, but we’re heading into the holidays and there is a whole lot of torture and pain that comes with that. This is the first year in a long time though that I don’t work at K mart, so here’s to hoping this December treats me well. I think it already has because I got to relive some of this great show. Sure. It may have gotten worse as the seasons progressed, but what long standing show doesn’t? Everyone runs out of ideas eventually. No matter how exciting he is, Fonzie is eventually just going to get out of that Tuscadero sandwich and read a book. Come to think of it, I’d still watch that. We at least got the term jumping the shark from this great man, and we should all be thankful.
In a weird way Fonzie is a little like Steve Urkel. WAIT! Before everyone tries to fix my brain by tapping on it, I can explain. “Happy Days” at its core is about Richie Cunningham and his journey through his teens with his family and friends. That show has been done one thousand times under different names. Like Urkel did to “Family Matters”, The Fonz brought a special element to this show that made it memorable. That isn’t new information, but for some people who only know Henry Winkler as an effeminate Jew in sitcoms in recent years, it might be. He was once the personification of cool. He had girls crawling all over him and he could make a jukebox play music by smacking it. Unfortunately for him a 45 year old man in high school can only go so far, so he made friends with three dorks to pass time.
With moves like these, who needs friends?
The leader of this band of dork was one Richie Cunningham. Dork may be a little harsh for him; I just think he was a bit of a square side. I mean, the first episode was him trying to make moves on a girl and lying about it to everyone. While he was playing baseball he made the mistake of using those two infamous words: “You kiddin’?”
You Kiddin'?
His best pal was Potsie. I don’t know what it means either. You’d think he’d be covered in acne or something. This guy though, this guy right here sure was a wise guy. At times you’d really want to just tell him to sit on it. Or maybe I’m confusing him with Ralph. Potsie was a bit vanilla if you ask me. He had his moments, but mainly he was an even whinier extension of Richie and lived through him. He eventually became an idiot foil to Fonzie. All I know is that Richie liked Potsie.
He REALLY likes Potsie
And Potsie really loves whatever Ralph's got going on.
Ralph Malph is the other friend. I think his nickname was the inspiration for the name Dora the Explorer in terms of almost rhyming. To steal an idea from Brian Regan, I think the only family in the world that rhymes for is the Kennedy family. Try it out and see; that’s the only way it’s close. But Ralph followed the “Lumpy” model and started off as antagonistic source for Richie, but then turned into the annoying friend. He was a nimrod and an ugly, ugly ginger. But bless his heart he always thought he had a chance with the ladies.
Just like Akeem thought this was going to work
The Cunningham family played a big role in “Happy Days”. Go figure right? I keep rebuilding the wheel here. They were the typical archetypes of what parents should be. The mom was happy and made great food and the dad is a grumpy, yet helpful curmudgeon. He even let that darn no good Fonzie live in his garage. I just realized while talking about the characters just how much “Family Guy” references this show. Like every character on this show has a cutaway and they started the Church of the Fonz. That’s my official religion.
You get to see a little behind this wizard's curtain. You're welcome.
Richie also had two siblings. Chuck was his older brother who loved basketball. I think so much that he ran away to play basketball in Europe, was killed in a freak train accident, and the Cunningham’s never talked about it because the grief was staggering. That’s the only reason I can come up with for Chuck to never show again after the first episode. His other sibling is Joanie. There’s only one thing you need to know about her:
From my recent viewings and remembrance of this show, it was standard stuff. That doesn’t mean it’s not a classic, because these things are probably standard because of it. Basic teen drama, a little angst mixed with girl problems. Add in some rebel kid jumping buses on a motor cycle and we’ve got a barn burner here. Also Pat Morita was replaced by some fat guy as the cook at the teen hang out. That really only leaves one important question:
Richie, why do you want a car?
Credit goes to: Youtube.com, fuckyeahhappydays.tumblr.com, tcrage.com and facebook.com