Happy Days: Season 1

 

 

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Happy Days is still a true classic - timeless. It's based in the 50's like Casablanca last forever. Real will done, great actors/actress, great directors, great scripts. Another great thing is watching how fast, The Fronzie steals the show without seeing, him click his fingers, without seeing him with all the girls. The Fronzie states stealing the show in the very fast episode. MUST HAVE CLASSIC

I loved watching this series as a little girl, and am thrilled that somebody in Hollywood is finally listening to our suggestions. Happy Days needed to be released on DVD a very long time ago.

Although I was unusual in wanting to be like Fonzie to help others (the apparent early stirings of an activist!) and instead wanted to date Warren 'Potsie' Webber (I still cannot remember why I thought he was hot!) I still loved the series. Even in grad school, I schedule afternoon appointments around the time Happy Days comes on the local station so I can watch the series again.

The first season is special in it's own right because later-discarded older brother Chuck Cunningham, a nice (if prototypical) all American jock is shown. Fonzie is dressed in a windbreaker jacket to soothe network in-house censors who imagined the series would accidentally promote criminal activity among American youth if that character wore a black leather jacket. Plus, instead of the phenomena which he assumed in later seasons, Fonzie himself is a minor character this season; The show was originally supposed to revolve around the Cunningham family's Cold-War era Wisconsin life.

I only hope the studio eventually releases all seasons and does not(as with Charlies Angels, and Angel: The Series)release one or a couple of seasons and then later decide that the public no longer wants to see this show. Syndication on many 2004 cable and network channels clearly indicates the enduring longevity of Happy Days---and so does a leather jacket on permanent display in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. All seasons must be released!

Watch the very early episodes of HAPPY DAYS before Fonzie became the main focus of the show. The viewer will see a late 1950's,nostalgic, coming-of-age type show. The characters were well defined, low key, and the Cunningham family along with the rest of the cast were not caricatures. The show was born out of a segment of ABC's anthology show LOVE AMERCIAN STYLE called "Love and the Happy Day". Then it was given the go ahead for a tv series with the success of the film AMERICAN GRAFFITTI (which also starred Ron Howard) and because 1970's America had a thirst for 50's nostalgia. The first couple of seasons of HAPPY DAYS are the funniest and the best because it tackled Ritchie Cunningham growing up in the 50's and focused on his relationship with his father Howard (Tom Bosley). Howard Cunningham was a throwback to the traditional "father" characters of 50's sitcoms as was the rest of the Cunningham family. Some of the storylines focused on life of a teen growing up in a 1950's midwest highschool tackling issues of dating, fitting in, and family relationships. If anyone can pinpoint when the show switched gears in terms of losing its point of view and 50's heartwarming nostaligia is the two-part episode, season opener (3rd or 4th season?). Fonzie thought he was losing his cool and had to jump over a bunch of garbage cans with his motorcycle to break some kind of record. Anyone who watched the show regularly would also notice that the Cunningham household set design had changed also. This is because in the first couple of seasons, the show was put on film, but then switched to taping in front of a live audience so they can record the sounds of the cheers and cat-calls when Fonzie appeared in a scene. Also,Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" no longer opened to the show's credits but was changed to the song of the show's namesake. The other notable characters such as Potsie Webber (Anson Williams) and Ralph Malph (Donny Most) were very funny, but one will notice as the show progressed over into the "Fonzie" period (under the direction of Jerry Paris) these characters became too cartoony. The "Potsie" character early on was more of a "Eddie Haskell"-type character and friend to Ritchie Cunningham. When Fonzie became the star of the show, all the other characters were relagated to being nerds. The Fonze (Henry Winkler) was understated in the early episodes and not flamboyant. In essence, he was really cool. However, ratings rose with the popularity of Fonzie and the character took on a life all its own. The Fonze became too over the top and as the series progressed, it wasn't a show about the 50's anymore. It was a show that just happened to be in the 50's, with The Fonze in the foreground. This reviewer would only recommend the first two or three seasons of HAPPY DAYS. The rest of the episodes after these seasons should be called the FONZIE SHOW.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Happy Days are here again
How can it possibly be over thirty years already since Happy Days first premiered? That fact makes a guy feel very old, for I can't imagine having grown up without Happy Days;... Read more

Published on July 6 2006 by Daniel Jolley

5.0 out of 5 stars BEST SEASON of the series!
These are ABSOLUTELY the BEST episodes of the series when it actually had the 1950's look the show should have had through the subsequent seasons. Read more

Published on July 17 2004 by Richard J. Goldschmidt

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Bother if Original Music is Gone and Episodes are Cut
Sadly, there are many releases that studios are doing this to in order to maximize profits. Watch out for it. Read more

Published on July 17 2004

3.0 out of 5 stars Excited, but more so about later seasons
It's great that Happy Days is finally getting its release on DVD. I hope that it sells well, because while I like these early seasons FAIRLY well, I am anxious to see the later... Read more

Published on July 15 2004 by Leonard Snerdley

4.0 out of 5 stars "Happy Days" was always on film.
A little clarification to a previous review. "Happy Days" was always done on film ... they never used videotape. Read more

Published on July 4 2004 by Christopher K. Nagel

5.0 out of 5 stars The only filmed Season!
One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that the first season was filmed and not video taped. This means that there is a lot more shooting on location and outdoor scenes. Read more

Published on July 1 2004 by Zongo

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my all time Favorites
I am glad to find this on TV again I was looking then I found out it was on at 10 AM here and I am very Happy. Read more

Published on Jun 21 2004 by Chris

5.0 out of 5 stars Yay! I can't wait!
The first season of Happy Days is my favorite one-really original. I really love the song 'Rock Around the Clock' at the beginning and the very first episode on Love American... Read more

Published on Jun 16 2004 by K. Martinez

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, I can't belive it!
This is kind of creepy actually. I was complaining about the lack of a Happy Days DVD just the other day! It's about time this happened, Happy Days is a classic. Read more

Published on Jun 8 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Before it jumped the shark. . .
"Happy Days" was one of the most popular television series in the 1970s. The premise focused on Richie Cunningham, a high school kid living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the 1950s... Read more

Published on May 22 2004 by M. Glazer

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